Procure to pay

Purchase needed supply, accept the goods received and settle the right supplier balance.

8 stages · 4 approvals

Roles and responsibilities

Purchasing Manager Finance Manager Warehouse Operator Quality Inspector Accountant Purchasing Manageror Finance Manager System 1 Prepare purchase Requisitions 2 Approve purchase PurchaseOrders 3 Record arrival GoodsReceipts 4 Release inspection QualityInspections 5 Accept receipt ReceiptAcceptances 6 Match bill Bills 7 Release payment PaymentRuns 8 Confirm settlement Payments
  1. Step 1Prepare purchase
    Manufacturing DemandProposed
    Planned Order NumberProductWarehouseKind
    Make
  2. Step 2Approve purchase
    Purchase Approval QueueSubmitted
    Purchase Order NumberSupplierOrder DateCurrent Total
  3. Step 3Record arrival
    Receipts Awaiting ReviewArrived
    Receipt NumberPurchase OrderWarehouseArrived At
  4. Step 4Release inspection
    Inspection QueuePlanned
    Inspection NumberProductPlanLot
Red diamonds require approval.Rows show responsibility for each step.

Process steps

Follow the process from start to finish. Select a step to see who acts and what changes.

Prepare purchase

Purchasing Manager prepares the requisition and supplier order from reviewed requirements or bounded buy proposals. Retain specification, units, quantity, price, entity and currency. A generated draft consumes its planned-supply claim but does not grant spending authority. Missing supplier or cost evidence remains unresolved.

Responsible
Purchasing Manager
Records
RequisitionsRequisitionLinesPlannedOrdersPlannedOrderAllocationsPurchaseOrdersPurchaseOrderLines
Effect
Prepare bounded supplier commitments
Approval required

Approve purchase

Another eligible Purchasing Manager approves within reviewed finite authority; Finance Manager reviews above that limit. Neither approves their own preparation or edits. Amendments review the proposed commitment and cumulative positive line increases, preserving fulfilled quantities. A reduction elsewhere cannot conceal an increase or new scope.

Responsible
Purchasing Manager or Finance Manager
Records
PurchaseOrdersDocumentRevisionsApprovalDecisions
Effect
Independently authorize the current purchase scope

Record arrival

Warehouse Operator independent of the buyer and commercial approver records actual arrived quantities, lots, serials and supporting evidence. Arrival history remains immutable while pending, rejected and accepted portions develop separately. Suspended suppliers need reviewed handling of existing commitments; blocked arrivals remain held or returnable, never silently usable.

Responsible
Warehouse Operator
Records
GoodsReceiptsGoodsReceiptLinesLotsSerials
Effect
Preserve actual arrived quantity and identity
Approval required

Release inspection

Independent Quality Inspector reviews the actual incoming population, required measurements and permitted sampling basis. Failed or missing results keep the affected goods restricted. The reviewer excludes the physical receiver and disposition preparer; another eligible inspector is needed where those identities overlap. Cost review remains separate.

Responsible
Quality Inspector · when required
Records
QualityInspectionsInspectionResultsQualityHoldsQualityDispositions
Effect
Release the required inspected population
Approval required

Accept receipt

Independent Warehouse Operator confirms only the remaining eligible arrival tranche, after required quality and cost decisions. Accepted owned goods post inventory, receipt accrual and applicable purchase variance once. A later partial acceptance does not repeat the arrival. Over-receipt first needs an approved purchase amendment.

Responsible
Warehouse Operator
Records
ReceiptAcceptancesStockEventsStockLayersJournalEntries
Effect
Accept eligible goods and accrue their value once

Match bill

Accountant allocates the supplier bill to unused posted acceptance tranches and their original accrual. Fully matched within-policy bills can post through the protected rules. Finance Manager independently reviews quantity, price or non-PO exceptions, with any necessary purchase amendment. Matching cannot add inventory a second time or treat missing tax as zero.

Responsible
Accountant
Records
BillsBillLinesBillMatchesReceiptAcceptances
Effect
Clear the allocated receipt accrual into payables
Approval required

Release payment

Independent Finance Manager reviews the exact payment run, beneficiary version, allocations and required underlying exception decisions. Exclude the preparer and material editors, retaining any additional required separation from earlier financial approval. Submission or acknowledgment reserves the intended balance but does not establish that the supplier was paid.

Responsible
Finance Manager
Records
PaymentRunsPaymentsPaymentAllocationsApprovalDecisions
Effect
Independently authorize the frozen payment instruction

Confirm settlement

Accountant reconciles authoritative bank settlement before the guarded bank and payable effects. A supplier prepayment remains a separate asset until applied without another cash transfer. Authoritative pre-settlement rejection releases claims after reconciliation; uncertainty retains them. Later bank returns require linked reviewed compensation, not an untracked retry.

Responsible
Accountant
Records
PaymentsBankStatementLinesCreditApplicationsIntegrationEvents
Effect
Reconcile actual settlement and remaining obligations
Approvals and exception handling

4 approvals required in this process

  • Approve purchase Purchasing Manager or Finance Manager signs · record arrival waitsPurchaseOrders, DocumentRevisions, ApprovalDecisions
  • Release inspection Quality Inspector signs when required · accept receipt waitsQualityInspections, InspectionResults, QualityHolds, QualityDispositions
  • Accept receipt Warehouse Operator signs · match bill waitsReceiptAcceptances, StockEvents, StockLayers, JournalEntries
  • Release payment Finance Manager signs · confirm settlement waitsPaymentRuns, Payments, PaymentAllocations, ApprovalDecisions
  • Quality releasePhysical acceptance and financial valuation retain their separate authorities.
  • Supplier returns trace accepted quantitiesCurrent descendant carrying value; commercial credits remain separate.
  • Closed purchasing work must reconcile receiptsReturns, matches, credits and remaining commitments.
  • Conflicting repeats require review; uncertain payment outcomes keep claims until execution is known.

When the process needs attention

  • reject Record arrival

    Arrival history remains immutable while pending, rejected and accepted portions develop separately.

  • reject Release inspection

    Failed or missing results keep the affected goods restricted.

  • variance Accept receipt

    Accepted owned goods post inventory, receipt accrual and applicable purchase variance once.

  • exception Match bill

    Finance Manager independently reviews quantity, price or non-PO exceptions, with any necessary purchase amendment.

  • exception Release payment

    Independent Finance Manager reviews the exact payment run, beneficiary version, allocations and required underlying exception decisions.

  • reject Confirm settlement

    Authoritative pre-settlement rejection releases claims after reconciliation; uncertainty retains them.

Records and postings

StageRecordsEffect
1 Prepare purchase RequisitionsRequisitionLinesPlannedOrdersPlannedOrderAllocationsPurchaseOrdersPurchaseOrderLines Prepare bounded supplier commitments
2 Approve purchase PurchaseOrdersDocumentRevisionsApprovalDecisions Independently authorize the current purchase scope
3 Record arrival GoodsReceiptsGoodsReceiptLinesLotsSerials Preserve actual arrived quantity and identity
4 Release inspection QualityInspectionsInspectionResultsQualityHoldsQualityDispositions Release the required inspected population
5 Accept receipt ReceiptAcceptancesStockEventsStockLayersJournalEntries Accept eligible goods and accrue their value once
6 Match bill BillsBillLinesBillMatchesReceiptAcceptances Clear the allocated receipt accrual into payables
7 Release payment PaymentRunsPaymentsPaymentAllocationsApprovalDecisions Independently authorize the frozen payment instruction
8 Confirm settlement PaymentsBankStatementLinesCreditApplicationsIntegrationEvents Reconcile actual settlement and remaining obligations
Data model →

Process reports

All reports

Quality and Traceability

Actual inspected population/sample/characteristic results, independent disposition, active hold and exact lot/serial input-to-output/dispatch/return lineage; first-pass yield uses unique eligible units at their first completed pass, rework separately disclosed, missing/incomplete inspections excluded from passed denominators and shown as pending.

Production Cost and Variance

Unique terminal ProductionCompletions, accepted material/person-hour/machine-hour bases, actual WIP relief, frozen-standard output and separately posted immediate/scrap/remaining-close variances by work order; intermediate/rework throughput never increases finished units and no variance is counted again at close.

Order Fulfillment

Approved SalesOrderLines by customer/order/product, original promise and accepted scope, with actual dispatch, customer delivery, invoicing, returns, approved cancellation and remaining quantities from unique allocations; partial and open overdue cohorts remain visible and returns never erase actual original dispatch.

Inventory and Valuation

As-of net posted StockMovements and remaining StockLayers by entity/product/site/location/lot/serial, separating available, held, picked, unissued production staging and same-entity transit, with issued material/WIP shown separately from WorkOrderCostEntries; quantities/value reconcile once to inventory and WIP controls, supplier arrivals not yet accepted shown separately without owned value.

Cash and Bank Reconciliation

Actual bank/statement matches, unsettled and uncertain instructions, reserved source balances, unapplied customer cash and supplier prepayment/credit/return chains by entity/currency; transport responses do not stand in for settlement.

Run by an agent

Agent support

An assistant cannot provide a required independent human approval, invent an inspection result or turn a plan into completed production. It cannot use a sales estimate as an accepted order, release held goods without the required quality decision, or treat an uncertain bank response as settlement. Material changes require the applicable renewed review.

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# Example after configuration $ curl -fsSL https://www.erp.ai/skill.md | paste into your agent › procure to pay · prepare purchase on Requisitions, RequisitionLines, PlannedOrders, PlannedOrderAllocations, PurchaseOrders, PurchaseOrderLines ✓ Purchasing Manager prepares the requisition and supplier order from reviewed requirements or bounded buy proposals. › procure to pay · approve purchase on PurchaseOrders, DocumentRevisions, ApprovalDecisions ⏸ approval · waiting for the purchasing manager or finance manager # 6 more stages after approval: record arrival, release inspection, accept receipt, match bill, release payment, confirm settlement

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