A self-service back office for procure-to-pay
An HR software company runs its entire procurement operation in Airtable: vendor intake, contract tracking, cost center sync, and purchase order generation in one connected system. Procurement replaced a slow, hard-to-navigate project tool and manual identifier mapping with linked records that carry every request from intake to PO.
The problem
Procurement ran through a general-purpose project tool that was slow and difficult to navigate for a self-service purchase order model. Cost centers and vendor identifiers had to be mapped by hand across Jira, Workday, and separate contract systems, and there was no visibility into how a vendor record connected to its intake request, its contract, or its resulting purchase order.
As purchase order volume kept climbing, the fragmented setup could not scale. Every new request meant re-checking identifiers across systems, and Finance and Accounting had no single place to see the full procurement picture.
What they built
Procurement stood up an Airtable back office that receives intake through Jira Service Management forms, syncs vendor and cost center master data from Workday Finance, and tracks contract lifecycle status alongside Ironclad and DocuSign.
Linked records connect every vendor to its intake request, its contract, and its purchase order, with interfaces and buttons that move each request through status stages and push updates back to Jira Assets for downstream visibility.
The outcome
Procurement now processes 99% of its work through the connected base, with linked relationships replacing manual identifier mapping and the workarounds the prior tool required.
The self-service purchase order model scales as volume grows, and Finance and Accounting get centralized visibility into vendor, contract, and PO status without chasing updates across separate systems.
Inside the solution
Procurement and Procure-to-Pay Operations
Finance & Procurement
- Intake via Jira forms with Airtable back-office processing
- Vendor and cost center master data sync from Workday
- Contract lifecycle tracking with Ironclad and DocuSign
- PO generation with linked records and automations
- Jira Assets sync for downstream visibility
- Interfaces and buttons for status progression
- Slow performance and difficult navigation in the prior tool
- Manual mapping of cost centers and vendors
- Fragmented data across Jira, Workday, and contract tools
- Limited scalability for a self-service PO model
- Lack of relationship visibility across procurement objects
- Time savings and reduced manual workarounds
- Improved data quality via linked records
- Scalability for growing purchase order volume
- Faster procurement cycles with a better interface
- Centralized visibility for Finance and Accounting
- Procurement
- Finance
- Accounting
- IT
- Jira Service Management
- Jira Assets
- Workday Finance
- Ironclad
- DocuSign
Procurement and procure-to-pay operations
Run your whole procure-to-pay operation in one connected base: vendor intake, cost center mapping, contract lifecycle tracking, and purchase orders linked into a single chain your Finance and Accounting teams can actually see. Automations draft POs the moment a request is approved and email a weekly open-PO digest, while AI fields triage new requests and prep renewal talking points from each record’s own data.
From fragmented tools to a connected procurement back office
Copy the templates
Link vendor, intake, contract, and PO records
Wire the source systems
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Vendor and cost center records sync in from the finance system of record and stay linked to every intake request, contract, and purchase order. Nobody has to re-type or cross-check an identifier across systems.
Requests come in through a service desk form and land in the base as linked records tied to a vendor. Interfaces and buttons move each one through approval and contract stages before a purchase order is generated.
Each vendor record links to its contract status, tracked alongside e-signature and contract lifecycle tools, so procurement and legal see the same record instead of separate spreadsheets.
The prior tool was slow and hard to navigate for a self-service purchase order model. A connected base with linked records processes the same volume faster and scales as request volume grows.
Not for the core procure-to-pay workflow. The structured vendor, contract, and PO data built here is the kind of foundation AI-assisted procurement workflows would need if the company chooses to add them later.