# What is procure to pay?

> Procure to pay covers every step from requesting an item to paying the supplier: request, approval, order, receipt, invoice and payment.

Updated 2026-11-06. Source: https://atta.sh/glossary/procure-to-pay

Procure to pay, or P2P, is the full purchasing cycle from the first request to the final payment. It covers requisition, approval, purchase order, receiving goods, invoice matching and payment, and the records each step leaves.

## Example

A hardware startup needs 200 connectors at $0.85. The engineer requests them (day 0). The lead approves (day 0). A PO goes out for $170 (day 1). The parts arrive and are counted (day 6). The invoice arrives quoting the PO (day 7) and is matched. Finance pays on day 37 under net 30.

Each step has an owner, a record and a place where it can stall.

## In Atta

Atta covers the chain in one product. The request comes from chat, a form or Slack. Approval runs through the workspace's rules. The agent places the order, with a single-use card where a card program is on. Receipts update stock through one path. Invoices arrive as EN 16931 documents, are linked by PO and become the request's invoice row.

Payment itself goes out by card or through the store's checkout. See [procure to pay](https://atta.sh/procure-to-pay).

## Where it breaks

Most delay sits between steps rather than inside them: a request waiting for sign-off, goods received but never logged, an invoice that can't find its PO. Measure the time between steps before buying software to speed up a single one. In the connector example, days 1 to 6 were the supplier's and days 7 to 37 were payment terms.

## Questions

### How is procure to pay different from source to pay?

Source to pay adds the steps before it, such as sourcing events and contract negotiation, ahead of the buying cycle.