The Trusted Platform for

Business Spend Management

THE 2023 BUSINESS SPEND

MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT

Accelerate
Performance.
Unlock Purpose.
20 Community-Powered KPIs for Best-in-Class
Performance Across Procurement, Invoicing,
Expenses, Payments, and ESG

POWERED BY COMMUNITY.AI
INTRODUCTION

The CFO Mandate: Change

Faced with a barrage of global economic challenges, many CFOs are under mounting pressure to
grow profit and productivity at a time of inflation and rising labor costs, all while delivering on ESG
commitments. The course that each CFO plots now will determine if their organization can withstand
the challenges and thrive.

What does it take to secure near-term survival and long-term growth? Four out of five CFOs say that
layoffs are a last resort. The answer lies in the entire office of the CFO working as one to identify
opportunity, make smart choices, and drive change. These leaders know that if they are going to see
value and achieve success, they must transform the business at its core and scale change.

To find an edge, CFOs are prioritizing platform investments that quickly maximize the value of every dollar
their businesses spend. Digital technology alone can’t manage escalating costs, high interest rates, and
global market uncertainty. However, transformation initiatives that harness digital technology, insights, AI,
and operational capabilities are uniquely positioned to help siloed functions collaborate in new and better
ways to solve bigger challenges, together.

Community-powered insights underpinned by AI show

companies what it takes to respond better and faster.

Objective How to get there Leaders achieve

Improve margins through savings more than

DRIVE PROFITABILITY the typical 2% to 3% yield for traditional spend 6.6% overall savings
management approaches by applying BSM practices.

MITIGATE Avoid fraud, blown budgets, and spend with risky pre-approved
MULTIPLE RISKS suppliers by improving control over spend. 95.0% spend

OPTIMIZE CASH Better manage cash by using greater visibility into invoices paid
AND PAYMENTS invoices to optimize payment timing. 96.9% digitally

OPERATE MORE Increase agility and productivity by bringing first-time

EFFICIENTLY procurement and invoicing onto a single platform. 96.5% match rate

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 2

INTRODUCTION

Community Data Sets Up Companies to Win

To successfully navigate the roadmap to profitability, performance, and purpose, CFOs first need to understand
how well their businesses are doing right now.

This edition of the Coupa Business Spend Management Benchmark Report gives leadership teams:

• Insight into critical KPIs for digital transformation initiatives.

• A data-driven perspective on where they stand within the global community and how
to improve.

• A view of how the world’s best-run organizations deliver profitability, performance, and purpose.

These benchmarks represent best-in-class performance for each KPI. Each benchmark measurement
represents the median value of the top quartile of Coupa customers for that KPI.

This annual report is powered by a community of more than 3,000 customers and 9.5 million suppliers,
and the constant, real-time impact of their more than $4 trillion in global business spend flowing through
the Coupa platform. Every contract, every payment, every business trip – every transaction that occurs
on the platform – is captured and analyzed by a suite of AI-powered capabilities collectively known
as Community.ai. It then provides prescriptive recommendations on where and how teams across the
business can take the right action at the right time.

KPIs are essential to initiating and directing any digital transformation journey. But a clear, steady path
to profitability, performance, and purpose hinges on the people who participate. Today’s leaders have
an unparalleled opportunity to make a real difference with a platform that strengthens the connections
between finance, procurement, compliance, treasury, supply chain, sustainability, and IT, united by a
common goal of achieving new levels of value from every lever of spend.

Discover what the Coupa community can achieve.

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 3

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT

Table of Contents
The CFO Mandate: Change 2

Community Data Sets Up Companies to Win 3

Why Controlling Spend Matters Now 5

Meet Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Commitments 7

Supplier Diversity Composition 8

Risk Management Evaluation Completion Rate 9
Risk Management Evaluation Cycle Time 10

Reduce Cost and Risk Across Source-to-Contract 11

Contract Management Cycle Time 12

Structured Spend 13
On-Contract Spend 14
Spend with Primary Suppliers 15

Reduce Costs and Drive Efficiency Across Procurement 16

Pre-Approved Spend 17
Electronic PO Processing 18
Requisition-to-Order Cycle Time 19

Maximize Value from Suppliers 20

Supplier Information Management Cycle Time 21

Reduce Inefficiency and Fraud Risk with E-Invoicing 22

Electronic Invoice Processing 23

Invoice Approval Cycle Time 24
First-Time Match Rate 25

Control Costs and Free Up Resources Through Expenses 26

Expense Report Approval Cycle Time 27

Expense Report Lines Within Policy 28

Build Resilience by Modernizing Payments 29

Invoices Paid Digitally 30

Suppliers Using Digital Payments 31
Payment Batch Approval Cycle Time 32

Faster Digital Transformation with Less Risk 33

About Coupa 35
INTRODUCTION

Why Controlling Spend Matters Now

Finance leaders are struggling with higher prices, escalating borrowing costs, unpredictable sales
forecasts, and other significant market pressures. They're turning to spend management as one of the
most reliable routes to improve margins.

To counter the barrage of external pressures and uncertainties, CFOs are paying more attention to what
they can control – spending practices across their organizations. What happens before, during, and
after the direct action of spending money? What controls and processes are in place?

Full visibility into spend is crucial, as evidenced in each of the KPIs in this report. A Business Spend
Management (BSM) platform investment gives CFOs the opportunity and visibility to understand how
resources are being used across the company and apply precision tools, not blunt instruments, to
contain costs.

With increased visibility across all spend types, from cost

of goods sold (COGS) to operating expenses, finance
leaders are better able to make the informed
decisions necessary to ensure their company
remains competitive.

