Processing Costs Per Order: What a Manual Order Really Costs

A gasket costing 12 euros can trigger a transaction of up to 146 euros. When digitized, the cost is around 86 euros—a difference of 60 euros per transaction (HTWK Leipzig). The problem isn’t the price itself, but the process leading up to it: requesting supplies via email, clarifying details verbally, and then following up by phone for approval. This article walks you through the entire process—from the initial request to the posting of the invoice—once using traditional methods and once via a procurement platform. At the end, you’ll find the formula you can use to calculate your own process costs in ten minutes.

A manual ordering process in indirect procurement incurs up to €146 in process costs. If the same process is carried out via an integrated procurement platform, that figure drops to around €86. The €60 difference per transaction was determined by a study on indirect procurement in 2025 conducted by HTWK Leipzig, based on a survey of 181 European companies. This savings does not come from the ordering process itself, but rather from four steps that are eliminated or automated: account assignment verification, supplier inquiry, follow-up for order confirmation, and invoice verification.

Key facts at a glance:

• Manual ordering process: up to €146 in processing costs.

• Via an integrated procurement platform: approximately €86 per transaction.

• Difference: €60 per transaction, or 41 percent.

• For a €12 sealing ring, the transaction costs twelve times the price of the item.

• The savings come from four out of eight steps: account assignment check, supplier inquiry, follow-up on order confirmation, and invoice verification.

• Only 15 percent of companies have fully digitized procurement processes; around 40 percent still use Excel.

• You can calculate your own figure using: processing minutes ÷ 60 × internal hourly rate.

Anyone who still places orders manually today isn’t doing it wrong—they’re just doing it at a high cost. The process works; it just doesn’t scale. We’ve been building procurement processes for medium-sized industrial companies for 26 years, and we see this bottleneck in almost every project. Below, we’ll show you the steps involved in an ordering process, which ones can be eliminated, and how you can determine your own value.

Why Processing Costs for C-Parts Exceed Their Material Value

C-parts have a low material value but are essential to operations. It is precisely this combination that makes them expensive. The processing cost is the same whether you order a gasket for 12 euros or a machine for 40,000 euros.

In cost accounting, these costs rarely appear separately. They are spread across departments: a few minutes at the requester’s desk, a few at the supervisor’s, in Controlling, in Purchasing, in Receiving, and in Accounting. Each individual item is too small to be noticed. The total is not.

Definition: Process costs in purchasing are all costs incurred in processing an order, regardless of the value of the goods. These include demand reporting, approval, account assignment, order processing, supplier communication, goods receiving, and invoice verification. The item price itself is not included.

The scale of these costs is well-documented. In 2025, HTWK Leipzig conducted a survey of 181 European companies and found that process costs per analog order process amounted to as much as 146 euros, compared to around 86 euros for digitized processing. For a gasket costing 12 euros, the process thus costs twelve times the price of the item.

The context is revealing: The study cites a processing time of 38 minutes per order for 2,500 orders per year and a total annual workload of approximately 5,600 hours for indirect materials. This corresponds to three full-time employees dedicated solely to order processing.

The Analog Process: Eight Steps

A customer needs sealing rings. Here’s what the process looks like in a company without integrated procurement:

Eight stages, six roles involved, multiple system changes. Each change takes time, and every manual transfer creates a potential source of error. In total, HTWK Leipzig estimates the cost of this process at up to 146 euros per transaction. The actual cost could be even higher, as follow-up inquiries, partial deliveries, and complaints are not included in this figure. The study also shows that this situation is the rule rather than the exception: Only 15 percent of the companies surveyed have fully digitized and integrated procurement processes; around 40 percent still work with non-task-specific tools such as Excel.

The same process digitally: four steps

Through a procurement platform connected to the ERP system, four of the eight steps are eliminated. Not because someone is working faster, but because the work is no longer necessary.

Four steps remain, while four are eliminated or run automatically. HTWK Leipzig estimates the cost of this process at approximately 86 euros per transaction. Compared to 146 euros, this represents a reduction of 41 percent – or 60 euros per order.

The key factor is which steps are eliminated. The account assignment check is no longer necessary because the cost center and general ledger account are automatically retrieved from the catalog. The supplier inquiry and the follow-up request for order confirmation are eliminated because price, availability, and status are updated daily in the catalog. Invoice verification runs automatically because the purchase order and invoice are based on the same data. These are the four most time-consuming steps in the manual process.

Tip: If you want to measure the benefits of a procurement platform, measure the time from the time a need arises to when the order is placed, not the delivery time. Delivery time depends on the supplier; processing time depends on the process.

The page on OCI Punchout integration shows how the shopping cart transfer and account assignment work technically.

How to Calculate Your Own Process Costs

You'll need two numbers: the processing time per order and your internal hourly rate.

Formula: Process costs per order = Processing minutes ÷ 60 × internal hourly rate

• Measure processing time: Follow the path of an actual order and ask at each station how many minutes it takes. Ask about the typical case, not the best-case scenario.

• Determine the hourly rate: Use the full costs of the roles involved, not the gross salary. For mixed roles, an average value is sufficient.

• Calculate on an annual basis: Multiply the result by the number of indirect procurement orders you place per year. As a guideline: HTWK Leipzig estimates 2,500 orders per year for an average company.

• Compare with the alternative: Subtract the platform’s costs. What remains is your business case.

An example using the figures from HTWK Leipzig: With 2,500 orders per year and a difference of 60 euros per transaction, the annual figure amounts to 150,000 euros. In almost every company, this figure is higher than the product discount that procurement teams typically strive to negotiate.

Checklist: Where Your Process Costs Are Hidden

• Does someone have to check or correct the account assignment after a purchase order is placed?

• Do your buyers check availability and delivery dates by phone or email?

• Do you have to follow up on order confirmations?

• Does the accounting department check invoices individually against the purchase order?

• Does someone manually enter item data from an online store into the ERP system?

• Do line-of-business departments place orders outside of your framework agreements?

Four checkmarks or more mean: Your process costs are in the range of 146 euros, and the greatest leverage lies not in price, but in the workflow.

The article on optimizing the procurement process discusses how to adapt the ordering process accordingly. The article on C-part management explains why C-parts in particular generate a significant amount of effort.

Conclusion: The process costs more than the item

The most expensive part of a C-part order isn’t the item itself, but the process involved. Reducing a price from 146 euros to 86 euros yields greater savings than any discount negotiation—and it doesn’t require a new supplier, just a shorter process.

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