# Atta vs Payhawk

> Payhawk is a spend management platform for cards, expenses and payments. Atta adds an agent that finds the item, gets approval and places the order.

Updated 2026-11-06. Source: https://atta.sh/compare/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`, `ask` or `deny` from 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.