The Blind Spot in P2P: Whose Terms Are You Buying On? (Part 1 of 2)

Digital Mirror — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 19:59:17 GMT

Executive Summary

Although procure-to-pay (P2P) controls have become considerably more sophisticated over the past two decades, they still answer only one question: did the transaction follow the process? What our work with prospects and customers has found is that an invoice can pass every P2P check, from an approved supplier to a perfect three-way match, and still charge a price nobody agreed on. When that happens, the business is buying on terms it never negotiated, usually the supplier's own. That raises a question every finance and procurement leader should be able to answer: whose terms are you buying on? We have identified ten kinds of loss between a contract and an invoice, and only two of them are the mistakes most organizations look for. In this edition of The Value Gap, we set out the first five. The next edition covers the other five, why the systems already in place miss them, and where Digital Mirror fits.

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The Blind Spot in P2P: Whose Terms Are You Buying On? (Part 1 of 2)

Executive Summary