A Comprehensive Guide to Automating the Procure to Pay Process

What does procure to pay mean to the procurement team?

The procure-to-pay process covers all the steps involved in sourcing vendors to pay for goods/services delivered. From procurement to pay – all these steps are executed in a predetermined sequence as per business rules. The P2P processes when executed manually are ridden with redundancies and bottlenecks that significantly affect process efficiency. 

The first step in the P2P process is order requisition, which is nothing but an internal request to purchase something. The ordering process begins with the creation of a purchase order (PO).

The purchase order lists out complete details of the purchase order, like the name and quantity of the item being purchased, time and mode of delivery, and other details relevant to the order. The next steps in the procure to pay cycle are receiving goods, creating an invoice, arranging the payment to suppliers, and documenting the entire P2P cycle. 

The procure-to-pay process is an essential process for streamlining procurement and financial activities, controlling organizational spending, and ensuring effective vendor management. 

The procure to pay process flow may seem simple and straightforward in theory, but at the enterprise level, this process proves to be a complex undertaking with multiple moving parts. As business operations expand, P2P and related accounting processes must transition from mundane paper-based manual flows into AI and automation-based flows that are easy to track and manage.

What are the Challenges in a Manual Procure to Pay Process?

A siloed and fragmented procure-to-pay (P2P) process results in inefficient and inflexible procurement functions. Organizations that still rely on outdated manual P2P processes are bound to damage the bottom line and compromise on process performance.

The entire P2P process is made up of several moving parts that occur simultaneously across multiple business functions. Carrying out such a complex work process with the help of manual methods opens up the scope for errors and delays. Moreover, manual procure to pay processes are complex to handle at scale, leading to confusion and chaos within the procurement function.

The main challenges in a manual procure to pay process are –

1. Siloed systems

Different departments within the organization have their own processes, making it difficult to consolidate data and establish a single source of truth. Procurement and accounts payable functions are managed by 2 distinct departments that have their policies, systems, and priorities. For a smooth procure to pay process, both these departments have to sync up. A manual P2P cycle makes it difficult to attain this alignment, which leads to inefficiencies and potential errors. 

2. Non-compliance

The procurement department negotiates prices and discounts with suppliers to strike a profitable deal for the business. The accounts department on the other hand is responsible for complying with the contracts that the procurement department negotiates. The absence of a standardized method to deal with these contracts leads to non-compliance issues. 

3. Lack of transparency

In a manual process, there is a lack of transparency while processing the purchase order. The users are not aware of the status of the purchase order as they need to manually follow up through each step of the process. The lack of transparency also results in several purchase orders slipping through the cracks. 

4. Poor spend visibility

Tracking expenses can be challenging in a manual procurement process due to a lack of proper documentation. Paper-based procure to pay process does not provide the required visibility into organizational expenditure, which is required for optimizing business processes. 

5. Chaotic order management

Manual procure to pay processes lack the centralized order management that is required to process purchase orders in a streamlined manner. The risk of duplicate payments, late fees, and long cycle times is much higher in a manual process. Managing orders is chaotic and confusing in a manual process. 

6. Inefficient vendor management

Efficient vendor management is key to strong business relationships. Manual processes fail at establishing strong vendor relationships mainly due to a lack of proper documentation. Maintaining vendor databases and conducting regular performance evaluations is also a challenge in a manual procurement to pay process. 

7. Delayed payment approvals

The lack of transparency in manual processes leads to delays in approvals. When a large volume of approvals are pending approval, the person reviewing requests may miss out on important payment requests. Either way, there is a delay in payment approvals. 

8. Resistance to change

Implementing process improvements and technological innovations is faced with skepticism and resistance from employees who are accustomed to working with manual or legacy systems. To implement an automated P2P workflow, you need to first overcome this resistance to change. 

9. Data security and risk of fraud

The P2P cycle involves sensitive financial and supplier data, which makes the process susceptible to security breaches and fraud. Inadequate security measures like weak access controls, or insufficient encryption, can expose organizations to financial fraud. 

