Invoices don’t process themselves. Sadly, people do.

Gross benefit = potential units × economic unit value × realized share.

Full year-one cost = full upfront deployment + annual operating cost. Net = benefit − full cost. Year-one ROI = net ÷ full cost × 100. Each cost is subtracted once.

Simple upfront payback = upfront cost ÷ (annual benefit − annual operating cost) × 12 months, only if annual net benefit is positive. It assumes steady annual realization, not a discounted cash-flow forecast. Year-one break-even units = full year-one cost ÷ realized unit value.

Replace every illustrative input with buyer records. APQC defines AP cost per invoice as total AP process cost divided by invoices processed and includes personnel, systems, overhead, other and outsourced costs. Compare the same process scope and period before and after deployment; validate productive time actually avoided and avoid counting redeployed capacity as cash savings unless finance confirms it.

These sources explain the economic mechanism and measurement—not Alma Hunter performance:

• APQC — Total cost to perform the process ‘process accounts payable (AP)’ per invoice processed — Defines AP cost per invoice as total AP process cost divided by invoices processed; identifies personnel, systems, overhead, other and outsourced cost components and describes the measure’s process scope.
• U.S. Treasury Fiscal Service — Accounts Payable Services — States that Treasury’s Invoice Processing Platform automates purchase orders, invoice collection, validation and approvals; lists reporting and invoice-processing services.
• APQC — Accounts Payable Key Benchmarks — Identifies AP measures including cost per invoice, first-time error-free disbursements and cycle time from invoice receipt until payment transmission.