High-performing
companies save

6.6%
“Today’s economy requires
doing more with less. We’re
leveraging technology that
gives us full visibility into
company finances to improve
forecasting and optimize
of their overall spend.
cash-flow management and
working capital."
Jeremy Hamon, Head of Group Finance and CFO

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 5

INTRODUCTION

20 KPIs for Best-in-Class Performance

Spend Control

High-performing companies
save more of their overall spend.

Environmental, Social,
and Governance (ESG) Source-to-Contract

Supplier Diversity Risk Management Risk Management Contract Structured Spend On-Contract Spend with
Composition Evaluation Evaluation Management Spend Primary Suppliers
Completion Rate Cycle Time Cycle Time

Supplier
Procurement Invoicing
Management

Pre-Approved Spend Electronic PO Requisition-to- Supplier Information Electronic Invoice Invoice Approval First-Time
Processing Order Cycle Time Management Processing Cycle Time Match Rate
Cycle Time

Expenses Payments

Expense Report Expense Report Invoices Suppliers Using Payment Batch

Approval Cycle Time Lines Within Policy Paid Digitally Digital Payments Approval Cycle Time

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 6

Meet Environmental,
Social, and Governance
(ESG) Commitments
“With our BSM capabilities, we’ve increased our
diverse spend across the supply chain to top tier
levels as measured against benchmarks over the
last four years. And low upfront costs and fast
time-to-value have allowed this business process
transformation to be self-funded.”

The American Red Cross

• Businesses today recognize the importance of

embracing a social purpose beyond profitability.
Not only is it the right thing to do, but they face
increasing pressure to make greater commitments
and improved progress toward ESG objectives
while delivering a strong financial performance.

• Legislation is pushing businesses to reduce

emissions and prevent environmental degradation
or ethical misconduct, not only within their own
operations but also their supply chain.

• Optimizing supplier relationships represents one of

the biggest opportunities a company has to amplify
its positive impact on the world.

Learn more about Sustainable

Business Spend Management

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 7

ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND GOVERNANCE (ESG) > SUPPLIER DIVERSITY COMPOSITION

Supplier Diversity PRIMARY BENEFIT:

Composition IMPROVE ESG PERFORMANCE

1.7% 0.5%
3.4%
Small Business Woman-Owned
Minority/Indigenous-Owned Underrepresented Business
16.1% 41.7% Veteran-Owned Disability-Owned
LGBT+-Owned * Includes overlaps across categories.
For example, it is possible for a supplier to be
counted as woman-owned and a small business.

16.4%

20.2%
HOW TO MAXIMIZE SPEND
WITH DIVERSE SUPPLIERS
DEFINITION • Require at least one diverse supplier to be
Supplier Diversity Composition measures the included in each sourcing event.
percentage of every diverse dollar spent on the
• Give diversity managers visibility into
Coupa platform that flows to specified diverse
non-diverse in-flight sourcing events and
categories.
requisitions so they can provide support.

WHY IT MATTERS • Monitor diverse suppliers for risk

indicators and proactively intervene by
• As part of their ESG programs (and, in some extending more generous payment terms
cases, executive compensation targets), or reviewing contract requirements that
companies have set commitments to increase may cause hardship.
their business with diverse suppliers.
• Invest in a community-powered platform
• U.S. government contractors are required to that provides pre-sourced, diverse
track their spend with diverse suppliers and suppliers in common categories.
meet aggressive targets. In continental Europe,
supplier diversity is an emerging consideration, • Flag diverse suppliers to end users
giving companies a tremendous opportunity to directly within search results.
lead the way in inclusive procurement practices.

• Buying from diverse suppliers creates positive

impact by directly supporting diverse owners, Learn more about working
their employees, and by increasing economic with diverse suppliers
activity within their communities.

Discover how this global manufacturer headquartered in Paris is using Coupa to

execute on its mission to achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2050.

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 8

ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND GOVERNANCE (ESG) > RISK MANAGEMENT EVALUATION COMPLETION RATE

Risk Management Evaluation Completion Rate

99.1% PRIMARY BENEFIT:

IMPROVE ESG PERFORMANCE

DEFINITION
Risk Management Evaluation Completion Rate HOW TO IMPROVE
HIGHER IS BETTER
measures third-party completion rate of digitally
administered risk questionnaires. • Free up time for risk management
teams by including a requirement
WHY IT MATTERS for suppliers to complete risk
questionnaires periodically as part
• Companies are now responsible for the of your terms and conditions.
actions of their suppliers and their suppliers’
suppliers in many areas, such as information • Select an easy-to-use platform that
security and ethical sourcing. Any suppliers allows you to monitor where suppliers
and subcontractors who represent risk must get stuck in the process and to quickly
be identified. update questionnaires as regulations
change.
• Developing ESG legislation around the world,
such as the SEC’s proposal for sustainable
disclosure regulations and the Sustainable
Finance Disclosure Regulation in Europe,
introduce new requirements for compliance. Learn more about
evaluating vendor risks
• Digital risk questionnaires give you a more
efficient way to understand the risk and
mitigation measures in place, allowing
you to assess a greater number of suppliers
and perform vetting more frequently
and consistently.

Discover how this commercial property and casualty insurance company used
digitization to get control over spend and manage third-party risk.

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 9

ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND GOVERNANCE (ESG) > RISK MANAGEMENT EVALUATION CYCLE TIME

Risk Management Evaluation Cycle Time

23.9 Business
Hours
PRIMARY BENEFIT:
IMPROVE ESG PERFORMANCE

DEFINITION
Risk Management Evaluation Cycle Time is the HOW TO IMPROVE
LOWER IS BETTER
time it takes for third parties to respond to risk
assessments.. • Require suppliers to complete risk
evaluations within a certain period as
WHY IT MATTERS part of your terms and conditions.