The manual procure to pay process is prone to several drawbacks similar to the ones mentioned above. Addressing these challenges improves the efficiency, accuracy, and effectiveness of the procure to pay process. The key to efficient and effective tracking and management of purchase orders and vendor payments is to streamline the process by automating it. 

Steps in the Procure to Pay Process

The P2P cycle can be broadly divided into 3 stages –

1. requisitioning,
2. purchasing,
3. payment.

Procure-to-pay, also known as purchase-to-pay or P2P includes everything from product research to updating accounts payable and all the steps between these 2 stages. The key steps in between product research and accounts payable vary in every organization.

Commonly followed steps include –

• Conduct a product search
• Create a purchase requisition with the chosen items
• Complete and authorize the purchase
• Create a purchase order
• Take delivery of products
• Verify the products delivered are in order
• Process the invoice
• Reconcile the invoice and process the payment
• Update accounts payable function accordingly

The first step to streamlining the procure to pay process is to outline the steps in the procure to pay process flow. Each company’s procure to pay is unique, and it may incorporate some additional steps.

Here are the main steps in the procure to pay process. 

Creation of requisition

Purchase requisitions are internally created to make a purchase. The approval of purchase requisitions takes the P2P process to the next stage. Purchase requisitions can be sent via paper forms or procurement software, and once they are submitted, they are routed to the correct approvers. While most routine items are quickly approved, it is a good idea to set aside budgets for unexpected expenses. 

Selecting vendors

For regular purchases undertaken at the organization, vendors are usually selected from the vendor database maintained by the procurement department. For new purchases, the vendor selection process begins. Choosing new vendors can be done either by sorting through a list of approved vendors, or the procurement department may send out a request for proposal (RFP) outlining the requirements. When an RFP is placed, suppliers would bid on the job, by providing details on time, price, and material specifications.

Negotiations with vendors can be done on the following points-

• Quality
• Year-over-year price reduction
• Future improvement in quality
• Cost and delivery schedules
• Quantity discounts
• Freight and insurance costs

Compliance with relevant regulations and environmental, governmental, and social standards should also be borne in mind while choosing vendors.

Approving purchase orders

Once the supplier is chosen, managers or procurement heads must approve the purchase order. The designated approver would review the purchase order either physically or digitally. In an automated system, purchase orders are automatically routed to the designated approver for quick approval. Once the PO is approved, the processing of the order begins. Once the vendor accepts the purchase order, it becomes a legally binding order. 

Issuing purchase orders

The purchase order created by the procurement team contains complete information about the product/service that the vendor needs to fulfill. Once the purchase order reaches the vendor and is accepted, it becomes a legally binding contract. The contract states that the vendor is legally obligated to fulfill the order with goods/services in good condition within the stipulated time frame. 

Logging purchase documents

The goods and services that were ordered, along with the relevant receiving documents are logged into the procurement system. If it is a manual procurement system, then the details are documented as paper documents. If it is a digital system, then the details are entered via software. The details entered into the procurement system are entered as line items to later verify if everything ordered is delivered right. 

Receiving the invoice

Once goods have been delivered, the buyer verifies if they are as per the details in the purchase order. The goods received note (GRN) is prepared by the buyer with the details on the goods/services received, their quantity and quality, and any other relevant details. The vendor then prepares and issues the invoice to the buyer. Automated systems often support electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) through the use of vendor portals. 

Processing and reconciling invoices

The invoice is reconciled against the purchase order and the goods received the note. This is referred to as the 3-way matching process, where the purchase order, goods receipt, and invoice are compared to confirm that goods were delivered as per the purchase order and that they were in good condition. The line items that do not match are flagged and reported for investigation. 

Approving the invoice

Invoices that go through the 3-way matching process are ready for approval by the accounts payable team. Approval may require double-checking with purchasers to ensure that the goods/services that were received were of high quality. However, in most cases, the 3-way matching alone is enough to get invoices approved by the accounts payable team. 

