GEP vs Procurify vs Basware for Procurement & P2P

Your ops team, which today manually creates POs in NetSuite with no downstream visibility, would be replaced by GEP SMART's Procure-to-Pay module, which tracks every PO across a defined lifecycle of discrete status stages. GEP SMART provides complete visibility into all procure-to-pay processes, including real-time PO status; buyers can track each step including submission, approval, PO creation, supplier submission, acknowledgement, ASN, and invoice, and receipts can be created manually or flipped from orders or invoices. The acknowledgement stage is system-enforced, not a manual field: prior to submitting a service confirmation, the PO must have been acknowledged in GEP, and email notifications from GEP SMART are sent to the supplier requesting PO acknowledgement for new purchase orders and change orders. For the received-to-invoiced transition, the platform integrates with your ERP and performs two-way or three-way matching based on preset tolerances and rules, feeding matches, rejections, or exceptions into a workflow for buyer review and action. GEP Quantum Intelligence validates invoices against purchase orders and negotiated prices using configurable tolerances and matching rules, and multi-way matching checks invoices against POs, receipts, and contracts simultaneously, automatically advancing the process when everything aligns. Closure is also documented: once the invoice is approved, the accounts payable team processes payment, the PO is then closed in the system, and all related documents are archived for audit and compliance purposes.

For a $250M technology company moving off manual email-and-Slack approvals, Basware covers the full PO lifecycle across three integrated layers. In the Basware Procurement (P2P) module, a requisition moves through approval and becomes a PO that is sent electronically to the supplier; the developer API confirms that 'it allows users to approve the purchase requisition, sends created order(s) out to supplier(s), handles any changes done in ordering phase and allows documenting that goods have been received.' The 'acknowledged' stage is handled through Basware Network and the Invoice Key-In and PO Flip service: suppliers log into the Basware Portal, review the PO, and click Accept — the PO status changes to 'Accepted' and Basware Network notifies the buyer of acceptance, rejection, or proposed changes. Goods receipt is recorded in Basware Procurement via the UI or API (including auto-receipt by PO line), and those goods receipts flow automatically into the matching engine; the AP Automation module then tracks the invoice through discrete statuses — Received, Matching (with a 'Waiting for purchase order items' sub-status when GR is still pending), Workflow, and Processed — before reaching a formal 'Closed' status, defined in Basware's own KB as 'an invoice that has been processed and its data can no longer be modified and no transactions can be done.' The developer API further confirms that 'whenever the order status changes, the data in API is also updated,' meaning every stage transition is reflected in a live status record.

For a company moving from email-and-Slack purchasing with no PO system, Procurify covers most of the buyer's required lifecycle stages natively. Once a purchase request receives final approval, Procurify automatically generates a numbered PO and can email it to the vendor as a PDF attachment; the PO list page then shows an email status of 'Sent,' 'Opened,' or 'Failed to send,' which is the closest the system comes to an 'acknowledged' stage. From there, the dedicated receiving module lets warehouse or office staff log receipt of goods against the open PO, marking each line item as 'passed' or 'failed'; PO status updates to a 'Received' state, and the PO automatically closes once all items are fully received (or can be manually closed for items that will not arrive). Receiving actions feed directly into AP bill matching, where Procurify's 3-way matching engine compares the PO, goods received notice, and supplier invoice, automatically flagging discrepancies before payment, which drives the 'invoiced' stage. The full lifecycle — approved, sent to vendor, received, invoiced, and closed — is traceable via a per-PO audit log and a reportable PO status dashboard. The gap is the 'acknowledged' stage: Procurify tracks whether the vendor's email was opened, but there is no structured supplier portal through which vendors formally accept a PO and push a confirmed 'Acknowledged' status back into the system; acknowledgment remains an email-delivery signal rather than a supplier-confirmed workflow state.

For a technology company standardized on Okta, Procurify delivers SSO via OpenID Connect (OIDC). A Procurify Superuser navigates to Settings > Single Sign-On Preferences, selects the Okta setup option, creates an OIDC web application in the Okta Admin Console, copies the Client ID from Okta into Procurify's SSO configuration page, and pastes the Okta OpenID Configuration URL to complete the handshake. Once activated, Okta enforces authentication for all users on the domain: email/password login is disabled and every user must authenticate through Okta, which also extends to the Procurify mobile app. SSO activation requires an active subscription plan that includes SSO and must be enabled on the buyer's domain by a Procurify Customer Success Manager before the Settings menu exposes the configuration option.

