Here’s a reality check: if your procurement process still depends on chasing down approvals in email threads or matching invoices by hand, you’re not just stuck—you’re stalling. Manual P2P is the silent killer of growth. It creates friction, breaks supplier trust, and suffocates your ability to scale.
This article has a clear purpose: to help you understand the pain of the status quo and see a better path forward. If you're still relying on disconnected systems, outdated workflows, and last-minute heroics to keep operations moving, you're leaving money on the table—and leaving your team behind.
Ask yourself: What would happen if my top three suppliers missed delivery windows this month? What’s the hidden cost of every delay, miscommunication, or surprise invoice?
Let’s face it—managing procurement at scale without process definition and automation is like trying to conduct a symphony with half the instruments missing and no sheet music. If your P2P process still lives in spreadsheets, email threads, and sticky-note reminders, it’s past time for an upgrade. Automating the P2P process as a collaborative business function isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s mission-critical in a 21st-century supply chain. To scale operations, remove roadblocks, and unlock supply chain visibility, you need workflows that connect people, data, and decisions in real-time.
In this guide, we walk through the 12 steps of the P2P cycle and explore how teams can turn procurement into a strategic advantage.
The short answer? Anyone who buys, pays, or builds anything at scale. But let’s get specific. In aerospace and defense, procurement teams manage highly regulated parts from thousands of global suppliers, all while ensuring ITAR and CMMC compliance. Automotive supply chains coordinate thousands of components across just-in-time assembly lines—where even a minor delay can halt production.
Heavy machinery manufacturers rely on P2P processes to source custom parts from regional fabricators. Electronics manufacturers track delivery windows down to the hour to meet demand forecasts. Everyone is using procure-to-pay.
P2P isn’t just a back-office function—it’s a mission-critical workflow that ties procurement, finance, operations, and suppliers together in one synchronized rhythm.
In short, the P2P process (aka purchase-to-pay) is the journey from "we need it" to "it’s paid for." It includes 12 core steps—starting with a need and ending with a cleared invoice. Done right, P2P brings structure, accountability, and clarity to your entire purchasing lifecycle.
P2P lives right at the intersection of procurement and finance. It connects your front-end buying with your back-end accounting. When managed in ChainLink SRM, it becomes a real-time, collaborative flow between internal teams and external suppliers. The result? A single source of truth that keeps everyone on the same page and mission critical business information strategically tied to individual purchase orders.
If any of these sound familiar—delayed payments, late shipments, rogue spending, or constant status-chasing—it’s probably time. Growth, supplier onboarding, re-shoring, onshoring, and digital transformation are all prime moments to take a hard look at how your P2P process is—or isn’t—working.
Because it’s the connective tissue between strategic intent and operational reality. Your company may have ambitious growth goals or product timelines, but without a smooth P2P engine, you’re constantly reacting instead of executing.
Done right, P2P eliminates friction: no more manual errors, surprise costs, or missed deliveries. It also creates a clear audit trail for compliance-heavy industries. Think of P2P as the gear that keeps procurement and finance turning in perfect sync—especially when your supply chain stretches across time zones and continents.
Pause for a moment and ask yourself: If we had a sudden 50% spike in procurement volume, would our current process survive—or collapse under the weight?
Optimization starts with automation—and automation begins with visibility. You can’t fix what you can’t see. ChainLink SRM brings every stakeholder onto the same platform and digitizes the full P2P cycle. To learn more about what supply chain visibility actually means—and how to improve it—check out our guide on What Is Supply Chain Visibility? Improve It With ChainLink SRM.
Start imagining this: What if your suppliers updated delivery statuses in real-time? What if approvals flowed automatically and every order was accessible in a single source of truth for cross department interaction? What if you never had to wonder where the invoice—or the bottleneck—was hiding?
No more firefighting. No more blind spots. Just a clear path from requisition to payment—and the tools to manage growth without chaos.
The P2P journey starts with a business need—whether it’s raw materials for manufacturing or replacement parts. Defining the requirement clearly from the beginning prevents confusion downstream. Documenting specs, volume, and timing ensures all stakeholders align from the outset.
Are your team’s purchasing needs communicated clearly and consistently?
Once the need is defined, a requisition formalizes it. This internal request includes what’s needed, why, and when. It’s the first layer of internal control, keeping spend accountable and aligned to broader business goals.
