Invoice and purchase order software — also called procure-to-pay software — supports procurement and accounts payable teams with features and automation to manage their workflows. These solutions enable teams to work in one collaborative environment and manage company spending through the purchasing lifecycle.

When comparing these solutions, teams should look for invoice and purchase order software that provides:

• Tools to create a controlled purchasing hub for employees to shop with vendors without emails to the procurement team or wasted time manually typing out order requests.

• Proactive cost controls, customizable, convenient purchase request forms, and automated routing to streamline purchase requisition.

• PO tracking and vendor acknowledgments so suppliers can communicate about orders.

• Receipt management to track orders through delivery and verify their condition.

• Features to centralize invoicing, like e-invoicing and vendor portals.

• Automated invoice matching to reduce the time spent on this tedious task.

• Integrations with accounting systems you use to manage and dispatch vendor payments.

There are dozens of P2P systems on the market. While many share overlapping features and functionality, each has slight nuances, and the pricing and available integrations can vary drastically.

So, we created this guide to review the most popular procure-to-pay software solutions. Our recommendations are categorized by business size, allowing you to compare the options most suitable for your growth stage and budget.

Table of Contents

• Procure-to-pay system for small & growing teams: ProcureDesk

• Procure-to-pay systems for small companies: Spendwise, Tipalti, and Tradogram

• Options for mid-sized companies: Precoro, ProcurementExpress, and Procurify

• Options for enterprises: Coupa, SAP Ariba, and Jaggaer

ProcureDesk

Flexible Procure-to-Pay System Built to Your Requirements

ProcureDesk is a complete P2P system featuring procurement management, spend management, and AP automation modules. It includes all the tools to create a controlled purchasing hub (we integrate with over 100+ punchout catalogs), monitor company spending, manage invoices, and streamline invoice approval processes.

Our users can reduce the time spent on purchase requisition and invoice processing by 50%!

Our solution is especially popular for small and growing teams transitioning from manual processes because we offer a free white-glove setup, the features are user-friendly, the platform has a minimal learning curve, and the pricing is affordable.

That said, we offer a variety of packages and tailor each instance to client requirements. We have years of experience working with various business sizes and industries (e.g., construction, biotech, educational institutions, travel and leisure, and more).

We’ll discuss our key features and how they work below, but you can also schedule a personalized demo of ProcureDesk.

During the demo, our team will consult with you to understand your purchase requisition and purchase order processes, how you receive and manage invoices, and the accounting integrations you require. Then, we can tailor our platform to your requirements and show you how to get started.

Procurement & Purchase Order Management Suite

We’ll review our features in the context of the purchasing process so you can see the flow.

Create a Controlled Purchasing Hub

First, our team helps you create a purchasing hub for others to shop with vendors at their convenience (and without procurement managers middle-manning the process).

Procurement managers set this up with our onboarding team, and we show you how to make changes so you can adjust settings at any time. This setup includes:

• Adding approved vendors. We offer punchout catalogs with popular sites like Amazon, Costco, Home Depot, Staples, etc., but you can integrate any vendor you shop with. Our team also helps create custom catalogs when necessary. You can add unlimited vendors and we don’t charge fees per vendor.

• Setting budgets to control employee spending. You can set budgets in various ways (by vendor, spend category, department, individual, project, etc.). You can also utilize multi-level budgets and set tolerance levels for spending.

• Creating purchase request forms for users to complete before sending shopping carts for review. You can create different forms for different purchase types. These automatically populate when users submit carts, so they know exactly what information they need to provide and can quickly complete the form.

• Designing approval trees so our system knows how to approve or route orders automatically. Our system reviews the details of each purchase request, checking requests against available budgets and purchasing rules, to approve, deny, or route requests to appropriate team members. This can reduce the number of requests managers have to field by <90%.

The Purchasing Experience

Managers can add other users to ProcureDesk so they can access the purchasing hub and shop with vendors. The platform requires no training and vendor sites open directly in ProcureDesk so users can follow a familiar shopping flow.

Here’s what the purchasing experience looks like:

• Users can log into ProcureDesk with unique credentials. We use single sign-on (SSO) to authenticate users and keep your shopping hub secure.

• They immediately see all vendor catalogs and available budgets and choose who to shop with.

• They can browse vendor products in the ProcureDesk dashboard and build shopping carts. After adding items, they can submit shopping carts for review. At this point, the request form appears for users to add the purchase justification and specify which budget they plan to utilize.

