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The hidden time drain: processing bank statements by hand costs 2 hours a week
Processing bank statements two hours a week sounds manageable. Over a year that adds up to 100 hours. Take a look at the calculation and find out how much you can save.
Two hours a week. That is the average time a small business owner or bookkeeper spends manually processing bank statements. Not on analysis, not on advice, not on work that adds value, but on downloading, importing, checking and correcting.
Over a year that adds up to 104 hours. Thirteen full working days. Spent on a task that can be fully automated with a modern bank connector.
Where does that time actually go?
It does not feel like two hours. That is the deceptive part. Each individual step only takes a moment. But when you add it all up, it comes as a shock.
Here is the time breakdown for an average small business with two bank accounts and around 150 transactions per week:
| Step | Time per instance | Frequency | Time per week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logging in at the bank | 2 min | 2x per week | 4 min |
| Selecting the right period and downloading | 3 min | 2x per week | 6 min |
| Importing the file into the accounting software | 3 min | 2x per week | 6 min |
| Checking whether all transactions have loaded | 5 min | 2x per week | 10 min |
| Matching transactions with outstanding items | 35 min | 2x per week | 70 min |
| Correcting errors and exceptions | 15 min | 2x per week | 30 min |
| Total | 126 min |
Well over two hours. Per week. Per set of books.
The scale question: how many sets of books do you handle?
For an entrepreneur running their own company, two hours a week is already a lot. But for a bookkeeping firm it multiplies quickly.
| Scenario | Sets of books | Hours per week | Hours per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelancer / small business | 1 | 2 | 104 |
| SME with multiple entities | 3 | 6 | 312 |
| Bookkeeping firm (small) | 10 | 20 | 1,040 |
| Bookkeeping firm (mid-sized) | 25 | 50 | 2,600 |
A mid-sized bookkeeping firm spends 2,600 hours a year processing bank statements. That is one and a half FTE. A full employee, plus a half, working full time on downloading, importing and checking.
What does it cost in euros?
Let us put a price tag on it.
At an internal hourly rate of 40 euros for an administrative employee:
| Scenario | Hours per year | Cost per year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 set of books | 104 | 4,160 euros |
| 3 sets of books | 312 | 12,480 euros |
| 10 sets of books | 1,040 | 41,600 euros |
| 25 sets of books | 2,600 | 104,000 euros |
At an external bookkeeping rate of 75 euros per hour, the amounts rise accordingly. A bookkeeper who processes fifteen clients manually spends more than 100,000 euros in labour time on it each year.
The 70 to 85 percent you can save
Research by HighRadius into the automation of financial processes shows that companies achieve 70 to 85 percent time savings when they import bank statements automatically.
Where do those savings come from?
Downloading and importing disappears entirely: An automatic bank connector retrieves transactions without any human involvement. That saves the first 26 minutes per week in our example.
Checking becomes easier: Because there is no manual file transfer, import errors disappear. No duplicate imports, no missing periods. The 10 minutes of checking per week becomes a quick 2 minute glance.
Matching goes faster: With up to date bank transactions and smart matching on payment references, linking entries to invoices is partly automated. The 70 minutes per week drops to 15 to 20 minutes. Only the exceptions need attention.
Correction work drops drastically: Fewer manual steps means fewer errors. The 30 minutes per week shrinks to 5 minutes.
Total after automation: about 30 minutes per week instead of 126 minutes. A saving of 76 percent, right in the middle of the 70 to 85 percent range indicated by the research.
What can you do with that freed up time?
96 minutes per week. Almost 83 hours per year. Per administration.
That is time you can spend on work that does add value:
- Accounts receivable management Actively calling customers who pay late instead of reactively sending reminders.
- Financial analysis Spotting trends, watching margins, recognising seasonal patterns.
- Advising clients For accountancy firms: more time for advisory conversations, less for administrative processing.
- Simply working less Getting two hours per week back is half an afternoon. Not every hour needs to be filled with other work.
The investment
An automatic bank connector costs from 7.50 euros per month. Let us compare that with the savings.
For a single administration:
- Cost of the bank connector: 90 euros per year
- Savings on labour time: 83 hours x 40 euros = 3,320 euros per year
- ROI: 3,589 percent
You earn back the investment in the first working week.
For an accountancy firm with 10 administrations:
- Cost of the bank connector: 900 euros per year
- Savings on labour time: 830 hours x 40 euros = 33,200 euros per year
- ROI: 3,589 percent
The ratio stays the same, but the absolute amounts become impressive.
How do you get started?
The switch is simpler than most people expect. An automatic bank connector is up and running within a day. You connect your bank account through your bank's secure PSD2 connection and the transactions flow into your bookkeeping automatically.
It works with more than 1,800 banks, not only ABN AMRO, ING and Rabobank, but also international banks. Handy if your company uses multiple currencies or has foreign accounts.
Do the maths yourself. View our bank connector →