Processing the payment

The invoices that are approved by the accounts payable team are routed to the finance team for payment. The payment is made according to the terms mentioned in the invoice, and the accounting system is updated to reflect that the order was paid.

What is e-procurement?

While we are talking about automating the procure to pay process, the term e-Procurement comes up. E-procurement is the use of a digital network or software platform for procuring goods or services via an online supplier portal, the Internet, or a company’s Intranet. E-procurement solutions solve the issues with the manual procure to pay process.

Some specialized e-procurement platforms let employees make repetitive purchases of lower-cost items like office purchases from a pre-approved network of suppliers. Using an e-procurement solution enables better tracking of purchases for tail spend management and lower purchasing costs. An e-procurement solution that leverages AI and real-time analytics can effectively streamline the procure-to-pay process. 

Need for Automating Procure to Pay Workflow

Digitizing the procure-to-pay workflow can streamline the process flow to eliminate redundancies and bottlenecks. Automation of the procure to pay process strengthens compliance and control among vendors, contracts, buyers, regulators, and accounts payable. Here are other ways in which automation can improve the procure-to-pay process –

• Automation actively controls and improves global spend. Digitizing the procure-to-pay process flow brings transparency and visibility into the workflow. Deeper visibility and transparency provide the procurement team with better control over organizational spending. 
• Automation provides centralized access and control over all the tasks in the procure to pay cycle. Automated procure to pay systems consolidate most manual processes to reduce errors. 
• Automation saves time and frees up resources by taking over repetitive and mundane activities. All the repetitive, routine tasks typically do not require human intelligence to get completed. These tasks can be automated so that the resources tied to these tasks can be optimally used. 
• Automation streamlines catalog maintenance. The purchase department needs to be on top of the inventory so that they can place requisitions in a proactive manner. When the procure to pay process is automated, it streamlines the catalog maintenance process. 
• Automation accelerates the approval and onboarding of new suppliers. New suppliers added to the system must be compliant with the company’s policies and regulations. Automation of the vendor approval and onboarding brings about standardization and structure into the process. 
• Automation helps businesses save a significant amount of money through sourcing negotiations. The procurement team can choose from the vendor database maintained by procure to pay software. The procurement team can track discounts and special offers from vendors.

Automating the Procure to Pay Process

Automating the procure-to-pay process requires detailed mapping of the as-is procure to pay process. Once the as-is process is mapped out and the loopholes and redundancies are identified, the to-be process can be designed to eliminate the inefficiencies by automating the repetitive steps in the process.

The right procure to pay software must be chosen to implement the automated process. A no-code workflow automation software like Cflow simplifies the process of automating the procure-to-pay process. The visual form builder in Cflow makes it super easy and effective to create the procure to pay workflow. To create the workflow, you simply need to rearrange the visual elements as per business rules.

Here are the steps to be followed to automate the procure to pay process. 

1. Map the existing process

Creating a process map is the first step to automating the procure to pay process flow. Each step/task in the workflow along with the dependencies must be mapped in the process map. Mapping the as-is process helps in identifying the gaps in the process, which can be bridged by automating the process. Also, the tasks that can be improved by automation need to be identified for automation. 

2. Designing the to-be process

The process map reveals the tasks that are ripe for automation. Repetitive tasks that require minimal to nil human intervention are suitable for automation. Once these tasks and their dependencies and triggers are identified, the next step is to automate them. The chosen automation platform makes it possible to run these tasks automatically when the trigger occurs. 

3. Keeping the team informed

The process team must be informed about the changes that automation would be making to the way the team operates. Getting a buy-in from the team before implementing the changes is important for the success of implementation. 

4. Implementing the changes

The automated system should be implemented in stages for the best results. Rather than implementing the changes all at once, they should be implemented in stages so that the results can be closely monitored. 