• Our system reviews orders and automatically approves, denies, or routes purchase requests.

• We send notifications to procurement managers when requests require review so they can promptly send purchase approvals. (Our system also provides omnichannel approval tools so managers can review requests via desktop, mobile, email, or Slack.) We also keep purchasers in the loop with real-time order status notifications.

After orders are reviewed and approved, ProcureDesk automatically converts purchase requests to purchase orders and dispatches POs to vendors. No manual purchase order creation is required.

All purchase orders are displayed in the main dashboard so procurement managers can see a broad view of company spending and which orders are actively in progress.

Vendor Acknowledgements & PO Tracking

ProcureDesk provides visibility into PO status through fulfillment, shipping, and delivery. Both procurement managers and purchasers can check POs at any time to see when they can expect orders. No more emails with vendors or managers for statuses.

Our system allows vendors to comment directly on POs to acknowledge orders, share expected ship dates, or communicate issues (such as backorders).

After vendors ship orders, they can share tracking numbers so users can monitor shipments through delivery.

Receipt Management

After receiving orders, purchasers can verify delivery, upload receipts to ProcureDesk, and log the order condition.

If orders arrive with damaged items or incorrect quantities, purchasers can note those issues for procurement managers or AP teams to review and troubleshoot with suppliers.

The receipt management module gives structure to the purchasing process, ensures you receive the items you’re invoiced for, and creates a clear audit trail. You don’t just assume purchasers receive orders and send payments for unverified purchases, damaged goods, or items lost in the mail — users monitor purchases until they reach their desks and confirm orders meet expectations.

Receipts also facilitate our three-way match to reconcile vendor invoices automatically (more on that later).

Spend Controls & Reporting

Procurement managers can monitor real-time spending from the main purchase order dashboard. All POs and their amounts, along with total monthly spending, are displayed and updated as users make purchases.

In addition, ProcureDesk includes a reporting suite for reviewing spending, uncovering purchasing patterns, analyzing spend by supplier, and more.

These reports enhance your supplier sourcing strategies by providing data that allows you to establish contracts with frequently used vendors and renegotiate existing contract rates.

Below, you can see the main spend management dashboard with breakdowns by category, supplier, and user. However, you can filter spending in various ways and create custom reports to track the metrics most valuable to your operations.

AP Automation Suite

The AP automation suite houses everything necessary to manage and process invoices. Let’s review that process and show how our features support accounts payable processes.

Centralized Invoicing

First, ProcureDesk enables AP teams to centralize invoices so new invoices automatically populate in our dashboard. There are a few ways teams can receive invoices:

• E-invoicing — Suppliers push invoices directly into ProcureDesk. This is available for Amazon and other punchout catalogs.

• Vendor portals — You create dedicated portals for each supplier you work with, and upload invoices to the portal. New invoices will still display in the main dashboard, but you can easily track invoices by supplier via portal.

• Email integrations — Connect the email account you use to receive invoices and route those straight to ProcureDesk.

• Upload paper invoices.

You can communicate with vendors on how you’d like to receive invoices so you can eliminate paper invoices and streamline this delivery.

Our system uses optical character recognition (OCR) to analyze new invoices and extract essential details like order numbers, headers, line items, and amounts. Then, it can detect and merge duplicate invoices and initiate the matching process.

Three-Way Match Invoices

ProcureDesk automatically matches new invoices with the corresponding POs and receipts — this is called a three-way match.

Our system also supports two-way matching for service-based or other invoices without physical goods receipts.

It can flag invoices with matching issues or discrepancies (such as mismatched quantities) and route those to AP team members for review. Then, they only have to spend time on the orders that actually require attention instead of tediously matching every invoice with their POs and receipts.

Our system can route matched invoices to your accounting system for payment or to an AP manager for final review (before routing for payment). It can also automatically add accounting codes to approved invoices before preparing payment.

Accounting Integrations

ProcureDesk integrates with all major accounting systems, including QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Sage, and Dynamic 365. We even integrate with solutions like Bill.com and AvidXchange.

After invoices are matched and approved, our system can push them to your connected accounting system and prepare invoices for payment. Then, AP teams can step in to review the final details and dispatch payments.

Once AP teams authorize and send payments, the invoice status updates in both the accounting system and ProcureDesk.

From there, the purchase is closed out, spending is recorded, and the process is complete. (Easy breezy!)

