The Procurement Agent is a tool that allows employees to create and manage requests directly in Slack. It brings key features of Payhawk’s procurement system into your company's daily workflows, so you can handle requests without switching tools.
Employees can submit requests using pre-configured request types, and the Agent will guide them through the process to ensure everything is compliant with your company’s workflows. Once submitted, employees will receive real-time updates on the status of their request, including approvals, rejections, comments, or any required actions, thus being able to check the status and history of their requests at any time.
Common challenges in procurement management
Procurement teams often face difficulties when acquiring the goods and services necessary for business operations. The most common challenges that can disrupt procurement activities and impact business performance are:
Inaccurate data capture due to manual data entry, leading to errors and inefficiencies.
Inefficient manual processes for handling procurement tasks, slowing down operations.
Lack of control and visibility, resulting in unapproved or off-contract purchasing.
Budget limitations and overspending, straining finances and disrupting procurement activities.
The Payhawk Procurement Agent addresses these challenges by automating key procurement processes such as request tracking, invoice collection, and approval workflows. This reduces manual work, improves data accuracy, and enhances visibility and control across the entire procurement cycle, empowering teams to operate more efficiently and make informed decisions.
Key functionalities
The Procurement Agent helps streamline processes and improve efficiency in various cases.
Functionality | Capability |
Conversational requests and assistance in Slack
| Employees can create and submit requests directly within Slack using a guided, conversational interface. The Procurement Agent collects all necessary information, such as category, custom fields, or item details, through chat, pasted links, or uploaded images and documents. This allows users to stay within their daily workflow while ensuring all required data is captured before submission.
The Procurement Agent can also answer common questions related to requests, such as What’s the status of my laptop order? or Who needs to approve this request? This helps employees quickly find information without searching through emails or portals. |
AI data capture | The integrated AI extracts data from images, files, URLs, and the chat conversation itself, eliminating the need for manual data entry and ensuring accuracy by auto-filling request fields. This helps reduce errors and provides a centralized, reliable data source for procurement. |
Process enhancement | Request owners can submit requests, and designated employees can approve, review, comment on, or return requests to their owners directly in Slack without accessing the Payhawk platform.
The Procurement Agent sends automated follow-ups and status notifications to approvers and request owners, helping prevent delays and ensuring compliance with approval policies. |
Real-time spend visibility and monitoring | By automating workflows and capturing data accurately, the Procurement Agent enhances visibility into company spend. This helps detect unauthorized requests, supports budget tracking, and enables better decision-making through real-time insights. |
Budget oversight and spend optimization | The Procurement Agent supports budget control by ensuring all procurement requests are properly categorized, approved, and aligned with business priorities.
Integration with external and ERP systems allows teams to monitor spending patterns, identify cost-saving opportunities, and adjust sourcing strategies proactively. |
Full feature parity with Web and Mobile | The Procurement Agent offers the same capabilities as the Payhawk web portal and mobile app. Users can manage requests, receive updates, and access general information about requests (all within Slack), ensuring a consistent experience across platforms. |
How the Procurement Agent works for Procurement teams
By activating the Procurement Agent, procurement teams can streamline purchasing processes while enhancing overall efficiency through:
Real-time updates for both requesters and approvers, ensuring transparency and faster decision-making throughout the procurement cycle.
Automated follow-ups across multiple channels, such as email, comments, push notifications, and Slack, to keep requests and approvals moving forward without delays.
Improved workflow oversight, reducing procurement cycle times, minimizing delays in approvals or supplier communication, and ensuring compliance with procurement policies.
How the Procurement Agent works for employees
With the Payhawk-Slack integration, employees can seamlessly act on Payhawk smart reminders, submit expenses, and approve requests if they are part of an approval workflow.
To fully utilize the integration, employees must first authenticate, granting Slack access to their expense data. For more information, see the employee guide for setting up the Slack connection.
The Payhawk-Slack connection enables employees to do the following:
Receive smart reminders for missing documents, pending request submissions, and approvals.
Submit and approve requests directly in Slack using call-to-action buttons without switching applications.
Enter all required details, such as categories and custom fields, through a conversational chat flow without switching apps.
How the Procurement Agent is activated by Payhawk administrators
For the Procurement Agent to become active, Payhawk administrators need to:
Connect Payhawk to Slack so the Agent can automatically plug in your company's procurement processes through the communication channel.
Enabling the Procurement Agent
The Procurement Agent feature is available in Payhawk Labs. For more information, see the article on enabling and managing Beta features.
Providing feedback during Beta
To provide feedback on the Procurement Agent, use either of the following approaches:
The Feedback option of the Procurement Agent:
Go to Settings > AI Office > Procurement Agent.
Click on Send feedback.
How Payhawk processes your data for the Procurement Agent
For more information about how Payhawk processes personal data for the Procurement Agent feature, see the following resources:
Global Privacy Policy - Covers personal data for which Payhawk acts as a Controller.
Data Processing Addendum - Covers personal data for which Payhawk acts as a Processor.