• A fast and efficient vetting process is crucial • Centralize third-party risk management
to onboarding new suppliers quickly and on a single, easy-to-use platform
finding replacements when problems arise. which accelerates the vetting process
Risk management teams can improve their and eliminates duplicate requests. It
service levels to the business, too. also provides community-powered
assessment templates as well as
• Buyers can make decisions regarding prescriptive recommendations on what
supplier preferences and alternatives faster to adjust when suppliers get stuck.
without compromising on due diligence.
• Create tight connections between
sourcing and third-party risk
management to speed up how
information is shared and help suppliers
understand that assessments are a
critical part of doing business together.

Learn more about managing risk for

better resilience and compliance

Discover how one of the largest banks in North America reduced supplier vetting
cycle times across more than 600 assessments per year to improve service levels
to the business and avoid high-risk workarounds.

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 10

Reduce Costs and Risk
Across Source-to-Contract

“Whether it's to restrict the number of winners over-

all or in a particular country, or to allocate a greener
solution over the lowest cost solution — Coupa helps
you calculate those different scenario outcomes and
makes it visible with one click. ... We see that this kind
of e-sourcing brings [up to] 3% of average savings and
those numbers have been valid over the last five years.”

CRH, global leading manufacturer and distributor

of diverse building materials and products

• As a result of recent economic disruptions, spend

management professionals are reexamining their
approach to contracts. Some are favoring more
contracts with shorter term durations. Others are
choosing to go all-in with a few trusted suppliers
(despite the risk associated with concentrating
business with fewer suppliers).

• Being able to deftly create, review, and execute

contracts is essential. Quickly moving the results
of sourcing activities and risk mitigation terms
into contracts increases agility and maximizes the
value of supplier negotiations.

Learn more about the connections

between sourcing and contracting

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 11

SOURCE-TO-CONTRACT > CONTRACT MANAGEMENT CYCLE TIME

Contract Management Cycle Time

10.1 Business PRIMARY BENEFIT:

IMPROVING OPERATIONAL
Days RESILIENCE

DEFINITION
Contract Management Cycle Time is the time HOW TO IMPROVE
LOWER IS BETTER
between requesting a contract and the contract
being signed. • Implement Contract Lifecycle
Management (CLM) capabilities and
WHY IT MATTERS create a sound connection to sourcing
and third-party risk. This helps teams
• After doing the up-front work of sourcing, include the right terms in the contract to
a contract is necessary to formalize the mitigate the risk that has been assessed
agreement. Long contract cycle times delay for the counterparty.
the business benefits of new agreements.
• Use standard contract clause language,
• Long cycle times create the risk that the digital workflows and approvals, and risk
business starts working with a new supplier scoring to accelerate contract review and
before the contract protections are in force. approval.

• Teams can respond more quickly to supply • Connect the CLM directly to purchasing
issues by accelerating the time to bring new and invoice validation to start realizing
suppliers and awarded bids into contract value immediately.
and purchasing.

• Faster contract execution removes

uncertainty in the supply chain, leading Learn about integrating CLM into
to better planning and quicker business your procure-to-pay (P2P) processes
enablement.

Discover how the fifth largest automotive retailer in the United States used Coupa
Contract Lifecycle Management to help its IT, procurement, and legal department
complete a critical contract in weeks, instead of spending months on negotiations.

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 12

SOURCE-TO-CONTRACT > STRUCTURED SPEND

Structured Spend

67.6%
PRIMARY BENEFIT:
IMPROVE PROFITABILITY
BY MANAGING SPEND

DEFINITION
Structured Spend describes the percentage of HOW TO IMPROVE
HIGHER IS BETTER
spend that goes through company-hosted and
vendor-hosted catalogs (a.k.a. punch-outs). • Deliver a better user experience with
high-quality catalog data. When users
WHY IT MATTERS can easily search for what they need, find
the right items complete with pictures,
• Catalogs drive control, efficiency, and lower descriptions, and prices, they’ll choose
prices. Avoid proliferation of items and those standard items rather than submit
suppliers that result from ad-hoc purchases. custom requests.

• Maximizing structured spend offers a scal- • Wherever possible, use proven, trusted
able way to manage change and enables platforms and programs to make it less
your business to adapt quickly as goods and time-consuming for you and the vendor
services are introduced. to establish catalogs and punch-outs.

• Employees benefit from having more infor-

mation regarding availability, discounts, and
shipping costs; suppliers benefit from fewer
errors in communication. Learn more about
source-to-pay (S2P)

“Leveraging Coupa, Uber can identify any

misalignment between what goods and services
are available and what employees need.”
Mark Arrigotti, Head of Global Procurement

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 13

SOURCE-TO-CONTRACT > ON-CONTRACT SPEND

On-Contract Spend

80.8%
PRIMARY BENEFIT:
IMPROVE PROFITABILITY
BY MANAGING SPEND

DEFINITION
On-Contract Spend measures the percentage HOW TO IMPROVE
HIGHER IS BETTER
of spend put through pre-negotiated contracts
to enable better prices and terms. • Implement a category sourcing strategy
in which the categories that deliver
WHY IT MATTERS the greatest value to the business are
strategically sourced.
• Having greater on-contract spend reduces
financial risk by using suppliers who have • Ensure that contracts are quickly and
risk-related contract protections. easily implemented into purchasing
policy through an integrated Contract
• Procurement can negotiate better terms Lifecycle Management (CLM) system.
and lower pricing in the future with
contracted suppliers by channeling more • Make sure your procure-to-pay (P2P)
spend through each contract. system is easy to use for employees,
and that it automatically serves up
• Since payment terms are negotiated in the contracted goods and services in the
contract, getting more spend on contract search results.
lets you take advantage of favorable
payment terms, which improves cash flow.

