What is the cost of accounts payable errors?
By Qvalia | Updated October 2026
Accounts payable errors are mistakes in how supplier invoices are captured, posted and paid, such as VAT deduction errors, overpayments and double payments. Their cost is the money lost directly plus the staff time spent finding and fixing them, and both grow with every invoice handled manually.
Even though Nordic organizations are among the most technologically sophisticated, accounts payable errors keep hurting their bottom-line results. The smallest, most innocent of errors may snowball into significant proportions if the financial process and transactional data isn’t managed properly.
Today’s B2B transactions are often equal to invoicing procedures. Even though the basics of an invoice remain the same, the complexity and volume can vary immensely. It is an integral end-to-end process, with at least two stakeholders involved. And with growing complexity—from VAT, terms, and line items, to credits and fraud attempts—errors inherently follow.
It is easy to blame human factors. But the truth is that while the dawn of digital transformation has increased efficiency and control—errors are still a problem. Often it boils down to a data management problem. ERPs and finance process software mimic analog processes and work in silos. What is needed is instead a new paradigm, the capabilities of taking full advantage of the rules of data management and digitization. For man and machine, CFO or CIO, perfection is not an end-state but a continuous process.
What errors cost: Qvalia’s Nordic study (2020 data)
Qvalia analyzed the accounts payable and accounting processes of 100 large Nordic organizations to measure what transaction-related errors actually cost. The study is based on invoices from 2020 and was published in 2021.
Key findings
- Qvalia analyzed 20,872,182 purchase invoices from 2020, handled by 100 companies spread evenly across Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
- A total of 21,569 invoices were erroneously handled or posted and passed undetected into the accounting. This equals 0.10% of all analyzed invoices.
- Most errors were detected internally by the finance team and never reached the accounting. The total number of erroneous invoices was estimated at five times the number found: 107,845, or 0.52% of all handled invoices.
- Finance teams spent an estimated 22.5 working days per organization correcting errors.
- Only 172 invoices (0.0008%) led to payment errors.
- The 100 companies lost EUR 12,347,183 in total due to erroneous handling. Split across all processed invoices, that is an average loss of EUR 0.59 per invoice.
- Finland had the highest total error level (including internally corrected mistakes) at 1.64% of all transactions. Sweden had the lowest at 0.10%.
Results by country
| Metric | Nordics | Denmark | Norway | Sweden | Finland |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analyzed organizations | 100 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| Analyzed invoices | 20,872,182 | 4,360,246 | 4,460,918 | 7,273,356 | 4,777,662 |
| Errors that passed undetected | 21,569 | 978 | 3,368 | 1,506 | 15,717 |
| Total errors incl. internal corrections | 107,845 (0.52%) | 4,890 (0.11%) | 16,840 (0.38%) | 7,530 (0.10%) | 78,585 (1.64%) |
| Payment errors | 172 (0.0008%) | 18 (0.0004%) | 60 (0.0013%) | 46 (0.0006%) | 48 (0.0010%) |
| Total loss because of errors | EUR 12,347,183 | EUR 721,375 | EUR 3,076,729 | EUR 4,904,093 | EUR 3,644,987 |
| Average loss per invoice | EUR 0.59 | EUR 0.17 | EUR 0.69 | EUR 0.67 | EUR 0.76 |
Denmark had the lowest percentage of payment errors of the four countries. Its average loss per invoice was less than a third of the Nordic average.
Norway had more than three times the error rate of Sweden, which had the lowest total error level. Its average loss per invoice was also higher than the Nordic average.
Sweden, the biggest economy in the region, provided the largest data set of invoices. Its total error level was the lowest of all four countries, while its average loss per invoice was slightly above the average.
Finland stood out in more than one way. Its total error level was significantly higher than in any of the other Nordic countries, raising the average substantially. Its average loss per invoice was also the highest.
How the study was done
The sample was gathered from 100 randomly selected companies, 25 each from Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, all with EUR 100 million or more in annual revenue. The base was Qvalia’s customer projects during 2020, and a total of 20,872,182 invoices and account postings were analyzed. Industries represented include retail, manufacturing, financial services, ICT, construction, transportation and public sector organizations.
The analysis used an algorithmic screening process to identify 45 potential error variables in the invoice handling and account postings found in the general ledger and invoice data. It focused on three primary types of error:
- Undeducted or underdeducted VAT
- Overpayments
- Double payments
Each deviation found was double-checked manually by an expert and confirmed as an error by the affected organization. The number of errors corrected internally was derived from the accounting corrections in the general ledger.