Automation significantly reduces the need for human intervention in this workflow, so AP teams can save hours every week on invoice processing and avoid manual data entry.

Packages & Getting Started

Our complete P2P solution — including all the above features — is available at $850/month. (You can also opt for the annual contract for a 20% discount.)

Each package includes ten user seats, white-glove onboarding, and dedicated support.

In addition, we offer:

• Custom enterprise plans.

• A standalone procurement management package (for $518/month) that does not include the AP automation suite.

• Add-on modules for inventory management, expense reports, and sub-vendor management.
  
  

You can read more about our pricing here.

Invoice & PO Software for Small Business Owners

Next, we’ll discuss Spendwise, Tipalti, and Tradogram.

We recommend these options for small teams because they offer affordable pricing and user-friendly platforms.

Spendwise

Spendwise is an entry-level P2P and spend management solution for small organizations. The platform includes a very basic feature set to support purchasing and invoice management and control company spending. It also includes a spend analysis dashboard with over 25 reports to dissect spending.

Users like the platform because it offers the essentials to create a controlled purchasing hub, centralize POs, receipts, and invoices, and automate invoice matching — and Spendwise features are user-friendly.

However, it’s worth noting that Spendwise core packages do not include accounting integrations to support the last steps of invoice processing. Accounting integrations are an extra module you have to add to your subscription.

Before starting, their team offers free demos to show you platform features and discuss setup. Then, you can choose your package based on team size and purchasing volume. (They also offer guided onboarding; this is free for enterprise users but comes at an extra charge in lower plans.)

Notable Features

• Purchase order management
• Basic supplier management
• Budgets & approvals
• Spend management
• Invoice management
• AP automation & invoice matching
• Tools to pay vendor invoices
• Receiving (to receive on goods & services after delivery)
• User permissions

Pricing

Spendwise does not share full pricing details online, but the site says packages start at $9 per user per month.

In addition to the tools above, they offer optional add-ons in the Pro and Enterprise plans. These include:

• Accounting system integrations
• Implementation package
• Amazon integration
• Inventory management
• Single sign-on (SSO)

Tipalti

Tipalti is a popular software brand best known for its AP automation solutions. It offers a variety of packages, including a complete P2P plan.

Tipalti’s procurement management module allows teams to create a purchasing hub, design request forms and approval workflows, automatically send POs to vendors, and track POs through their lifecycle. It also has tools to manage supplier contracts; you can consistently compare rates and payment terms to negotiate better terms and conditions.

The AP module provides automation through invoice reconciliation and offers a mass payments feature to streamline vendor payments. Tipalti also integrates with all major accounting systems to support payment workflows.

Tipalti appeals to small teams with user-friendly features and budget-friendly packages, but they’re also a popular option for global brands because it offers international tax tools and supports cross-border payments in multiple currencies.

Notable Features

• Purchase request management
• Tipalti spend cards
• Purchase order management
• PO approval workflows
• Supplier management
• Contract management
• Invoice management
• AP automation (including invoice matching)
• Mass payments to streamline supplier payments
• Global payments
• Currency management
• Integrations with accounting software, ERPs, & other business applications
• Advanced reporting dashboard to support spend analysis

Pricing

You must choose Tipalti’s elite plan to access the procurement management module and full P2P functionality. Tipalti does not share pricing for this plan online, so you must contact them for a quote.

Tradogram

Tradogram is a popular P2P software for small teams because they offer a free plan to explore the software and a scalable yet affordable package to upgrade afterward.

Tradogram’s paid plan (for teams <20 users) includes all of the available P2P features and supports unlimited catalogs and transactions; teams only need to opt into a custom package if they need to add user seats.

The platform supports purchasing with punchout and custom catalogs, proactive cost controls, and automated purchase approvals. It streamlines AP processes with three-way invoice matching and accounting integrations. Tradogram also offers spend analysis reports and inventory management.

Tradogram’s platform contains dozens of features to support operations but may come with a slight learning curve. Their team offers guided onboarding package options to support adoption, though you have to pay extra for these (unless you choose a custom package).

Notable Features

• Unlimited catalogs & suppliers (add punchout catalogs, create custom catalogs)
• Purchase requisition management
• Purchase order management
• Approval routing
• Vendor management
• Budgeting & spend management
• Expense management
• Invoice management (including invoice tracking)
• AP tools (including two- and three-way invoice matching)
• Integrations with accounting software
• Project management
• Inventory management
• Reporting dashboard

Pricing

Tradogram offers a free plan to try the platform, add vendor catalogs, set budgets, and process a handful of orders (five per month). When you’re ready to upgrade, the full P2P package is $168/month. Note that this package supports up to 19 users.