Learn more about

managing contracts

“Coupa has transformed our business. We went from rogue

spend to 100% on-contract spend classified in Coupa.”
Chris Courtemanche, Procurement Innovation Manager

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 14

SOURCE-TO-CONTRACT > SPEND WITH PRIMARY SUPPLIERS

Spend with Primary Suppliers

19.3%
PRIMARY BENEFIT:
IMPROVE PROFITABILITY
BY MANAGING SPEND

DEFINITION
Spend with Primary Suppliers is the percentage HOW TO IMPROVE
HIGHER IS BETTER
of total suppliers with whom a company spends
80% of its total spend. • Gain a complete picture of supplier
relationships by performing analyses of
WHY IT MATTERS direct and indirect spend in high-value
categories. Identify top suppliers for each
• Tail suppliers (where spend is very low) are and determine which of the remaining
important niche suppliers and may be duplicate suppliers can be eliminated with minimal
suppliers in categories that haven’t been disruption or risk.
sourced or managed properly.
• Consolidate tail suppliers and redistribute
• Excessive spending with tail suppliers is their expected spend to preferred suppliers
undesirable because you aren’t consolidating in exchange for lower prices and/or better
your spend to get better prices. It also creates terms.
excessive costs and risk as risk management
efforts prioritize suppliers with greater spend. • Use a comprehensive platform for all spend
to spot travel and expense (T&E) spend that
• Reducing tail suppliers and increasing primary should go through procurement, which
suppliers generates value through negotiated increases pre-approved spend.
contracts, greater buying power, lower risk,
and favorable payment terms. • Use automation and community sourcing
programs to free up sourcing resources,
giving more time for category manage-
ment and reduction of tail spend.
Learn more about working
with primary suppliers

Discover how this Australian market leader in hospitality experiences used Coupa to gain the
benefits of bulk buying and tightening control while consolidating 400 suppliers to 100.

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 15

Reduce Costs and
Drive Efficiency
Across Procurement

“If you ask anyone, ‘Would you like to

go back to what we used to have?’,
I'm pretty sure everyone will say ‘no’.”

Zurich Insurance Group, Swiss insurance company

• Procurement’s agenda is full of responsibilities

that didn’t exist a few years ago. The function
has a great opportunity to drive results in
multiple strategic areas, supporting near-term
financial results and longer term growth.

• The challenge is to deliver savings while

ensuring that processes and controls can
be used with surgical precision and to shift
budgets as needed.

• Procurement's success hinges on several

factors including: having complete visibility into
company spend, ensuring strong relationships
with suppliers, and driving digitalization.

Learn more about the top

priorities of today’s CPOs

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 16

PROCUREMENT > PRE-APPROVED SPEND

Pre-Approved Spend

95.0%
PRIMARY BENEFIT:
IMPROVE PROFITABILITY
BY MANAGING SPEND

DEFINITION
Pre-Approved Spend is the total amount of HOW TO IMPROVE
HIGHER IS BETTER
invoiced spend linked with approved POs.
• Deploy a procure-to-pay (P2P)
WHY IT MATTERS system that makes it frictionless for
employees to purchase what they
• High pre-approved spend lets finance teams need. Simultaneously consider “no-PO,
increase scrutiny on each transaction before no-pay” policies.
the spend is committed to the supplier. It even
allows teams to pull back budgets mid-period, • Improve the onboarding processes for
which is critical to maintaining agility in a new suppliers so it’s easier for both
downturn. They also gain visibility into spend buyers and suppliers to transact quickly.
that’s committed but not invoiced, making it
• Implement a category strategy such
easier to generate accurate accruals.
that high-spend categories have
• Spend that’s pre-approved is more likely to go pre-negotiated prices, terms, and
onto negotiated contracts, resulting in lower approval rules.
prices and better terms. It’s also easier to get
onto virtual cards, increasing rebates and
benefitting liquidity in terms of leveraging the
card’s payment cycle.
Read more about
• Since pre-approved spend improves invoice pre-approved spend
matching against POs, it offers an extra
measure of prevention against fraud.

“It was a little bit scary when we had only 22% spend under
management*. I don’t know how we would have been able
to handle this mass inflation without Coupa.”
Kevin Ogle, Controller

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT * On-PO spend is now at 90% 17
PROCUREMENT > ELECTRONIC PO PROCESSING

Electronic PO Processing

98.9%
PRIMARY BENEFIT:
IMPROVE OPERATIONAL
RESILIENCE

DEFINITION
Electronic PO Processing describes the HOW TO IMPROVE
HIGHER IS BETTER
percentage of total POs that are approved
and received by suppliers electronically. • Set up your procure-to-pay (P2P) system
so that it’s user-friendly to the business
WHY IT MATTERS and to suppliers, and provide ample
education to those using the system.
• Many companies struggle with highly
• Consider implementing a “no-PO,
manual PO processes. Digitizing purchase
no-pay” policy, which ensures that
orders includes the electronic transmission
employees and suppliers are fully
and supplier confirmation of POs.
incentivized to submit accurate
information electronically.
• This drastically reduces low-value, manual
work while accelerating the process to • Ensure that most of a supplier’s goods
manage, confirm, and change POs. or services can be ordered through
a structured buying channel, such as
• Digitization improves visibility into any issues catalogs. Use AI-powered data insights
by letting suppliers provide status updates to show which suppliers are already
at the line item level, giving managers time enabled for digital purchasing and
to respond. invoicing, ultimately improving supplier
selection and driving better pricing.

