Supply chain professionals involved in purchasing and procuring goods need to manage orders, documents, approvals, payment invoices, and more. These tasks can be tough to handle, as they require different systems to place orders, store documents and invoices, and process vendor payments.

Procure to pay software helps streamline procurement activities—from purchasing to vendor payments. It not only increases supply chain transparency but also integrates accounting capabilities such as accounts payable, billing, and invoicing into one system.

Procure to pay software allows the purchasing and accounts departments to use a centralized system—instead of separate solutions—to store and track procurement data.

Given the many options available on the market, deciding which software to choose can be confusing. In this buyers guide, we’ve provided all the information you need to make the right purchase decision for your procurement needs.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What is procure to pay software?

• Common features of procure to pay software

• What type of buyer are you?

• Benefits of procure to pay software

• Market trends to understand

What is procure to pay software?

Procure to pay software is a software application that facilitates end-to-end procurement of goods and services from manufacturers or suppliers. The main aim of a procure to pay tool is to integrate the purchasing and accounts payable functions so businesses have greater control over their purchases, deeper insights into their buying habits, and improved cash flow.

A procure to pay solution helps streamline and automate the purchasing process, which involves monitoring inventories, ordering goods or services, enforcing compliance with industry regulations, reconciling purchase orders, and managing bills and payments.

Vendor management in procure to pay software Tradogram (Source)

Common features of procure to pay software

Most procure to pay software tools have the following features in common:

What type of buyer are you?

Understanding the different types of buyers can help you make an informed purchase. Most procurement software buyers belong to one of the following categories:

• Business-to-business (B2B) buyers: Buyers in this category cater solely to businesses and need software that helps them effectively collaborate with their suppliers and manage their purchases. Such organizations often make bulk purchases to distribute to other businesses that are their clients. Manually placing bulk orders can be effort- and time-intensive and also lead to errors such as duplicate purchase orders. These buyers should opt for a fully featured procure to pay tool to streamline and automate procurement, stay compliant with industry regulations, improve supplier relationships, and reduce operating costs.

• Business-to-consumers (B2C) buyers: Buyers in this category directly cater to consumers and order a variety of items from different suppliers. These orders can be in bulk or small quantities depending upon the needs and demand of consumers. Such companies have longer supply chains compared to B2B companies. They should opt for a tool with an easy-to-use interface, purchase order tracking, vendor management, and reporting analytics. They should look for a tool that integrates well with their existing ERP and accounting systems to track inventory, supplies, and operational expenses.

Benefits of procure to pay software

Using a procurement solution has many benefits, including:

• Better visibility: With procure to pay software, you get complete supply chain visibility. Both your suppliers and you can view the status of purchase orders, receipts, and invoices in real time. Real-time visibility helps your business track spending and monitor cash flow.

• Improved supplier relationship: The supplier portal allows your suppliers to track the status of shipments so they know when they’ll receive their payments. The portal also helps resolve inquiries related to the invoice or payment status. By offering suppliers visibility into the payment status, you improve your working relationships with them.

• More cost savings: If your business has high-volume procurement, you may have to spend hours processing invoices manually. With procure to pay software, you can automate invoice processing, which will help save time as well as reduce costs by going paperless. The software also reconciles the bills with the purchase orders to check if your suppliers have invoiced correctly for the ordered items.

Market trends to understand

Here are some procure to pay software market trends that you should be aware of:

• Implementing artificial intelligence (AI) in procurement is creating new opportunities. The use of artificial intelligence in procure to pay software solutions can help transform the entire procurement process. For instance, the use of chatbots to answer supplier queries, send and receive orders, and track invoices and payments can reduce procurement workload to a great extent.

• Software vendors are implementing AI technology to help users organize unstructured spend, contract, and supplier data. The technology can even help shortlist suppliers according to buyers’ needs and track their performance over time.

• Use of robotic process automation (RPA) in procurement. Implementing RPA in procurement can help automate repetitive tasks with little to no human intervention. The technology is capable of increasing productivity, lowering operational expenses, and freeing up employees to focus on more important tasks. For example, software bots programmed to monitor inventory levels can notify officials when the levels are low or automatically trigger a purchase transaction for the required quantity.

• RPA-equipped procure to pay solutions can help automate approvals, detect breaches, sift through legislation and regulations to identify gaps in compliance, and get detailed insights on the entire supply chain.

Note: The application screenshot selected in this article is an example to show a feature in context and is not intended as an endorsement or a recommendation. It has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.