AP’s Hidden Drain: What Supplier Inquiries Are Really Costing Your Team

There is a metric buried in Ardent Partners’ 2026 AP Metrics that Matter research report that deserves more attention than it typically gets. It is not invoice cycle time or cost per invoice. It is the share of AP staff time consumed by supplier inquiries.

Best-in-Class AP organizations spend 18.9% of their staff capacity answering supplier questions about invoice and payment status. All Others spend 31.1%. The average AP department is spending nearly a third of its total staff capacity answering questions that automation and self-service tools could handle instead.

The inquiry problem is a visibility problem.

Suppliers call and email AP when they cannot see the status of their own invoice. They want to know if it was received, if it is in process, when it will be paid. In the absence of a system that gives them that visibility, they contact the AP team. And the AP team has to respond.

This creates a loop that has nothing to do with processing invoices. It is reactive, it is low-value, and it compounds at scale. An organization processing tens of thousands of invoices per month with a large supplier base can absorb enormous staff time in inquiry management alone, time that is invisible on any performance report until someone measures it.

The 12-percentage-point gap between Best-in-Class organizations and everyone else represents, in a 10-person AP department, more than one full-time equivalent consumed by questions rather than work. DataServ clients who have deployed vendor self-service capabilities consistently report meaningful reductions in inquiry volume and a corresponding shift in how AP staff spend their time, moving from reactive status management toward higher-value work.

The fix is upstream, not downstream.

Best-in-Class organizations reduce inquiry volume at the source. They give suppliers a way to check status independently through a self-service portal, removing the need for a phone call or email in most cases. They communicate proactively when a payment is delayed or an invoice is rejected, rather than waiting for the supplier to ask. And they track which suppliers generate the highest inquiry volume, then address the process gap behind those calls rather than answering the same question repeatedly.

Simplicity is critical. Suppliers should not need extensive training, multiple logins, or help from AP just to find basic status information. The easier it is to submit an invoice, check its progress, and understand whether action is required, the more likely suppliers are to use self-service and the less time AP spends providing routine updates.

None of this requires a highly sophisticated initiative to get started. It begins with an easy, intuitive supplier experience, a clear policy for proactively communicating problems, and an honest look at the recurring questions consuming the most staff time.

Why this metric connects to everything else.

Supplier inquiry management is not an isolated operational problem. It is a downstream indicator of how well upstream processes are working. High inquiry volume usually signals one or more of the following: invoices are being lost or delayed in receipt, suppliers do not have clear visibility into payment timing, exceptions are being resolved slowly and suppliers are following up on invoices they know are stuck, or payment timing is inconsistent enough that suppliers cannot predict when to expect funds.

Fixing inquiry volume therefore requires looking at receipt processes, exception management, payment scheduling, and supplier enablement simultaneously. Best-in-Class organizations have done that work. They have treated supplier inquiry management as an operational lever, and it shows up in their benchmark performance across multiple metrics, including touchless processing rates, exception rates, and cycle times.

The strategic argument.

When AP staff spend a third of their time managing supplier questions, they have less capacity for everything else. Less time for exception resolution. Less time for analytics and reporting. Less time for the proactive work that would prevent the next wave of supplier calls. It becomes self-reinforcing.

Ardent Partners’ research shows that 66% of organizations now rate AP as very or exceptionally valuable. The AP teams earning that rating are the ones that have found ways to redirect staff capacity toward higher-value contributions. Supplier inquiry management is one of the clearest places to start.

The 2026 benchmarks make the cost of the status quo visible. If supplier inquiries are consuming more of your team’s time than they should, contact DataServ. We can show you how our Vendor Inquiry Portal has helped clients across industries reclaim that capacity and redirect it toward work that actually moves the business forward.

AP’s Hidden Drain: What Supplier Inquiries Are Really Costing Your Team

The inquiry problem is a visibility problem.

The fix is upstream, not downstream.

Why this metric connects to everything else.

The strategic argument.

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