Learn how procurement maturity

can guide digital transformation

“Through the PO process alone, we know when we’re going to

overspend and even underspend. Ultimately, we can course correct
whenever we need to and make better decisions.”
Matt Puckett, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 18

PROCUREMENT > REQUISITION-TO-ORDER CYCLE TIME

Requisition-to-Order Cycle Time

3.6 Business PRIMARY BENEFIT:

IMPROVE PROFITABILITY
Hours BY MANAGING SPEND

DEFINITION
Requisition-to-Order Cycle Time is the average HOW TO IMPROVE
LOWER IS BETTER
time it takes to process purchase orders, from
the initial requisition to the final approved PO. • Simplify policies to minimize the number
of approvers (especially when the total
WHY IT MATTERS cost is below a certain amount) while
maintaining the appropriate level of
• With greater uncertainty in today’s supply control against risk or fraud. If you have
chains, shorter cycle times can reduce approvers in your workflow who never
delays in procuring critical items and reject, consider removing them or
services and accelerate business. making them watchers.

• Shorter cycle times improve employees’ • Implement a buying channel strategy that
experience with the ordering process, routes the goods and services with the
spurring user adoption and maximizing greatest order volumes through hosted
spend under management. catalogs, punchouts, and automated
“guided-buying” processes. This way users
• Reducing cycle times increases supplier can quickly find what they need.
satisfaction and strengthens relationships.
• Use AI capabilities to immediately show
end users how their approval times
compare to others at their company.
Learn more about smarter
Adding game mechanics can increase
requisition systems
user participation.

Discover how this technology giant made a platform investment to digitize and
standardize different processes for opening requisitions and following through to
POs at local entities around the world.

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 19

Maximize Value
from Suppliers

“Having the data helped improve

our relationships from transactional
to strategic and put us into the
driver’s seat.”
Air Methods, U.S. helicopter operator

• Manual processes and paper-driven back

offices make it difficult for procurement to
manage suppliers strategically. Teams are
already stretched from years of grappling
with supplier disruption.

• A digital approach to supplier management

cuts out low-value work and excess costs
and accelerates supplier onboarding with
self-service portals. Digitization also allows
teams to combine multi-domain and tier-
risk assessments with AI-powered insights to
identify threats.

Learn more about building

stronger supplier relationships

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 20

SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT > SUPPLIER INFORMATION MANAGEMENT CYCLE TIME

Supplier Information
Management Cycle Time

1.4 Business PRIMARY BENEFIT:

IMPROVING OPERATIONAL
Hours RESILIENCE

DEFINITION
Supplier Information Management Cycle Time HOW TO IMPROVE
LOWER IS BETTER
is the time it takes for suppliers to respond to
digital requests to update their information. • Use BSM platforms that let you ask for
missing supplier information at the time
WHY IT MATTERS when the supplier is most engaged —
when they’re receiving a PO or trying to
• Inaccuracies or gaps in supplier data can submit an invoice.
lead to major problems for businesses.
Suppliers may change their bank accounts • For example, you can warn suppliers
or payment information and fail to notify that you won’t be able to pay them
buyers, resulting in bank fees and delays. without updated banking information
at the time that they’re submitting an
• Delays in submission of up-to-date invoice.
certificates and other information lead
to costly manual follow-up for supplier • Make sure your procure-to-pay (P2P)
managers. and supplier management systems
focus on user experience not just for the
• Suppliers managing their own information buyer, but for the supplier as well.
through a self-service digital process
prevents error and fraud — no more manual
data entry errors, no unauthorized changes.
Learn more about supplier
information management

“With the Coupa platform we can offer the user precise processes, close
the entire expense cycle, and make the payment available to the suppliers.”
Teresa Gutierrez, Shared Services Manager

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 21

Reduce Inefficiency and
Fraud Risk with E-Invoicing

"We offer our customers the best solution

and experience possible, and we expect our
strategic suppliers to offer the best experience
to the users of any solution."

Zalando, German multinational fashion e-commerce company

• Because of the financial stakes, high-value AP

personnel need to be focused on optimizing
working capital and accurate accruals, not on
processing loads of paper invoices.

• Excess manual work, delays, and errors incurred

when processing paper invoices hamper financial
reporting, negatively impact working capital
management, and open the door to duplicate
payments and fraud.

• Digital invoicing speeds processing and prevents

invoices from getting lost or forgotten. This helps
accruals because you’re able to process more
invoices each period before closing AP.

Learn more about

digitizing AP

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 22

INVOICING > ELECTRONIC INVOICE PROCESSING

Electronic Invoice Processing

82.5% PRIMARY BENEFIT:

IMPROVE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES

DEFINITION
Electronic Invoice Processing represents the HOW TO IMPROVE
HIGHER IS BETTER
percentage of invoices processed through any
electronic, automated means. • Use a system that unifies strong
invoicing capabilities with procurement
WHY IT MATTERS processes (i.e., a comprehensive BSM
platform), which enables invoices to be
• Electronic invoicing improves compliance by automatically matched against POs and
using automated controls to match invoices receipts.
to POs, apply account coding, and route
for approval according to Designation of • Ensure that the platform provides
Authority rules. suppliers with a modern, user-friendly
experience to encourage the adoption
• Suppliers are paid on time and gain real-time of electronic invoicing and gives supplier
visibility into invoice approval and payment managers visibility into which suppliers
status, which can reduce time spent on updates. have adopted digital invoicing across the
community.
• A high percentage of electronic invoices
lets AP optimize payment timing to either • Provide open, frictionless access to
maximize Days Payable Outstanding or pay multiple automated channels for
early to capture an early-payment discount. suppliers to submit invoices while
maximizing their visibility into the status
• With visibility into invoice data, treasurers can of their invoices and payments.
plan for upcoming payments and reduce cash
shortfalls.

