Airbase ushers in a new era of modern spend management with Guided Procurement.

The rapidly evolving spend management market is once again experiencing a breakout moment. As the category leader and pioneer, Airbase is the first and only spend management platform to now offer Guided Procurement — intake functionality for all purchasing. This innovation expands the capabilities of spend management to include the beginning of the purchasing lifecycle, as employees first enter a request to spend company money. This new module meets the needs of even the most complex spend processes that include multiple stakeholders. 

We call this innovation Guided Procurement because that’s exactly what it is. Any employee, from anywhere in the world, who needs to spend company money can now rely on Airbase to direct them through the process. This includes guidance on what information and documents need to be collected and uploaded as required by various stakeholders — for example, SOC attestation or a W-9. 

Try Guided Procurement in an interactive demo → 

Employees demand an integrated buying experience.

In most companies, the simple need to make a work-related purchase can feel confusing and frustrating to employees. They often don’t even know where to start, who to ask for approval, and how the process might change depending on the type and size of purchase. Once they figure out where and how to make a specific type of request, employees are often asked to provide further details, such as legal, tax, security, and budget information. 

As a result, one spend request typically involves conversations across many different channels and business groups. Necessary information is often shared through a dizzying maze of emails, Slack messages, spreadsheets, Google forms, contract management systems, systems of record, and IT ticketing software. That means increased risk, slower response times, and the chance of failing to collect important information. It also creates a disjointed audit trail and more manual work to gather information in the event of an audit.

As different business units manage their workflows on separate systems, information isn’t visible to anyone outside of those systems. IT teams might use Jira and OneTrust, legal teams might use Ironclad and DocuSign. That’s why Guided Procurement integrates with these best-in-class solutions right in the purchase request process.

Meeting stakeholders where they live.

Airbase’s approval workflows have always routed requests to the appropriate spend approvers, but now additional stakeholders can maintain oversight and participate in approvals without ever leaving the software environments they rely on. 

These teams can mark milestones along the spend process — for example, the receipt of a contract. Milestone completion triggers a notification to stakeholders so they can review and approve to keep teams moving efficiently. 

The solution starts at the beginning of the spend lifecycle. 

Guided Procurement builds visibility, control, and compliance right at the start of a request to spend company money. It begins with a customizable intake form that accommodates multiple stakeholders and approval chains. 

Consider these possible use cases:

• The legal team needs to manage, approve, and sign contracts over a certain dollar amount while using its existing CLM software. 
• The IT security team needs to use Jira to gather SOC attestations to ensure compliance for all software-related spend.
• Procurement needs to be involved in significant purchases so that they can negotiate vendor agreements and optimal pricing.
• Controllers need to consolidate spend information and create an airtight audit trail. 

Guided Procurement also provides direction for employees on the best way to handle payments for the purchase they wish to make. This could be a virtual card or a more formal purchase order, depending on the rules set by the company. 

Configured for your company.

Guided Procurement offers a no-code way to create stakeholder routing. A flowchart with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface guides users to include necessary stakeholders and their requirements. Once implemented, everyone on that chart understands their role and can execute it easily. 

This rule-based approach means a frictionless experience for everyone, from any subsidiary or corner of the world. Employees don’t have to worry about whether they’re following the right procedure or adhering to policy. The intuitive experience helps increase adoption, which further improves the visibility and control achieved. It also further amplifies ROI by increasing efficiency and cost control. 

Guided Procurement creates an audit trail by bringing together all spend information and conversations. That means no more tracking down contracts, chasing down receipts, or searching through Slack to find out what happened. 

Airbase is consistently praised for ease of use on review sites like G2, and Guided Procurement is designed to be just as intuitive and easy to use as the rest of our platform. When initiating a request, an employee simply answers the relevant questions and follows the streamlined prompts. Then the system takes it from there. 

Making it dynamic.

We’ve built in the necessary flexibility to help stakeholders respond quickly to change. A no-code interface means it’s easy to change a workflow and monitor the impact of the change. A convenient form builder lets administrators create different rules and routes for different types and sizes of spend. The dynamic system selects the right form based on initial inputs from the employee. 

Approval milestones can therefore be as simple or complex as required, but the user experience remains intuitive, and the spend stays compliant. 

Guided Procurement as a game changer for modern spend management.

With Guided Procurement, Airbase brings spend management to the next level. Modern spend management helps forward-thinking companies control their destiny by freeing up time and improving control. Automated workflows reduce tedious tasks and keep the GL current. With the addition of Guided Procurement, all relevant spend information is available to all stakeholders without having to manually search for missing information.

In practical terms, modern spend management allows the company to scale without increasing the workload for the finance department. It layers in procurement workflows so that you can control spending, manage risks, and ensure compliance without having to turn to costly procure-to-pay systems.

Discover all the benefits of modern spend management — let us show you!