The Hidden Cost of “Human APIs”: Why Manual Payments are Draining Your Bottom Line

Technically speaking, one can call it applying “human API” to transform digital data into paper-based and back to digital.

Sounds funny, but the reality is that depending on the function and company, this process could consume up to 10 hours on a weekly basis, or 25% of the working time.

Quantifying the Drain: A Financial Perspective

Consider Accounts Payable. Manually inputting a single payment into an e-banking system can take an average of 5 minutes. With just 10 such payments daily, that is already 4 hours lost each week for a single task. Multiply this across other data-intensive processes and it quickly becomes clear that the cost of relying on “human APIs” can easily equate to the salary of at least one full-time employee.

Beyond the Money: Operational Risks

Beyond the obvious financial drain, this reliance introduces significant operational risks and negatively impacts the work environment.

Each entry made outside the secure flow of pre-validated recipient data is a potential vulnerability. Apart from the obvious risk of fraud arising from entering data from a bad invoice, an incorrect BIC code, a transposed digit – these seemingly small errors can lead to payment delays, frozen liquidity, and potential business relationship disruptions. The consequences can be significant and far-reaching.

The Administrative Burden of Fragmented Banking Access

The challenge extends beyond just manual data entry into individual bank systems. Consider the administrative overhead of managing online banking access rights across multiple financial institutions. Each bank often has its own unique portal, login procedures, and user management interfaces. This means that for each bank, your finance department must individually:

• Onboard new users and offboard leavers.
• Manage different levels of permissions for various team members.
• Reset passwords and troubleshoot access issues.

Compounding this is the fact that many banks are not flexible when it comes to building robust, tiered approval workflows within their own systems. This forces companies to either compromise on their internal control procedures or resort to manual, external approval processes (often involving email or physical sign-offs), which reintroduces the very “human API” inefficiency you’re trying to eliminate. This fragmented access management and inflexible approval architecture adds another layer of hidden cost and administrative burden, diverting valuable time from strategic financial activities.

The Morale Killer: Impact on the Workforce

And finally, a few words about the work atmosphere. Let’s be honest, asking someone who grew up with instant communication to manually transcribe data between systems isn’t just inefficient, it’s practically a morale killer. For those of us who remember dial-up, it might feel like a minor annoyance. But for digital natives, it’s akin to asking them to ditch their fiber optic internet for a carrier pigeon. The message might eventually get there, but…

If you want to foster a modern work environment and build trust with your workforce, ditch the “human API” and embrace the 21st century.

Ready to Streamline Your Bank Connectivity?

The good news is, you don’t have to put up with “human APIs” or fragmented banking access any longer. Understanding how to truly integrate your financial systems with your banks can unlock massive efficiencies and cost savings.

If you’re looking to eliminate these hidden costs and operational headaches, join our free upcoming workshop on Payments Automation and Bank Connectivity.