• Governments often require electronic

Learn more about
invoicing as part of indirect tax regulations.
invoicing management
Invoices can be electronically validated
against country-specific tax regulations
during supplier submission.

Discover how this global hospitality and entertainment company increased its PO-based
invoicing threefold and drove a 90% jump in e-invoicing adoption.

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 23

INVOICING > INVOICE APPROVAL CYCLE TIME

Invoice Approval Cycle Time

10.9 Business PRIMARY BENEFIT:

IMPROVE OPERATIONAL
Hours EFFICIENCIES

DEFINITION
Invoice Approval Cycle Time is the average HOW TO IMPROVE
LOWER IS BETTER
time from when an invoice enters the system
to the time it’s approved for payment (but not • Consider policies that vary the approval
necessarily paid). chains depending on the amount or
category.
WHY IT MATTERS
• Configure systems to automatically
• With paper invoices and disjointed approval approve pre-approved, low-amount
processes, it can take days, if not weeks, to invoices. Incorporate real-time spend
approve a simple invoice. Accounting teams monitoring to screen for fraud and
are bogged down in excess manual work, duplicate invoices and to keep audits
such as identifying the right account for focused.
each invoice, applying coding, and manually
• Consider going from three-way match
chasing approvals.
(with receipts) to two-way, approving
• Faster approval times help avoid late invoices only. This way, employees
payments, penalties, and potential supplier don’t need to be trained on the receipts
frustration, which in severe cases may even process and the invoices process (just
void contracts or lead to the refusal of on invoice approvals).
future projects.

• Faster approvals can improve returns on

working capital by realizing early payment
Learn five key steps to
discounts and can enable finance teams
transforming your AP process
to close the books faster, as invoices are
processed in a timelier manner.

"Invoice cycle time [is] where we have opportunities to onboard suppliers on supply
chain finance. When you approve efficiently and quickly, you get opportunities to pay
suppliers before the maturity of the payment terms. Supply chain finance onboarding is
a KPI owned by the finance organization, and that’s where we add the most impact."

Vincent Teyssier-Treton, Head of Procurement Technology and Transactional Sourcing

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 24

INVOICING > FIRST-TIME MATCH RATE

First-Time Match Rate

96.5%
PRIMARY BENEFIT:
IMPROVE OPERATIONAL
EFFICIENCIES

DEFINITION:
First-Time Match Rate describes the percentage HOW TO IMPROVE
HIGHER IS BETTER
of invoices that are two-way or three-way
matched with POs and receiving documents • By digitizing POs and invoices, companies
without the need for exception handling. can see a massive increase in first-time
match rate.
WHY IT MATTERS
• By having procurement and invoicing
• A high match rate indicates efficiency, capabilities on a single platform, a
since invoices that fail the match must be supplier can “flip” a PO into an invoice —
reviewed manually. automatically creating an invoice based
on the PO information accurately. This
• A high match rate can signal the leads to a high match rate.
effectiveness of compliance policies and
substantially benefits risk mitigation. • To improve efficiency even more, when
a three-way match occurs, companies
can opt to automatically pay invoices
that match within certain tolerances —
creating a “touchless” AP process.

Learn more about

AP automation

Discover how finance, procurement, and IT joined forces at this tier-one automotive
Discover howsupplier
this global hospitality
to go from 100% and manual
entertainment company
invoicing to 80%increased its PO-based
touchless.
invoicing threefold and drove a 90% jump in e-invoicing adoption.

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 25

Control Costs and Free Up
Resources Through Expenses

“We decided to do the T&E project for two reasons:

one, to automate the T&E process and two, we’ll
actually be able to streamline that process and take
a tremendous amount of workload off the approvers
in the field.”

Service Corporation International (SCI), American

provider of funeral goods and services

• Full visibility into and control over all spend, including

employee expenses, impacts savings significantly.
Employees often expense items that should have
been pre-approved and, as a result, any negotiated
savings in that category are lost.

• Smarter expense management helps ensure

compliance with policies and drastically improve
efficiency by reducing manual labor.

• With business travel on the rise again and companies

focused on margins, a modern travel and expenses
(T&E) management program helps control costs using
intelligent price tracking.

Learn about end-to-end

T&E management

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 26

EXPENSES > EXPENSE REPORT APPROVAL CYCLE TIME

Expense Report Approval Cycle Time

7.4 Business PRIMARY BENEFIT:

IMPROVE OPERATIONAL
Hours EFFICIENCIES

DEFINITION
Expense Report Approval Cycle Time is the HOW TO IMPROVE
LOWER IS BETTER
average time from when an expense report
enters the system to the time it’s approved • Use a platform that frees up employees’
for payment. time by capturing expenses when they
occur. Integrated travel and expense
WHY IT MATTERS (T&E) management records airfare as
part of the process, and expense reports
• For employees expensing items or can be generated automatically with
services (like internet and phone bills), Uber for Business.
it's a major source of frustration to not
• Make use of AI to capture the right
be reimbursed quickly.
information from receipts automatically
and auto-populate expense categories
• Short approval time encourage the timely
and fields. This reduces incidences
submission of expenses and improves
of spend lines being sent back to the
budget control.
employee for correction.