For teams 20+, Tradogram offers custom packages.

Invoice & Purchase Order Systems for Mid-Size Teams

In the following sections, we review Precoro, Procurify, and ProcurementExpress.

We recommend these options for larger teams because they have more advanced features, powerful automation, and various integration capabilities.

Precoro

Precoro is a nice option for growing businesses because the platform offers an expansive P2P feature set. The features are intuitive and user-friendly, so onboarding users — even remote teams — isn’t challenging. Thanks to its ease of use, even the busiest of teams can adopt Precoro.

Precoro’s platform has tools to build vendor catalogs, set budgets, create request forms and approval trees, track POs through delivery, and manage receipts. On the AP side, it lets teams centralize invoicing, automate matching, and send invoices to AP systems for payment.

Precoro connects with most accounting software so you can integrate your preferred system (though they do charge extra for their NetSuite integration).

We suggest Precoro for growing teams because the platform offers multi-location and multi-currency features for cross-border payments.

However, there are two notable downsides to Precoro:

• They limit the number of vendor catalogs you can connect to (two punchout catalogs).
• The platform is more expensive than comparable options (like ProcureDesk).

Notable Features

• Supplier catalogs
• Supplier management
• Purchase requisition management
• Approval workflows
• Purchase order management
• Receipt management
• Spend management
• Invoice management
• AP automation tools (including three-way invoice matching)
• Integrations with QuickBooks and Xero accounting systems, Amazon, and Slack
• Inventory management
• Reporting dashboard

Pricing

Precoro offers two plans and custom enterprise packages.

• • The Core plan ($249/month) includes essential procurement and invoice management features and various accounting integrations. However, it lacks AP automation tools.

• The Automation plan ($999/month) includes AP automation with various other features (dynamic intake forms, supplier portals) and ERP integrations. Precoro describes this as their full procure-to-pay solution, so we’d recommend this package if you choose Precoro.

ProcurementExpress

ProcurementExpress is another P2P solution with strong automation features to support procurement and AP processes.

The platform integrates with hundreds of vendors and punchout catalogs to support purchasing. It also includes the essential invoice management features to send invoices through approval workflows and to your accounting system for payment. Users note its ease of use and modern functionality.

This option is typically popular for growing teams because it has a vast toolset, including multi-location and multi-currency features for global brands. Pricing is also more suitable for larger brands, though ProcurementExpress offers packages for all team sizes.

On the topic of pricing: ProcurementExpress packages can be confusing, and many teams have to upgrade to more expensive plans to access the accounting integrations they require. Despite the platform’s benefits and positive reviews, pricing can deter teams.

Notable Features

• Purchase request management (including custom purchase requisition forms)
• Punchout & custom catalogs
• RFQ/RFP features (to request quotes from vendors)
• Vendor management
• Approval workflows
• Budget tracking
• AP automation tools (including invoice scanning and two- and three-way matching)
• Integrations with accounting systems
• Reporting dashboard
• Mobile apps

Pricing

ProcurementExpress offers three P2P packages along with a custom enterprise plan:

• The Basic plan ($365/month) offers very limited feature access and supports $10M in monthly spend. We wouldn’t suggest this plan because it doesn’t include punchout catalogs or accounting integrations.

• The Better plan ($730/month) is a more suitable option because it includes Amazon punchouts and allows you to connect with Sage 50 or QuickBooks to support invoice processing, but it still lacks some accounting integrations.

• The Best plan ($1825/month) is the recommended option because it unlocks access to all of ProcurementExpress’s available punchout catalogs (100+ options) and the Sage 200 integration.

• Custom enterprise plans (and pricing) are available for teams that require access to NetSuite, Dynamics, or Azure integrations.

Procurify

Procurify offers a P2P and spend management platform that appeals to mid-size teams due to its expansive feature set and pricing. This solution is also unique from others on our list in that it offers virtual spend cards for employees, so teams with a need for these (perhaps they need to manage travel expenses or online subscriptions with purchase orders) may like Procurify’s software.

Procurify offers features to:

• Create a controlled shopping environment, set budgets, and automate approval routing.
• Track real-time spending.
• Centralize and automate invoicing.
• Oversee vendor contracts and manage those relationships.
• Create spend analysis reports.

