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Free tool · Invoicing

Manual invoicing cost calculator

“It only takes a few minutes” adds up. Enter how your business invoices today to see the staff hours, and the ringgit, that keying, checking, sending, chasing and correcting invoices take each month and each year.

The figures filled in are examples, not averages. Replace them with yours.
Keying, checking, sending and recording it, plus chasing payment. Time one ordinary invoice to find out.
Pay plus employer contributions, per hour, for whoever does the invoicing.

Time spent by hand

0 hours, RM 0 a month

0 hours, RM 0 a year

Invoicing = 0 × 0 min = 0 h

Fixing errors = 0 × 0% × 0 min = 0 h

Cost = 0 h × RM 0/hour, × 12 for a year

An estimate from your own figures. It leaves out slower payment from late invoices and revenue lost to pricing mistakes.

LHDN e-invoicing adds a step: each e-invoice must be sent to MyInvois and validated before you share it with the buyer.

The SteadyDevs e-Invoice platform submits them from the system you already use, or from an Excel or CSV upload. At 0 invoices a month that is the plan, RM 0 a month including any overage. See the e-Invoice platform →

How this counts: hours a month = invoices × minutes per invoice ÷ 60 + invoices × error rate × minutes per fix ÷ 60; cost = hours × staff cost per hour; a year is 12 months. A rough estimate, not financial advice. The e-invoice step checked on 23 October 2026 against LHDN's e-Invoice FAQ (updated 4 September 2026); plan prices from the e-Invoice platform's pricing.

Where the time goes

A “simple” invoice is rarely one step. Someone copies the customer's details, fills in the lines, checks the sums, makes a PDF, writes the email, records it in a spreadsheet and, later, chases the payment. Each mistake adds a correction, an apology and a payment that waits. The hidden cost of manual invoicing breaks this down, and from manual to automated shows what changes when the steps are automated, and what still needs a person.

Common questions

How much time does manual invoicing really take?
It depends on your process. Time one ordinary invoice from start to finish: finding the customer's details, keying the lines, checking the totals, making the PDF, sending it and recording it. Add the time spent chasing payment. Most owners find the real figure is higher than they guessed.
Why does the calculator count errors separately?
Because a wrong invoice costs more than the time to key it. Someone has to notice, issue a correction, reply to the customer and reconcile the accounts, and the payment waits meanwhile. Enter how often that happens and how long a fix takes.
What doesn't the calculator count?
Payments that arrive later because invoices go out late, revenue lost to pricing mistakes, and what your staff could have done with the time instead. These can matter more than the hours, but they vary too much between businesses to estimate here.
Does LHDN e-invoicing change this?
Yes, it adds a step. Each e-invoice has to be sent to LHDN's MyInvois system, through the MyInvois Portal or an API, and validated before you share it with the buyer. If you key invoices by hand today, entering them in the MyInvois Portal can mean keying them a second time.
Will automating invoicing save me this whole amount?
No. Someone still has to review and approve invoices and deal with exceptions, and automation has its own cost. The figure here is what the manual process costs today, which is the number to weigh any change against.
Next step Send e-invoices to LHDN from the system you already use: the e-Invoice platform starts free for 10 invoices a month. Want invoices to create themselves from your orders? See business automation →