5. Measuring the performance

Once the changes have been implemented, the performance of the procure-to-pay workflow must be measured based on key performance indicators. Key performance indicators (KPIs) like purchase order cycle time, payment cycle time, and invoice processing time, must be closely monitored to determine if the implementation was a success. 

6. Feedback and changes

Based on the data gathered on the KPIs, the workflow must be altered to improve process performance.

KPIs for Evaluating Performance of P2P Automation

Continuous monitoring of the following KPIs is important to evaluate the effectiveness of workflow automation. 

Invoice processing time

The invoice processing time is a measure of the time between receiving the invoice to the final verification and approval of the invoice. Monitoring this KPI enables organizations to identify the bottlenecks and inefficiencies and streamline invoice processing. 

Purchase order cycle time

The time is taken from the creation of the purchase order to its final approval. This KPI reflects the efficiency of the procurement process and helps in spotting the bottlenecks. 

Payment cycle time

The time from the time the invoice is approved to payment execution is referred to as payment cycle time. This metric provides insights into the efficiency of the payment process, which helps organizations ensure that suppliers are paid on time. 

Vendor performance scorecards

Vendor performance scorecards are useful in evaluating and measuring the performance of suppliers based on timely delivery, quality, responsiveness, and adherence to contract terms. It is important to monitor vendor performance to assess supplier relationships and optimize the supply chain. 

First-time match rate

This KPI indicates the percentage of invoices matched correctly against corresponding purchase orders and goods received notes. The invoices that come through the 3-way matching process the first time without any adjustments or manual adjustments. A consistently high score on this KPI shows better control and accuracy in the P2P process. 

Average Cost to Process a Purchase Order

Cost savings by automating some of the repetitive processes is one of the main reasons why businesses go for P2P software. Measuring the average cost to process a purchase order is a measure of how cost-effective the solution is for the organization. 

Electronic PO processing time

The time taken to process the purchase order electronically is a measure of the effectiveness of the P2P software. 

Average invoice approval time

Measuring the average time taken to approve the invoice is an indicator of how effective the procure to pay software is in processing and approving vendor invoices. 

Spend under management

Controlling organizational spending is one of the important reasons why businesses go for procure-to-pay solutions. The amount of spend that is under management is a measure of the effectiveness with which the procurement team tracks and controls organizational spending. 

Days payable outstanding

The number of days a payment is outstanding is a KPI that sheds light on the rate at which payments are processed. 

Discounts captured

Price negotiations and availing discounts are an integral part of the procurement process. A significant amount of money can be saved by capturing discounts at the right time. 

The successful implementation of the automation solution can be effectively measured with the help of these KPIs. Procurement managers need to constantly monitor these KPIs regularly to make sure the goals of the automation are met.

Best Practices in Procure to Pay Process

To maximize the efficiency of the P2P cycle, the following best practices may be implemented. 

1. Automate the entire P2P cycle

Establishing standardized procedures and workflows at each step of the P2P cycle is the most effective way to bring consistency into the processing of POs and invoice payments. Automating the procure to pay cycle brings standardization into the procure to pay process workflow. Repetitive tasks like PO creation, invoice processing, and payment approval can be automated to minimize errors, save time, and improve efficiency. 

2. Implement purchase order compliance

You need to ensure purchase order compliance by making sure that all payments are done only against approved purchase orders. Enforcing PO compliance helps gain control over spend, prevents unauthorized purchases, and reduces the risk of duplicate or incorrect orders. 

3. Improve vendor management

Maintaining and updating the vendor database is important for effective vendor management. Contact details, performance metrics, and contract terms are some of the details on suppliers that must be maintained so that you can assess supplier performance and build strong relationships. Strong vendor relationships improve buyer-vendor collaboration and mitigate supply chain management risks. 

4. Encourage electronic invoicing

It is not enough if the buyers alone automate the procure to pay process, vendors too must be encouraged to adopt e-invoicing solutions. Adopting electronic data interchange (EDI) or electronic invoicing platforms eliminates data entry errors, minimizes processing time, and improves the traceability of invoices. 

