Atta vs Payhawk
Payhawk is a spend management platform that brings cards, expenses and payments into one place for finance teams. Atta is aimed at the purchase itself: someone asks in chat, the agent sources it, approvals run before payment, and a capped single-use card pays for it.
What Payhawk does well
Payhawk sits in the spend management category, combining company cards, expense handling and payments so finance sees spending in one system. For a finance team that wants fewer separate tools for cards and reimbursements, that's what the category offers.
Where Atta differs
Atta follows a purchase from the first message to the invoice. The sequence:
- Someone asks in Slack, WhatsApp, ChatGPT, Claude or the browser.
- The agent searches the stores the workspace allows and shows the item, price and delivery date.
- A policy function decides
auto,askordenyfrom the amount, the person's role, the budget left and the workspace's rules. Code makes that call, not the model. - Over a limit, an approval chain is built and answered one approver at a time. The approval binds to the amount and the lines, and a changed cart fails the order with both figures.
- With a card program on, the agent pays with a single-use virtual card for that order, capped at the approved total on the issuer's side too. Without one, it hands over the checkout link.
- Checkout reserves the budget and payment settles it. A received invoice links to the PO it names.
The agent places the order. If placing it fails after approval, it waits for a person to press Try again, and a spend is never retried automatically.
Side by side
| Atta | Payhawk | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts with | A request in chat that the agent acts on | Spend through cards, expenses and payments |
| Finding the item | The agent searches allowed stores | The employee does |
| Approval | Chain from amount and rules, enforced before payment | Approval flows on spend |
| Card | Single-use, one per order, capped at the approved total | Company cards for employees |
| Budgets | Reserved at checkout, spent when payment settles | Budgets on spend |
One order
Here's one order in Atta. Ines asks for 4 boxes of printer paper at $38 each, $152. The agent shows the price and delivery date, Ines confirms, and a card capped at $152 pays. The request row keeps who asked, who approved, the cost centre and GL code, and later the invoice, so finance has the trail without a separate expense entry.
When to pick Payhawk instead
Payhawk is the better fit when:
- Finance wants cards, expense reports and payments in one system.
- Your spend is mostly employees buying across many merchants, plus reimbursements.
- You need accounting integrations and expense workflows more than a purchasing agent.
Using both
Atta covers the purchases someone can ask for in a sentence. Other spend can stay where it is. Atta is in invite-only beta and free during the beta.
Questions
Is Atta an expense tool?
No. Atta handles the purchase: request, approval, order, card and invoice. Expense reports for spend outside it stay in an expense tool.
Can the two run together?
Yes. Use a spend management platform for everyday employee spend and Atta for purchases you want the agent to source and place.
Does Atta process reimbursements?
No. Orders are paid with a card issued for that order, or the buyer gets the checkout link.
Related
- Purchase approval softwareSet approval limits per role and build approval chains by amount. Approvers answer from Slack, WhatsApp or the app, and nothing is paid until the last step clears.
- Virtual cards for purchases an AI agent makesAtta issues one single-use Stripe Issuing card per approved order, capped at the approved total and checked on every charge. The number never enters the app.
- Atta vs RampRamp is a corporate card and spend management platform. Atta's agent takes a request, gets approval and pays with a capped single-use card. Where each fits.