Procure-to-Pay covers the full loop from "we need to buy something" to "the vendor is paid." It's a workflow that spans several apps - Sourcing, Purchasing, Inventory, Invoice & AP, and Payments - and the platform stitches them into one clean flow so your Finance and Ops teams don't have to re-key data at every step.
The steps
- Requisition - someone in the business raises a request; approvals route based on amount and category
- RFQ - your buyer sends a request for quotation to two or more suppliers; responses come back into the platform
- Purchase Order - the chosen supplier gets a PO; the platform tracks the order, expected delivery, and outstanding value
- Goods Receipt - inventory books the received quantities against the PO, catching shortfalls or over-shipments automatically
- Supplier Invoice - the vendor invoice lands (email attachment or portal upload); the AI Invoice Reviewer matches it three-way to PO + GRN
- Payment - approved invoices flow to the payment run; the platform handles the payment file for your bank
Where AI helps
- Extraction - supplier invoices arrive as PDFs and photos; the Reviewer agent extracts line items, dates, and totals automatically
- Three-way matching - PO vs GRN vs invoice quantity and price are checked automatically; anomalies pause for human review
- Duplicate detection - the platform flags likely duplicates before they get paid twice
- Approval routing - policies determine which humans see which items, based on category, amount, and cost center
The whole flow works with or without every step wired up. Small teams often start with just Invoice & AP + the Reviewer agent, then layer in Purchasing and Sourcing when the volume grows enough to justify the process discipline.