5. Automate 3-way matching

The 3-way matching step is extremely important in the procurement process. Matching the invoice line by line with the purchase order and goods received note ensures that the purchase order has been fulfilled properly and that the amount requested in the invoice is only for the goods that were delivered. This is not just a thorough process, but also time-consuming when done manually.

Automating the 3-way matching process enhances the accuracy of the process, reduces the risk of overpayments or duplicate payments, and provides better control over the payment process. 

6. Leverage analytics and reporting

Data analytics and reporting tools provide useful insights into the purchase-to-pay cycle’s performance. Monitoring cycle time, processing costs, and ensuring payment accuracy, can be effectively done by leveraging data analytics and reporting. This data helps identify bottlenecks, measure process performance, and identify improvement areas. 

7. Clarify roles and responsibilities

The role played by each procurement team member in the P2P cycle must be clarified to prevent conflict of interests and fraud. Assigning relevant individuals with the tasks of requisition approval, PO creation, receiving goods, invoice verification, and payment authorization ensures that all these tasks are done on time by the right authority. 

8. Foster collaboration

Facilitating cross-functional collaboration between the procurement team and the finance team is essential for the accurate and timely processing of POs and invoices. Seamless communication and collaboration improve process efficiency, ensure alignment, and improve decision-making capabilities. 

9. Seek feedback

Feedback from stakeholders must be gathered, and compared against industry standards. This helps teams stay updated against evolving customer demands and emerging technologies. Procurement teams that keep up with best practices in the industry are successful in maintaining a competitive edge.

Advantages of Automating the Procure to Pay Process

What are the benefits of automating the procure to pay process? A procure to pay solution that integrates operations across procurement, finance, and other organization workflows offers several advantages as listed below – 

Better vendor relationships

Businesses are built on strong relationships with vendors. Robust vendor relationships ensure that delivered products are of high quality and delivered on time, and also increase the chances that a supplier will go above and beyond during times of need. Strong vendor relationships not only ensure timely payment of invoices but also offer visibility into the status of invoices. 

Deeper visibility

Internal control and visibility into end-to-end P2P operations is provided by the software. Users get deep insights into cash flow and financial commitments. When you have a record of all transactions, it becomes easy to track and reveal optimization opportunities. 

Prevention of fraud and duplication

Manual processes are predominantly controlled by human resources, which opens up the scope for bias, errors, and inconsistencies. The more human intervention, the more the scope for fraud, duplication, and favoritism. A P2P system includes strict invoice matching and multiple points of review, which protects against any fraud or duplication. Automation leaves no scope for granting contracts to unqualified vendors or making purchases without adhering to agreed-upon prices. 

Improves efficiency

Human-dependent systems are prone to error and overlooks, especially when the system is complicated or isolated within departments. Automation brings about centralization of the procurement, supply chain, and accounts payable processes, and identifies opportunities to streamline workflows and pay invoices faster. 

Saves costs

The P2P process fosters good vendor relationships, which enables buyers to negotiate the best prices and cash in on discounts. Strong vendor relationships with preferred suppliers empower buyers to negotiate the best prices. P2P automation and software solutions sales time and improve spend management. The data gathered helps procurement and finance teams forecast buying requirements and spot relevant discounts that help them save costs. 

Accelerates approvals

Procure to pay solutions and e-procurement platforms help companies move faster and respond proactively to supply chain disruptions. Automating the repetitive, mundane tasks in the P2P cycle saves time frees up resources, and enables rapid new supplier approvals. 

Predictive modeling

Data analytics, process mining, and other tools are useful in identifying areas of potential concern and opportunities for optimizing processes in the future. Several emerging digital platforms are capable of modeling changes before they are implemented so that teams can visualize them and ensure no unforeseen consequences occur.

Why is Cflow the best Choice for Automating the P2P Cycle?

Cflow is a no-code BPM workflow automation solution that can automate key business process workflows within minutes. The visual form builder in Cflow is capable of creating workflows of processes by using visual elements alone.