The platform also offers a variety of integrations, including those with popular accounting tools.

Overall, Procurify is user-friendly, and most users can adopt and learn the software without hurdles. The most significant barrier to entry is pricing.

Notable Features

• Virtual cards (with spend limits)
• Catalog management
• Purchase requisition management
• Purchase order management
• Budget tracking
• Spend management
• Receipt management
• AP automation tools (including two- and three-way invoice matching)
• Integrations with ERPs, accounting systems & project management platforms
• Reimbursement management
• Reporting dashboard
• Mobile apps

Pricing

Procurify offers custom quotes per customer. However, pricing is typically more expensive than Precoro or Procurement Express.

Invoice & Purchase Order Management Software for Enterprises

Lastly, we’ll discuss Coupa, SAP, and Jaggaer.

These are typically reserved for enterprises because these brands offer consulting services and software solutions to support various business processes. Pricing is often on the expensive side, as well.

Coupa

Coupa is recommended for enterprises because they offer robust P2P software and consulting to guide supplier sourcing strategies. They primarily work with brands that already have a wide network of suppliers and need assistance managing those relationships, identifying opportunities to improve cost savings, and increasing margins.

Coupa’s platform includes purchase requisition and PO management, collaborative features, budget tracking, proactive spend controls, fraud detection, and a suite of invoice management and AP automation tools. In addition to these expected features, Coupa also offers:

• AI-powered reporting — to analyze spending and pull insights that can help you establish or renegotiate supplier contracts.
• Supply chain management.
• Virtual spend cards.

Coupa may be one of the trickier platforms to implement and learn, but their team offers guided onboarding and dedicated support to walk you through the switch.

Notable Features

• Purchase order software
• PO collaboration tools
• Budgeting tools
• Open Buy
• Purchase requisition
• SOW-based spend management
• Purchasing fraud detection with spend guard
• AP automation (including two- and three-way invoice matching)
• ERP integrations
• Inventory management
• Supplier management
• Contract management
• Mobile apps
• Reporting

Pricing

Coupa offers custom quotes based on user requirements.

SAP Ariba

SAP Ariba Buying & Invoicing is cloud-based P2P software for enterprises. They offer features to manage procurement and purchasing, control spending, automate invoice processing and AP workflows, and manage supplier relationships — you can oversee POs and invoices through the entire lifecycle. Their team also offers consulting to source vendors, identify cost savings opportunities, and negotiate more beneficial vendor contracts.

SAP integrates with various accounting systems so you can aggregate company spend data and create comprehensive reports. The platform has a robust reporting dashboard that allows you to analyze spending in various ways, understand budgetary requirements, and identify the suppliers you shop with most often.

SAP’s team offers onboarding and training to guide migration. However, this platform has longer implementation times and a steeper learning curve (as expected with any enterprise-level software).

Notable Features

• Supplier discovery
• Supplier risk management
• Supplier lifecycle management
• Contract lifecycle management
• Product sourcing
• Compliance assurance
• Invoice management
• Centralized invoice processing
• AP automation (including two- and three-way matching)
• Expense management & spend analysis
• Travel expense management

Pricing

SAP offers custom quotes.

Jaggaer

The last option on our list, Jaggaer, is popular for enterprises that work directly with suppliers (i.e., direct procurement) and are interested in consulting services to manage those relationships. Jaggaer can lend its expertise to guide strategic sourcing, monitor supplier performance, improve supply chain resilience, bolster ESG compliance, and optimize savings.

They offer a complete P2P platform with automation to streamline procurement and AP workflows. Like Coupa, this option also includes AI-powered features and advanced reporting to highlight the most significant insights and spending patterns.

Jaggaer offers guided onboarding and training to reduce implementation times. They configure each instance of their software to specific business needs: they’ll help you add the vendors you work with, set spend controls, create automation rules, connect integrations, and understand reporting modules.

Notable Features

• Supply chain management
• eProcurement
• Sourcing
• Supplier network
• Supplier management tools
• Contract management
• Inventory management
• Invoice digital capture
• Global e-invoice compliance
• Integrations with ERPs & accounting software solutions
• Reporting & spend analytics

Pricing

Jaggaer offers custom pricing.

Get Started with ProcureDesk Today

Schedule a free demo of ProcureDesk to see how our system can support your purchasing and invoice management workflows. We’ll show you how to create catalogs with preferred vendors, connect with accounting systems, and more.