Research on the full cost of organizational invoice handling, including account postings and the hidden costs of errors, is limited. The study’s cost estimates were based on Billentis’ Business Case E-invoicing/E-billing (2017): EUR 17.60 to process a paper or PDF purchase invoice and EUR 6.40 for an e-invoice, with coding and posting estimated at EUR 3.00 for paper and PDF invoices and EUR 0 for e-invoices. The calculations assumed a 50% share of e-invoices, and each internally identified correction was estimated at a moderate 10 minutes.
How do accounts payable errors occur? 6 common root causes
There are many ways that accounting errors may occur, resulting in errors and avoidable money leakage. Let’s have a look at the most common root causes:
Scanning and OCR errors
Supplier invoice data is often misinterpreted during the optical character recognition (OCR) process of paper and PDF invoices. There is a high risk that these errors will pass unnoticed in subsequent processing steps.
VAT errors
Value-added tax legislation is complex. It varies over time and every country has its own rules and exceptions. A slight mistake can lead to significant deduction losses.
Overpayments
Manual errors when handling invoices (e.g. typing the wrong number) or low-quality scanning constitute a risk of associating wrong invoice figures to payments, resulting in an outbound payment higher than originally requested.
Double payments
If a supplier invoice is sent more than once, or if a reminder has been received, there is a risk that both invoices end up being paid.
Unused credit notes
Many companies will have outstanding credit notes with suppliers, perhaps due to earlier mishaps that have been credited. These may go unnoticed and unused. Checking if there are outstanding credits from suppliers should be regarded as a good business practice.
Missed discounts
Just like any regular consumer missing out on rebates while shopping for groceries, companies may miss out on discounts they are entitled to.
E-invoicing adoption in the Nordics
Several of these root causes, such as OCR errors and mistyped amounts, start with manual handling of paper and PDF invoices. Structured e-invoices remove that step, because the invoice data arrives in a format the receiving system can process automatically.
Compared with traditional handling of paper invoices, and even PDF invoices, the total cost of processing e-invoices is significantly lower. The European Commission estimates the benefit of automating the invoicing process at around EUR 5.28 per e-invoice issued and EUR 8.40 per e-invoice received, assuming labour costs of EUR 46 per hour (Commission report on Directive 2014/55/EU, February 2024).
Adoption still varies widely across the Nordics:
| Country | Enterprises sending e-invoices suitable for automated processing (2023) |
|---|---|
| Finland | 93.2% |
| Norway | 77.0% |
| Sweden | 57.7% |
| Denmark | 55.9% |
| EU average | 38.7% |
Source: Eurostat (dataset isoc_eb_icsn2, updated December 2025). Share of enterprises with 10 or more employees, excluding the financial sector. 2023 is the most recent survey year; Sweden’s 2023 figure is marked as a break in the time series.
How to reduce accounts payable errors
- Move suppliers to structured e-invoices, for example via Peppol, so invoice data never has to be typed or scanned.
- Check for duplicates before payment: same supplier, amount, invoice number and date. Treat reminders as a duplicate risk.
- Validate VAT on every invoice against the rules of the supplier’s country.
- Match invoices to orders and deliveries before approving payment, to catch overpayments.
- Review outstanding supplier credit notes regularly and apply them.
- Track agreed payment terms and discounts, and pay in time to use them.
Qvalia’s accounts payable automation combines invoice OCR, Peppol access and AI-driven posting and line-item classification in one platform, to reduce the manual handling where many errors start.
Frequently asked questions
How much do accounts payable errors cost?
In Qvalia’s study of 20,872,182 Nordic purchase invoices from 2020, errors cost 100 large organizations EUR 12.3 million in total, an average of EUR 0.59 per processed invoice. Finance teams spent an estimated 22.5 working days per organization correcting them.
What percentage of invoices contain accounts payable errors?
In the same 2020 study, 0.52% of all handled invoices were erroneous when errors corrected internally by the finance team are included. The errors that passed undetected into the accounting amounted to 0.10% of all invoices.
What are the most common accounts payable errors?
The most common root causes are misread invoice data from scanning and OCR, VAT deduction mistakes, overpayments, double payments, unused supplier credit notes and missed discounts.
How much does e-invoicing save per invoice?
The European Commission estimates the benefit of automating invoicing at around EUR 5.28 per e-invoice issued and EUR 8.40 per e-invoice received, assuming labour costs of EUR 46 per hour.
How common is e-invoicing in the Nordics?
According to Eurostat, 93.2% of enterprises in Finland sent e-invoices suitable for automated processing in 2023, compared with 77.0% in Norway, 57.7% in Sweden, 55.9% in Denmark and 38.7% across the EU (enterprises with 10 or more employees).
How can companies reduce accounts payable errors?
Replace paper and PDF invoices with structured e-invoices, check for duplicates before payment, validate VAT, match invoices to orders and deliveries, apply outstanding supplier credit notes, and track agreed discounts.