For a technology company already running Okta as its identity provider, Basware supports federated single sign-on through its identity layer called Basware Access. When a user navigates to Basware P2P, the system redirects the browser to Basware Access, which detects whether the user is already authenticated; if not, it forwards the authentication request to your corporate IdP via a preconfigured SAML 2.0 trust relationship. Okta acts as the SAML 2.0 IdP, and Basware acts as the service provider, meaning your Okta credentials and MFA policies govern access and no separate Basware password is required for desktop use. Basware also has a published listing in the Okta Integration Network (OIN) that enables authentication and provisioning capabilities, so your Okta administrators can add it directly from the OIN catalog.

For a 450-person technology company standardized on Okta, the core question is whether GEP SMART can federate authentication to Okta as the external IdP via SAML 2.0 or OIDC, eliminating separate GEP credentials. GEP SMART runs on Microsoft Azure and serves Fortune 500 enterprises, and GEP's own internal DevOps tooling references an 'SSO Self Service' module, confirming some SSO infrastructure exists within the platform. However, searches of GEP's public help center, product documentation, and the Okta Integration Network (OIN) catalog returned no documented mechanism for Okta federation: no SAML metadata exchange guide, no OIN-listed app connector, and no SCIM provisioning guide specific to GEP SMART. The mechanism by which a GEP SMART administrator would configure Okta as the IdP, including whether this is self-service or requires GEP professional services engagement, is not publicly documented.

For a technology company moving from ad-hoc email approvals with no system enforcement, GEP SMART addresses the four-role separation requirement through its role-based access control layer embedded in the procure-to-pay module. GEP SMART gives administrators granular control over rights and permissions for every user, allowing them to permit or restrict users from preparing or approving purchase requests, and the requisition approval hierarchy can be custom-configured to match the organization's structure. GEP's own documentation states that the ability to both approve a payment and initiate the underlying transaction is a control failure, and that secure platforms enforce role-based access controls that make it impossible for the same individual to request, approve, and execute a payment. The workflow spans all four stages: GEP SMART includes comprehensive user roles, meaning the software understands who you are and automates approvals accordingly; receiving is handled with clear visibility across receipts, warehouses, and materials supported by the Receiving Agent, and payment processing runs as a distinct stage with its own access controls. GEP explicitly frames approval thresholds and payment authorization limits as enforced system rules, not guidelines.

For a technology company moving from email-and-Slack approvals to a governed procurement process, Procurify enforces the four-role separation through structurally distinct, tab-gated roles. A Requester submits purchase requests through the Request module; an Approver can only act within the Approve tab to authorize or reject those requests; a Receiver accesses only the Receive tab to pass or fail items and update PO status; and an Accounts Payable user accesses only the AP tab to create bills and process payments. Each tab is permission-gated, so a user assigned only the Requester role cannot take action in the Approve, Receive, or AP tabs without explicitly being granted those additional roles. At the requester-approver boundary specifically, Procurify enforces a hard system-level skip: when self-approval is disabled and the requester is also a Level 1 approver, the workflow automatically routes to a Level 2 approver and bypasses Level 1, with the documentation confirming this skip operates independently of dollar-value thresholds. Granular AP Role Permissions allow further isolation of exactly which actions (view, edit, approve, pay) each role can perform within the AP module, supporting a clean payment-processor separation from all upstream roles.

For a $250M technology company currently running procurement through email and Slack approvals, Basware P2P (now branded AP Automation and Procurement) enforces segregation of duties through a combination of role-based permissions, configurable approval workflows, and a full audit trail. The system controls what each user can do based on assigned permissions: for example, a user with only the 'Approve Requests' permission cannot also create requisitions as a requester, and the system presents only the menu items a user is authorized to access at login. The AP Automation SOC report documents that the approval workflow explicitly requires each invoice to be reviewed and approved by a separate person, and that duties between the AP Automation administrator and purchase or accounts payable functional roles are segregated. Approval routing rules in the Purchase Manager and Invoice Manager modules govern the workflow, with each action (editing vendor information, approving requests, creating a purchase order, etc.) recorded in a user-stamped audit table for compliance and audit purposes.