Invoice Approvals to Spike on January 4 as Medius Predicts Busiest Day of the Quarter for Finance Teams

Historic data from Medius shows huge leap in invoice approvals as teams asked to double workload on January 7, 2020

Analysis from Medius, the leading provider of cloud-based spend management solutions, predicts that January 4 could be one of the busiest days of the year for invoice approvals.

Reviewing historical data from thousands of Medius users across the globe, the analysis reveals the first working Monday and Tuesday of January cause some of the biggest spikes in invoice approvals in the last four years.

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Invoice approval means reviewing and approving supplier invoices before these are posted as a cost in the ERP system and sent for payment.

Below outlines the biggest spikes in January over the last four years for both PO-invoices and non-PO invoices:

David Taylor, Data Analyst at Medius, said: “Our analysis shows that invoice approvals leap in on the first few working days of the year. In fact, in 2020 the average business was approving more than double the number of invoices compared to a normal day. Our data shows each company approved more than 200 invoices on January 7, 2020, that’s nearly 30 every hour. Based on the last four years of historical data, we’re predicting Tuesday, January 4, will be the crunch day for approvers this New Year.”

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Jim Lucier, CEO of Medius, comments: “There will be no easing into 2022 for finance teams. The extra demand for approvals at the start of the year is clearly an issue from the festive period and end of December rush. But overworked approvers are more likely to miss fraud or make avoidable human errors which are costly in the long run. Rather than demanding more from employees, businesses should be looking at ways to dramatically reduce the invoice approval time. AI and ML can automate much of the invoicing process, reduce risk, and relieve the burden on finance teams.”

Notes to editors:

Medius analyzed the invoice approvals of more than 700 customers across more than 100 countries and compared the biggest spikes with the average working day in that year.