Purchase Order System

Automating the procure to pay process for businesess

COMPANY

Payhawk

ROLE

Product Designer

EXPERTISE

UX/UI Design

YEAR

2023

Overview

Within the dynamic procure-to-pay landscape, purchase orders are key. At Payhawk, we already enabled customers to manage suppliers and handle invoices, but saw the need to go further.

Our product lacked a Purchase Order system, leading to compliance gaps and limiting automation for our clients—ultimately reducing the value we delivered. To solve this, we designed and launched a comprehensive PO system with customizable workflows and automated PO document generation. It ensures accuracy and compliance through a robust three-way matching process, aligning invoices, POs, and goods received.

Role

I led the end-to-end design of the procure to pay system.

Impact

By adding a purchase order system, we aimed to offer full control over the entire process— setting a new standard ahead of competitors.

Confidentiallity

The information provided about this project is limited, due to confidentiality. To learn more about my process, please reach out.

Discovery

To tackle the design challenge, I started my discovery journey by conducting an extensive desk research. This initial phase was crucial in cultivating a deep understanding of the procure-to-pay process.


Following the desk research, I undertook a comprehensive competitive analysis to gain insights into how other solutions were addressing similar needs. This analysis provided valuable benchmarks and highlighted potential opportunities for innovation within our own product.

Upon further exploration, integrating a purchase order system revealed itself as a complex task, affecting multiple product areas significantly. Understanding the scale of this challenge and its potential impact on our product's core functionality, I opted for a structured approach to navigate the challenge effectively. I proposed facilitating a Google Design Sprint—an intensive, collaborative workshop that would enable us to rapidly iterate through ideas, validate assumptions, and align stakeholders towards a shared vision.

The Google Design Sprint consisted of 5 phases that we distributed in 5 working days each of them with the following agenda:

  • Day 1 - Understand: Problem definition, Goal, Target

  • Day 2 - Sketch: Ideation, critical thinking solution space

  • Day 3 - Decide: Narrow down solutions and storyboard building

  • Day 4 - Prototype: High fidelity prototype of the solution

  • Day 5 - Test: Collect feedback & reactions


Solution

Following the design workshop, all stakeholders were aligned on the product vision. User tests of the high-fidelity prototype provided the most significant validation needed. We identified the must-have features for a purchase order system that fit our clients' use cases, helping us define a strong MVP to compete in the procure-to-pay space.

After close collaboration across product, marketing, and engineering, the solution was launched. It features an intuitive interface that guides users through the entire PO lifecycle. We implemented features like customizable approval workflows, automated document generation, and real-time budget tracking. The design emphasizes clarity in the procurement process while maintaining flexibility for different organizational needs.

Conclusion

We defined and successfully delivered a comprehensive purchase order system that addressed the full spectrum of finance team needs—from procurement to payments. It significantly reduced manual effort, minimized errors, and integrated seamlessly with existing finance operations. A key feature was the implementation of a robust three-way matching process, which cross-checked purchase orders, invoices, and goods received to ensure high levels of accuracy and compliance. The final result was a streamlined, reliable workflow that greatly improved operational efficiency and spending oversight. It offered a user experience that finance teams had long dreamed of—one they didn’t believe was possible within such a complex ecosystem. The success of this feature positioned us ahead of the competition and enabled us to outperform competitors in sales for several consecutive months.

Find out more

Due to confidentiality, I’m unable to share more details from the design process or detailed insights publicly. If you’d like to learn more about this project, feel free to contact me directly.