• Paper or spreadsheet-based processes and • Enable and promote the use of mobile
disjointed expense management systems devices for real-time, in-field expense
make it nearly impossible for AP to process report submissions to drive adoption of
expense reimbursements quickly. expense management technology and
increase control, compliance, and
spend under management.
Learn about comprehensive
T&E management

“In a siloed and growing company with a lot of business travelers, you need
an efficient global solution. My team uses Coupa to pull a comprehensive
dashboard that our executives use to identify savings. It’s so helpful.”

Curt Metzger, Global Vice President - Strategic Partnership

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 27

EXPENSES > EXPENSE REPORT LINES WITHIN POLICY

Expense Report Lines Within Policy

98.6%
PRIMARY BENEFIT:
IMPROVE COMPLIANCE,
MITIGATE RISK

DEFINITION
Expense Report Lines Within Policy measures HOW TO IMPROVE
HIGHER IS BETTER
the percentage of lines that meet policy limits
within expense reports. • Implement a system with real-time
notifications or warnings that a specific
WHY IT MATTERS line, as drafted by the employee, might
not be within policy.
• Even when companies have clear expense
report policies in place, employees may • Leverage AI to monitor expenses to
be unaware of these policies and submit rapidly identify non-compliance.
non-compliant expenses. With managers
• Reference community data to
typically approving these reports without
benchmark your policies to identify
detailed review, human error is rampant and
where changes should be made for
compliance is compromised.
more effective compliance.
• Having more expense report lines that are
compliant with travel and expense (T&E)
policy indicates that expenses are being
managed effectively.
Learn more about the latest
• This reduces the overhead of manual approaches to T&E management
audits and eases administrative burdens.
It also reduces the time to reimbursement
for employees.

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 28

Build Resilience by
Modernizing Payments

"Late payments were commonplace. And

sometimes those can lead to interrupted
supply — suppliers literally turning off supply
because you've not paid them… AP works a
dream now because of Coupa."
Saga, U.K.-based travel and financial services company

• Digital payments offer many ways to improve financial

performance. Virtual card rebates, early payment discounts,
and reduced transaction fees generate significant savings.
Optimized payment timing also improves working capital.

• Digital payments also empower treasurers to make accurate,

data-driven decisions. They uncover excess and deficit cash
through increased visibility from source-to-settle as well as
upcoming payments that are automatically incorporated into
the cash position. Full transparency into supplier payment
terms improves hedging decisions, too.

• Digital payment processes including supplier remit-to

information management, batch creation, approvals, and
reconciliation, allow teams to streamline the back office,
prevent fraud, and simplify controls requirements.

Learn more about

digital payments

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 29

PAYMENTS > INVOICES PAID DIGITALLY

Invoices Paid Digitally

96.9%
PRIMARY BENEFIT:
IMPROVE OPERATIONAL
EFFICIENCIES

DEFINITION
Invoices Paid Digitally describes the percentage HOW TO IMPROVE
HIGHER IS BETTER
of invoices that are tied to digital payments out
of all the total electronic invoices processed on • Implement digital payments
the Coupa BSM platform. capabilities as part of your accounts
payable process to enable data
WHY IT MATTERS continuity, automated bank statement
reconciliation, and multiple automatic
• Increasing digital payments reduces checks to reduce errors.
transaction fees by optimizing payment
• Expand your digital payment strategy to
rails, improves SG&A efficiency by reducing
include virtual cards. By including a “get
manual effort, and also reduces the possibility
paid by card” offer in your POs, you can
of errors or fraud, thereby mitigating risk.
shift the invoice and payment process
electronically, cutting out paper.
• Digital payments offer a chance to optimize
working capital, increase savings through
• Remind suppliers of the advantages of
rebates for virtual cards, realize early pay
digital payments. They’ll be able to track
discounts, and strengthen relationships
the progress of their payments online
with suppliers even further by reducing the
using a secure self-service portal.
amount of time and error in paying suppliers.

• Digital payments enable automatic, digital

reconciliation, which allows your AP and
accounting departments to operate in a Learn about five common
“touchless” way. Also, payment security and payment pain points
payment fraud protection are improved
when invoices are paid digitally.

Discover how the world’s largest producer of cans and tubes used digital payments
to get 100% visibility into committed spend, reduce cost-per-invoice, speed adoption
by more than 1,500 suppliers, and assign POs over 80% faster than before.

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 30

PAYMENTS > SUPPLIERS USING DIGITAL PAYMENTS

Suppliers Using Digital Payments

96.5%
PRIMARY BENEFIT:
IMPROVE OPERATIONAL
EFFICIENCIES

DEFINITION
Suppliers Using Digital Payments reflects the HOW TO IMPROVE
HIGHER IS BETTER
percentage of suppliers who receive payments
digitally, i.e. not via paper checks or external • Make sure you have accurate supplier
bank-to-bank transfers. information as a foundation. Get as
many suppliers enabled onto your
WHY IT MATTERS payments platform as possible.

• Incentivize adoption by offering early

• Digital payments streamline your AP process,
payment discounts or flexible payment
since all of your payments are made from the
terms - or consider moving to longer
same system.
terms for suppliers unless they adopt
digital payments.
• Digital payments also ensure that there are
proper controls in place, such as setting rules • Increase supplier awareness of virtual
on who can approve and how the approval card payments. Verify to see if one-time,
chain works. long-tail suppliers will accept this
payment method, and include it as a
• A high percentage of suppliers using digital preferred method when issuing a PO.
payments indicates a sound strategy for
engaging tail suppliers. These suppliers • Leverage a BSM platform that reveals
typically tie up a lot of AP resources in setting suppliers who are already accepting
up alternate invoice and payment methods digital payments with other buyers and
and manually responding to status updates. prioritize enabling digital payments with
those suppliers.

