P2P

What is P2P?

P2P (Procure-to-Pay) is an end-to-end business process that covers all steps of the procurement cycle — from the first purchase request within the company to the final payment of the supplier invoice. Typical P2P stages:

1. Purchase Requisition (PR) — internal request to buy (e.g. a department needs office supplies)
2. Approval — based on the limit, the manager or finance director decides
3. Purchase Order (PO) — official order issued to the supplier
4. Delivery and receipt (GRN — Goods Received Note) — recording the goods received
5. Invoice receipt
6. Three-way match — comparison of PO, GRN, and invoice (prices and quantities must match)
7. Invoice approval for payment
8. Payment (typically SEPA transfer)

In many companies, P2P is fragmented between the procurement department (POs in Excel), the warehouse (paper GRNs), and accounting (invoices in accounting software) — with a high degree of manual re-keying and errors.

When it is used

P2P automation is essential with a higher volume of purchases (over approximately 100 POs per month) or in regulated industries (public sector, pharma, healthcare), where complete auditability of the procurement process is required.

See the Procurement module, the Accounting module, and the Document Extraction module.

Related terms

• O2C — the “mirror” of P2P on the sales side. See /en/glossary/o2c.
• e-Invoice — a structured invoice that significantly automates P2P. See /en/glossary/e-invoice.
• Document Extraction — AI extraction from PDF invoices. See /en/glossary/vytazovanie-dokladov-pojem.

In Modulario

The Procurement module in Modulario covers the P2P process from PR through PO to three-way matching with Invoicing and Accounting. AI Document Extraction automatically reads incoming PDF invoices and compares them with the PO.

In Modulario a purchase requisition goes through an approval workflow based on the limit (e.g. up to 500 € approved by the department head, over 5,000 € by the finance director). After approval, a purchase order is automatically generated and sent to the supplier by email, and recorded as an open liability. An incoming invoice is automatically matched to the PO via three-way match.

Benefits of a digitalised P2P: 60–80% reduction in errors, approval cycle for an invoice accelerated from 15 days to 2 days, and better utilisation of early payment discounts. Corporate procurement departments also measure spend under management — the proportion of expenditure within a managed process versus uncontrolled purchasing.