Basware Purchase-to-Pay Automation Training Course

Course overview

Purchase-to-pay performance is often constrained by fragmented requisitioning, inconsistent approval routes, poor catalogue adoption, invoice exceptions and limited visibility of committed spend. For procurement and finance teams using Basware, the challenge is not simply knowing where to click: it is configuring and operating controls that make compliant buying easier than off-contract purchasing, while ensuring invoices can be matched, approved and paid without avoidable manual intervention. This course addresses the operational gap between a Basware implementation and reliable day-to-day P2P control.

Participants work through the Basware purchase-to-pay process from requisition creation and guided buying to purchase order dispatch, goods receipt, invoice capture, matching, exception handling and spend analysis. They learn to maintain approval workflows, purchasing policies, supplier catalogue content and coding structures; investigate blocked invoices; distinguish two-way and three-way matching; and use operational reports to identify bottlenecks. The course also covers supplier enablement through Basware Network and electronic invoicing practices using Peppol BIS, linking process design choices to compliance, cash flow and supplier experience.

The programme is delivered through instructor demonstrations, configured system scenarios, workflow design workshops and case-based exercises using realistic procurement and AP data. Each participant completes a Basware P2P operating blueprint for a selected business unit, including a requisition-to-invoice process map, approval matrix, exception-management rules, KPI set and 90-day improvement actions. This provides a practical document that can be reviewed with procurement, accounts payable, finance systems and process owners after the course.

The course is designed for experienced procurement, AP and finance systems professionals who already work with purchasing processes and need to administer, improve or govern Basware-supported P2P operations. It is equally valuable for project team members preparing for a Basware rollout, process redesign or post-go-live stabilisation.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Configure requisitioning, purchase order and invoice workflow rules in a Basware P2P scenario
• Design approval matrices using spend thresholds, cost centres, categories and delegation controls
• Build guided-buying requirements using supplier catalogues, preferred suppliers and purchasing policies
• Apply two-way and three-way matching logic to resolve common invoice exceptions
• Investigate blocked invoices using match status, tolerance rules, coding data and audit trails
• Define supplier enablement steps for electronic orders and invoices through Basware Network
• Create P2P performance measures for cycle time, touchless processing, compliance and exception rates
• Produce a Basware P2P operating blueprint with process controls and a 90-day improvement plan

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Procurement Managers — who need to raise compliant purchasing adoption and control maverick spend
• Accounts Payable Managers — who must reduce invoice exceptions and improve touchless processing
• P2P Process Owners — who are accountable for end-to-end requisition-to-payment performance
• Procurement Systems Analysts — who configure workflows, master data and reporting requirements
• Finance Systems Managers — who govern integrations, controls and operational use of Basware
• Category Managers — who need preferred supplier catalogues and buying channels to be used in practice

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand the basic purchase-to-pay cycle, including requisitions, purchase orders, goods receipts, invoices, approval routing, general ledger coding and supplier master data. Prior experience in procurement operations, accounts payable, finance systems support or a Basware project is expected. Familiarity with your organisation's approval policy, purchasing categories and invoice-matching rules will help participants apply the exercises directly. Participants do not need programming, database administration or integration-development skills, and no prior Basware configuration certification is required. This is not a first introduction to procurement or accounts payable fundamentals.

Training methodology

The instructor uses a Basware-based P2P scenario to connect configuration choices with operational outcomes. Short demonstrations introduce each process stage, followed by hands-on tasks in which participants create requisition controls, route approvals, assess catalogue content, process invoices and resolve matching exceptions. Teams analyse a case company’s stalled P2P process, compare control options and defend their recommendations to procurement and finance stakeholders. Daily work feeds into an individual operating blueprint, completed on day five with measures, owners, risks and a 90-day action sequence.

Course outline

Day 1: P2P process design and Basware operating model

• Basware P2P process architecture from requisition to payment
• Roles, permissions and segregation-of-duties considerations
• Requisition types, purchasing channels and policy controls
• Purchase order lifecycle and supplier dispatch options
• P2P master data: suppliers, cost centres, categories and accounting dimensions
• Control points for committed spend, budget checks and auditability
• Baseline process mapping and pain-point prioritisation

Workshop: Participants map their selected business unit’s current requisition-to-invoice flow and produce a control-gap register.

Day 2: Guided buying, catalogues and approval workflows

• Guided buying principles for compliant user adoption
• Hosted catalogues, punchout catalogues and free-text requisitions
• Preferred supplier and contracted-item purchasing controls
• Approval workflow design using value, category and organisational attributes
• Delegation, escalation and out-of-office approval management
• Purchase requisition validation and coding-quality controls
• User adoption measures for catalogue and PO compliance

Workshop: Participants design a guided-buying journey and approval matrix for three spend scenarios, producing a workflow specification.

Day 3: Invoice automation, matching and exception resolution

• Basware AP Automation invoice intake and capture channels
• Invoice coding, validation and duplicate-invoice controls
• Two-way matching between purchase order and invoice
• Three-way matching using purchase order, receipt and invoice data
• Tolerance rules for price, quantity, tax and freight variances
• Blocked invoice queues, exception ownership and escalation paths
• Audit trails, approval evidence and payment-readiness checks

Workshop: Participants process a set of invoices with matching failures and produce an exception-resolution playbook with ownership rules.

Day 4: Supplier enablement, e-invoicing and operational analytics

• Supplier onboarding and transaction enablement through Basware Network
• Electronic purchase order, order confirmation and invoice transaction flows
• Peppol BIS documents and e-invoicing interoperability requirements
• Supplier communication plans for catalogue and e-invoice adoption
• P2P KPI definitions for cycle time, touchless rate and compliance
• Exception trend analysis by supplier, category and business unit
• Root-cause analysis of off-contract spend and late approvals

Workshop: Participants analyse a P2P performance dataset and produce a supplier enablement and KPI dashboard requirements brief.

Day 5: P2P governance and improvement planning

• P2P governance model for procurement, AP, finance and IT
• Control testing for approvals, matching and master-data changes
• Service-level agreements for requisition, invoice and exception handling
• Prioritisation methods using impact, effort, risk and dependency criteria
• Basware release and change-management considerations
• Stakeholder communication for process and policy changes
• Ninety-day P2P stabilisation and improvement roadmap

Workshop: Participants complete and present a Basware P2P operating blueprint containing process maps, controls, KPIs, owners and a 90-day action plan.

Tools & standards covered

Basware P2P, Basware Procurement, Basware AP Automation, Peppol BIS

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions