Procure to pay process templates (6 linked flowcharts)
The full P2P cycle as six linked flowcharts: purchase requisition, vendor onboarding, purchase orders, goods receiving, invoice approval and accounts payable — with the three-way match drawn across charts.
Procure to pay is the textbook example of a process that no single flowchart can hold: six departments, three approval gates, and a three-way match whose three inputs are each produced by a different chart.
What's in the package
1. Purchase requisition process flowchart
The need and its approvals, before any commitment to a supplier exists.
2. Vendor onboarding process flowchart
The branch taken when the supplier is new, or when an existing supplier's bank details change.
3. Purchase order process flowchart
The commitment itself: the PO, its approval, and its transmission to the supplier.
4. Goods receiving process flowchart (goods-in to GRN)
The receipt half of the three-way match — what actually arrived, and in what condition.
5. Invoice approval process flowchart
The match itself, plus the exception paths for when the three documents disagree.
6. Accounts payable process flowchart (full AP cycle)
The payment run, the bank-detail controls, and the remittance back to the supplier.
How they connect
- Purchase requisition process flowchart → Vendor onboarding process flowchart
- At "Procurement reviews requisition" the buyer finds out whether this supplier already exists. If it does not, the requisition stops here until onboarding completes — which is why this is a link to another process rather than a step in this one.
- Purchase requisition process flowchart → Purchase order process flowchart
- "Raise purchase order from requisition" is the moment an internal request becomes an external commitment. Everything before it can be withdrawn silently; everything after it involves a supplier.
- Purchase order process flowchart → Goods receiving process flowchart (goods-in to GRN)
- "Record goods receipt note" is the first of the three match documents to exist after the PO. The receiving team produces it, and the link points at the process that tells them how.
- Goods receiving process flowchart (goods-in to GRN) → Invoice approval process flowchart
- "GRN posted for invoice matching" is where receiving's job ends and AP's begins. The receipt is the evidence; the match is what consumes it.
- Purchase order process flowchart → Invoice approval process flowchart
- "Enter invoice in AP ledger" is the third document arriving. It links to the matching process rather than describing it, because the exception paths — quantity variance, price variance, no PO at all — are a chart of their own.
- Invoice approval process flowchart → Accounts payable process flowchart (full AP cycle)
- "Schedule in next payment run" hands a matched, approved invoice to the payment cycle. This is the last point at which an error is cheap to fix.
- Accounts payable process flowchart (full AP cycle) → Vendor onboarding process flowchart
- "Confirm bank change by callback" links backwards into vendor onboarding on purpose: changing an existing supplier's bank details deserves the same verification as creating a new supplier, and treating it as a lesser control is how invoice-redirection fraud succeeds.
How it works
Set your approval thresholds first
The requisition and purchase-order charts both branch on value. Replace the placeholder thresholds with your delegation-of-authority limits before anyone reads the charts, or they will be quoted as policy.
Walk one real purchase end to end
Pick a recent purchase order and follow it through all six charts using the links. Every point where the paper trail diverges from the drawing is a finding you would otherwise get from an auditor.
Name the exception owners in the invoice chart
The matching chart's variance branches are where P2P actually spends its time. Put a named role on each branch — a process map whose exception paths have no owner will route everything to whoever answers first.
Keep the backwards bank-change link
It looks like a mistake in the diagram and it is the most valuable link in the package. If your callback verification lives in a separate policy, move it into the vendor chart so both entry points reach the same control.
Enable approvals on the two charts finance owns
Invoice approval and accounts payable are the pair with a segregation-of-duties story to tell. Approval history on those two is what turns the folder into evidence.
Frequently asked questions
Does this match a specific ERP's P2P module?
No, and deliberately. The six charts describe the cycle as it works in most mid-sized organisations, which is close enough to SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics and Coupa to be a starting point for any of them. The step names and approval thresholds are yours to change.
Do I need a paid plan for this?
Yes — template packages are included with Plus. A package creates six charts at once, and the free plan holds three. Each of the six templates is also available individually and free.
Why is accounts payable linked back to vendor onboarding?
Because a bank-detail change on an existing supplier carries the same risk as a new supplier and is usually controlled far more loosely. Drawing it as a link into the onboarding verification is what stops it from being handled as a routine data edit.
Can I use this for an SOX or internal-controls walkthrough?
It gives you the process documentation and, with approvals turned on, a record of who signed off each version and when. Control testing still needs transaction samples from your ERP — these charts describe the controls rather than evidencing individual executions.
Add all six charts to my library — 6 charts in one folder. Included with Plus.