Procurement process: purchase-to-pay or procure-to-pay

(P2P process)

The term purchase-to-pay is used to group together the processes involved in procurement management for a public or private-sector organization.

A purchase-to-pay (or P2P) process covers the following stages:

• The purchase request: this stage involves stating a need, and enables a request approval procedure to be triggered, ending with the selection of a supplier
• The order: once the purchase request has been approved, the system places an order with the supplier, possibly receiving confirmation. Finally, the delivery is received (goods or services)
• Supplier invoice processing: this stage involves registering the invoice after automatic recognition (ADR), reconciling it automatically with the order, issuing payment authorization and ordering the payment by the supplier’s due date.

A P2P-type process enables you to control the whole purchasing process, from initial request to payment for the goods or services received.

Processing purchase requests manually soon becomes time-consuming and generates risks for your company

• Entering purchase requests via an Excel or Word file or an email does not provide effective control over the data.
• Consequently, approval circuits are not always respected
• This makes tracking very difficult, and management control has no traceability for the actions taken
• You have no reference system for suppliers, purchases etc.
• Finally, reconciling invoices with orders is very difficult (e.g. missing order numbers)
• Basically, lots of time-consuming tasks, often for small amounts

To improve the performance of your procurement process, reduce risks and phase out time-consuming activities, digitalizing the procurement process is essential.

Reduce purchase request processing costs

Indirect purchases represent a minimal proportion of a company’s overall expenditure – around 5% of spending. But indirect purchases can represent 60% of the total number of orders, and 75% of suppliers.

For example, the average administration cost of an indirect purchase is €95, sometimes more than the purchase itself!

Digitalizing the purchase/payment process in full is a key way of enabling you to control your indirect purchases. It allows you to cut your processing costs, saving both money and time, monitor your budget and reduce operational risks, including the risk of fraud.

A 100% digital process brings the cost of processing the order down to €19

No more spot purchases

Consequently, digitalizing the procurement process means an end to spot purchasing. It secures the procurement process so that you can control it efficiently and gain a global view of all your company’s purchases.

Each user can issue purchase requests via an electronic form, get them approved through a workflow based on their spending authorization or management level and track their budget. Requests can be associated with contracts. The request approval process takes place before the order is placed, simplifying the invoice approval process.

The procurement department is able to list qualified suppliers, issue purchase orders and track purchases by department, cost center or supplier.

The order is received directly by the requester.

Automate and process invoices

Automatic invoice recognition automates invoice processing and avoids the need for time-consuming data entry. Invoices are automatically reconciled with orders, relieving the accounts department and the buyer of an unnecessary burden. To obtain payment authorization, the invoice is sent directly to the initial requester. No time is lost – the right information reaches the right person at the right time. The invoice approval process runs smoothly. There is no longer any need to search desperately for the person responsible for approving the invoice, or chase them up by email. The finance department has dashboards enabling it to track each invoice, its status and any disputes in real time.

Complete control over the P2P process

Whether you are a manager, a buyer or an accountant, you can track all your spending commitments with one click. The filters provided in the dashboards give you a view per employee if you are a manager, per cost center or supplier if you are a buyer and by allocation if you are an accountant. You can monitor each purchase request and view spending commitments for each purchase type or supplier.

Graphs and tables can easily be exported in Excel format if necessary.

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