How many requisitions in your company get rerouted, delayed, or reworked due to missing information?
Approval workflows ensure requisitions match budget, policy, and strategic need. Automated routing streamlines the process and removes approval bottlenecks, helping teams move fast without losing control.
Does your current approval process accelerate decision-making or grind it to a halt?
Once approved, the requisition transforms into a PO—your official commitment to the supplier. It formalizes what’s being purchased, under what terms, and at what cost, ensuring both sides are aligned.
Are your purchase orders timely, consistent, and audit-ready—or stitched together last minute?
Sending the PO might seem simple, but format inconsistencies and manual errors create confusion. With a digital P2P system, suppliers receive orders instantly, clearly, and with confidence.
How much time does your team spend following up just to confirm a supplier saw the order?
Acknowledgment ensures the supplier can meet the requirements. If adjustments are needed, they happen here—before it's too late. ChainLink SRM captures and tracks this confirmation, reducing risk and delay.
Do you know which orders your suppliers have acknowledged—and which are at risk of slipping through the cracks?
This is the moment of truth. The supplier delivers on the PO, ideally matching the timeline and specs. ASNs and delivery notifications help your team prepare and avoid downstream chaos.
How often are you surprised at the dock—or worse, scrambling because goods didn’t arrive as expected? How many of your suppliers even send ASNs?
Once received, goods are inspected and verified against the PO. Any discrepancies should be caught immediately, not weeks later when the invoice is processed. ChainLink SRM ties these records to the full transaction history.
How confident are you that received goods are verified before payment is approved?
The supplier issues an invoice that should match the PO and receipt. With ChainLink SRM this step becomes efficient, standardized, and easy to track.
How many times have invoices landed in your inbox with missing or mismatched details?
PO, receipt, and invoice—if they all match, the invoice is cleared for payment. If not, it’s flagged for resolution. This control point protects your budget and ensures suppliers are paid accurately.
How often does your team chase down paperwork just to verify a simple invoice?
Finance reviews and clears the invoice for payment, ensuring funds are available and controls are met. ChainLink SRM automates approval thresholds and escalations so nothing falls through the cracks.
Is your finance team spending time adding value—or stuck checking boxes and emailing for sign-off?
The final step: the supplier gets paid. When the process is clean, timely payments strengthen vendor relationships and keep operations humming. When it’s messy, trust erodes—and so does performance.
Are your payment cycles predictable and strategic—or reactive and painful?
Let’s put it bluntly: manual procurement processes aren’t just inefficient—they’re dangerous. They drain your team’s time, frustrate your suppliers, and expose your business to costly errors and compliance risks.
Ask yourself: Is your current P2P process helping you scale—or silently holding you back?
If you’re juggling emails, spreadsheets, and status meetings just to make a single payment, it’s time to move on. Strategic growth requires strategic infrastructure—and that means automating the entire procure-to-pay journey with a solution built for collaboration.
ChainLink SRM brings procurement, finance, and suppliers into alignment through a shared platform that tracks every action taken by buyers and suppliers alike. With a real-time activity log that’s accessible to both parties, ChainLink creates a space of mutually transparent visibility. At the heart of this transparency are three critical touchpoints: required purchase order acknowledgment to confirm alignment, advanced shipping notices (ASNs) to anticipate deliveries, and tracked order status requests that keep buyers in the loop from dock to dock. Every approval, delivery update, invoice submission, and dispute resolution is logged, time-stamped, and visible to stakeholders—reducing ambiguity and building trust across the supply chain. We replace silos with shared visibility, guesswork with auditable timelines, and friction with flow.
The result? A connected supply chain, reduced risk, and a business that’s ready to grow—on purpose.
So go ahead and ask the hard question: Are we building a process that scales, or one that breaks under pressure?
Ready to modernize your P2P process? Schedule a call with one of our supply chain experts to see how ChainLink SRM can simplify collaboration, boost visibility, and prepare your organization for scalable growth.
David is the Chief Operations Officer and Director of Business Development at TTP Solutions LLC. Since 2019, David has been the driving force behind sales, marketing, and organizational development. David holds a B.B.A. in Entrepreneurship and a B.A. in Spanish from Middle Tennessee State University. He has a passion for helping others to solve problems creatively. Husband to KerrieAnn, David loves photography, hiking, traveling, and reading.