Cost per case
Definition
Cost per case is the total cost of processing one unit of work — an invoice, a quote, an enquiry — including labour, software, model usage and error correction. It is the cleanest metric for comparing manual processing with an automated one.
Unlike headcount comparisons it survives volume changes: if volume doubles, cost per case shows immediately whether the automation actually scales.
It also exposes the hidden cost of exceptions, which often consume more effort than the entire standard path.
In practice
- Includes labour, software, model usage and rework
- Comparable across manual and automated processing
- Reveals whether exceptions dominate total effort
Related terms
- Total cost of ownership (TCO)Total cost of ownership is the full cost of a system over its lifetime: build or licence, integration, hosting, model usage, support, changes and internal effort. For AI systems the usage-based model cost and the maintenance of integrations are the items most often underestimated.
- Straight-through processing (STP)Straight-through processing is the share of cases that pass from intake to completion without any manual intervention. It is the central operational metric of an automation programme, because it directly translates into cost and cycle time per case.
- Automation KPIAutomation KPIs are the figures that prove whether an automated process is working: touchless completion rate, cycle time, error and rework rate, cost per case, and volume handled per period. They are defined before the build, not after.