Learn about transforming

business payments

Discover how this commercial real estate services and investment firm used Coupa to
transform their business payments, seeing 90% improvement in payment fulfillment
requirement and dropping late payments from 70% to 10% in one month.

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 31

PAYMENTS > PAYMENT BATCH APPROVAL CYCLE TIME

Payment Batch Approval Cycle Time

1.1 Business PRIMARY BENEFIT:

IMPROVE OPERATIONAL
Hours EFFICIENCIES

DEFINITION
Payment Batch Approval Cycle Time measures HOW TO IMPROVE
LOWER IS BETTER
how quickly a batch of payments to suppliers
can be approved. • Streamline approvals whenever possible
by minimizing the complexity of
WHY IT MATTERS approval chains and matrices.

• Streamlining the batch approval process • Have multiple releasers for any approval
digitally allows for greater automation, faster process so that no bottlenecks develop
and more secure approvals, and overall if a single approver is unavailable for
increased efficiency. any reason.

• Faster approvals allow you to execute

payments much more quickly and take
advantage of early payment discounts.
Learn about streamlining
• A digital process shortens approval time and payments
ensures a separation of duties in the approval
chain. Everyone has a clearly defined role.
This reduces confusion and enhances
payment security.

Discover how this German manufacturing company used a comprehensive, cloud-based

treasury management solution to automate group-wide payments for greater security and
reliability and reduce the number of rush payments.

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 32

CONCLUSION

Faster Digital Transformation

with Less Risk
A BSM approach offers so many potential benefits, such
as improving margins, increasing agility and productivity,
mitigating risk, and optimizing performance. Using the
KPIs and benchmarks in this report, leaders can quickly get
a sense of where their enterprise stands today – and how
much more value it can realize.

Gaps in capabilities don’t typically appear in isolation.

Many enterprises struggle to control costs with precision,
provide optionality in supply chains, and ensure effective
compliance and governance – all at the same time. These
"The success metrics that I look at
entrenched challenges can’t be solved with expensive,
are reliability, cost/value, benefits
cumbersome point solutions that users won’t adopt.
delivered, reducing risk, and
With Coupa’s comprehensive and cloud-native BSM
reducing cycle time. Coupa has
platform, companies deliver transformational projects
helped us with all five."
with aggressive returns and payback periods, freeing up
resources that can go straight to the bottom line or fund John Kochavatr, CIO and VP, Customer &
longer-term digital transformation roadmaps. Digital Solutions at Portland General Electric

Respond faster and better with advanced maturity

Committing to BSM at this scale can seem daunting, especially after years investing in siloed solutions and
systems that don’t deliver the step-function improvement needed to address today’s challenges. But leaders
can chart the course for that improvement within their finance and procurement organizations. The next step
is understanding current maturity and the investments in people, process, and technology that bring a
company to the next level.

Optimize working Pave a path to best-in-

capital, invest in growth, class procurement by
and control costs with advancing procurement
precision by advancing maturity
financial maturity

Get Your Copy Now Get Your Copy Now

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 33

CONCLUSION

20 KPIs for Best-in-Class Performance

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR GOAL BENCHMARK

High-performing companies save

Spend Control HIGHER IS BETTER 6.6% more of their overall spend.

Supplier Diversity Composition HIGHER IS BETTER 7 Categories

99.1%
ESG

Risk Management Evaluation Completion Rate HIGHER IS BETTER

Risk Management Evaluation Cycle Time LOWER IS BETTER 23.9 Business Hours

Contract Management Cycle Time LOWER IS BETTER 10.1 Business Days

SOURCE-TO-CONTRACT

Structured Spend HIGHER IS BETTER 67.6%

On-Contract Spend HIGHER IS BETTER 80.8%

Spend with Primary Suppliers HIGHER IS BETTER 19.3%

Pre-Approved Spend HIGHER IS BETTER 95.0%

PROCUREMENT

Electronic PO Processing HIGHER IS BETTER 98.9%

Requisition-to-Order Cycle Time LOWER IS BETTER 3.6 Business Hours

MANAGE-
SUPPLIER

MENT

Supplier Information Management Cycle Time LOWER IS BETTER 1.4 Business Hours

Electronic Invoice Processing HIGHER IS BETTER 82.5%

INVOICING

Invoice Approval Cycle Time LOWER IS BETTER 10.9 Business Hours

First-Time Match Rate HIGHER IS BETTER 96.5%

Expense Report Approval Cycle Time LOWER IS BETTER 7.4 Business Hours
EXPENSES

Expense Report Lines Within Policy HIGHER IS BETTER 98.6%

Invoices Paid Digitally HIGHER IS BETTER 96.9%

PAYMENTS

Suppliers Using Digital Payments HIGHER IS BETTER 96.5%

Payment Batch Approval Cycle Time LOWER IS BETTER 1.1 Business Hours

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT 34

THE COUPA BUSINESS SPEND
MANAGEMENT BENCHMARK REPORT

About Coupa
Coupa is the cloud-based Business Spend Management
platform that unifies processes across supply chain, procurement,
and finance functions. Coupa empowers organizations around
the world to maximize value and operationalize purpose through
their business spend.

The Coupa platform is trusted by more than 3,000 customers to

manage $4+ trillion in cumulative business spend.

To learn more about Coupa, visit www.coupa.com and follow

us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

The Trusted Platform for

Business Spend Management