Yes! You heard it right- you don’t have to write a single line of code to automate your business processes. You can use the visual form builder to create forms and build workflows by placing visual elements in the required order as per the predetermined sequence. 

The procure to pay process flow can be easily automated by Cflow. The first step is to identify the tasks in the workflow that you wish to automate. For example, purchase order creation.

This process involves the creation of the purchase order along with the details of the order like name and quantity of the item, price, expected time of delivery, and other relevant details.

Cflow extracts all the details from the purchase requisition. Once the PO is created, it is routed for approval to the relevant person in the procurement team. With Cflow, you simply have to specify the trigger, actions, and sequence of actions, while creating a workflow. 

Here is how Cflow addresses the commonly encountered issues within the P2P cycle-

1. Manual processing errors and inconsistencies

Automating the P2P process with Cflow reduces human involvement, hence, the errors and inconsistencies associated with the process. Purchase orders, invoices, and payment approvals are automatically routed to the person in charge. Notifications and alerts are automatically issued to the reviewers/approvers to ensure that approvals are done on time. You can easily configure rules so that invoices or POs are automatically routed to the appropriate person or auto-approved in specific cases. 

2. Compliance and regulatory issues

Wherever there is a large chunk of human involvement, compliance, and regulatory issues are unavoidable. The SLAs and escalations feature in Cflow makes sure that your employees deliver what is expected from them as per SLAs. You can create criteria and rules for every process and stakeholder so that they never fall out of compliance. Escalations keep the stakeholders informed of pending or overdue tasks that need their immediate attention. 

3. Inefficient supplier management

As opposed to a disparate and siloed supplier management system, Cflow helps the procurement team centralize all their operations with an intuitive dashboard. The status of invoices and POs can be readily seen from this dashboard. 

4. Delayed approvals and payments

Once you get Cflow, delayed approvals and payments are a thing of the past. The routing and notifications feature in Cflow allows for instant and accurate routing of requests to the concerned individual. No more purchase orders or invoices or payment approvals falling through the cracks with Cflow. 

5. Lack of flexibility and agility

Manual processes lack the flexibility and agility to scale up as per evolving business requirements. With a solution like Cflow, you can customize workflows as per user requirements. The workflows can be modified any number of times, easily and quickly as and when business requirements change. 

6. Lack of task prioritization

In a conventional P2P workflow, there is a lack of clarity in prioritizing tasks. As a result, several important tasks may actually be last in the queue. The latest feature addition of Agile-based Kanban in Cflow helps you improve workflows with efficient prioritization of tasks. You can acquire a simplified framework for visualizing multiple tasks with Kanban on Cflow. This feature focuses on bringing improvement, flexibility, and efficient task management to workflow automation. 

7. Siloed communication between departments

The procure to pay process involves more than one department, the procurement, finance, and other departments need to collaborate to process invoices and payments. Manual methods are siloed and, hence, lack the transparency required for inter-departmental communication. With Cflow, you can create comprehensive solutions that link processes across multiple departments and teams. Cflow enables seamless integration to ensure that teams work in unison. 

8. Data loss or damage

Manual procure to pay processes are typically paper-based and, hence, result in loss or damage of critical finance data. A digital solution like Cflow provides the highest level of security and reliability through the data encryption feature. You can rest assured that your sensitive financial data is secured at every point, both digitally and physically. 

Final Thoughts

Establishing a successful business requires consistent effort to improve the efficiency of core processes. Conventional methods of running processes do not stand a chance in today’s competitive and technology-driven business landscape. Core processes like procure to pay process, HR and Admin process, Finance and Accounting process, etc need to be devoid of any redundancies.

The sooner you embrace technological process improvements like workflow automation, the faster will your business growth. Cflow for one is a reliable, robust automation platform for automating core processes easily and efficiently. Give your P2P cycle a new lease of life with Cflow. Sign up for the free trial to know how.

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