Glossary of terms

At Levelpath, we believe in the power of partnership. Our Success team works hand-in-hand with customers, guiding them on their path to procurement excellence. At the heart of this collaboration are our customer administrators - the unsung heroes who unlock the full potential of the Levelpath AI Platform for Unified Procurement.

A Levelpath AI Agent is an intelligent digital helper that performs tasks on behalf of a user by combining triggers, context, and instructions to generate an action or output, such as a report, document, or workflow.

AI intake and prefill is the process of using artificial intelligence to automatically populate forms with verified data, saving time and reducing errors.

AI-Native refers to a platform that has AI embedded into the architecture of the tool from the start.

APIs are the backbone of modern software integration, providing the necessary connections that enable different systems to work together seamlessly. For procurement and supply chain professionals, leveraging an API means enhanced efficiency, real-time data access, and the ability to automate routine tasks, all of which contribute to greater productivity and a more effective operation.

By leveraging AI procurement platforms, businesses can optimize their procurement bid strategies, respond swiftly to market changes, and unlock new levels of efficiency.

The Role of Procurement in Budget Management: Procurement plays a pivotal role in effective budget management, impacting both internal operations and the overall financial health of the organization.

Category management is a strategic approach to procurement that involves organizing an organization's spend into distinct groups of related products or services. This methodology enables businesses to optimize their purchasing processes, drive cost savings, and maximize value across their supply chain.

The Contract Discovery Agent reveals opportunities, clarifies obligations, and turns complex legal language into a shared source of strategic insight for your entire team.

Contract Lifecycle Management encompasses the processes, tools, and technologies used to streamline and automate contract related activities across an organization.

Cost optimization is a strategic approach to managing expenses while maximizing business value. This continuous discipline focuses on finding the best price and terms for business purchases while simultaneously improving operational efficiency through standardization, digitization, and automation of processes and services.

By placing AI-powered intake orchestration in front of Coupa, organizations can streamline requests, improve user experience, and drive efficiency, without disrupting existing downstream workflows. This integration enables faster, smarter, and more user-friendly procurement from the very first step.

Data Manager is an important Levelpath administrative tool that improves Levelpath's AI procurement processes.

The Docusign Integration with Levelpath provides enterprise procurement, legal, and contract management teams with a direct connection between Docusign’s electronic signature capabilities and Levelpath’s AI-native sourcing to contract platform.

Expense management is a critical component of financial oversight that focuses on the processes and tools businesses use to authorize, track, and control employee-initiated expenses. This system plays a vital role in optimizing resources, minimizing waste, and maintaining financial discipline within an organization.

Force Majeure refers to circumstances beyond the control of any party involved in a contract, which can be invoked as a legal excuse for non-fulfillment of contractual obligations.

Generative AI refers to a class of artificial intelligence technologies designed to produce original content by learning from massive stores of data and emulating large-scale data patterns.

Contract automation can help healthcare organizations significantly cut down on yearly losses caused by inefficient, manual contract management processes.

Indirect procurement refers to the acquisition of goods and services that support a company's general operations but are not directly incorporated into the final product or service offered to customers. This category of spending encompasses a wide range of items essential for keeping a business running smoothly, including office supplies, facilities management, utilities, maintenance services, and human resources-related expenses.

Intake-to-Procure is the upstream foundation of modern procurement, streamlining the journey from a business user's initial request to the creation of a purchase order. By transforming how needs are captured and decisions are made, this approach drives efficiency, compliance, and a better experience for both requesters and procurement teams.

Invoice intake is the process of capturing, validating, and integrating supplier invoices into the procure-to-pay (P2P) cycle to ensure accuracy, compliance, and alignment with purchase orders, contracts, and supplier records. It serves as the control point where financial accuracy meets procurement integrity, enabling seamless, automated invoice processing and payment readiness.

Invoice management is a critical internal process that encompasses all activities related to handling and processing invoices received from vendors and suppliers. This comprehensive function spans from the initial receipt of an invoice to its final payment and recording, playing a vital role in maintaining financial accuracy and healthy supplier relationships.

Levelpath has a dedicated live integration with Ironclad to support contract transport and to initiate workflows.

At the heart of this transformation lies legal operations, a comprehensive framework of business processes and standards designed to enhance the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of corporate legal departments.

Levelpath supports integrations with key enterprise systems through multiple flexible approaches, enabling real-time connectivity across the procurement ecosystem. Levelpath works with clients to integrate via webhooks, third-party APIs, Levelpath’s own API, and dedicated connectors with applications.

Managed and unmanaged spend represent two distinct categories of organizational expenditure that require different approaches from procurement teams. Understanding the key differences between these types of spend is crucial for optimizing financial resources and maintaining operational efficiency.

A MSA is a contract that defines the terms and conditions that will regulate current and future transactions between a service provider and its client.

Maverick spend, also known as rogue spend, refers to purchases made outside an organization's established procurement rules and procedures. This type of spending occurs when employees either deliberately ignore procurement processes or make purchasing mistakes that do not align with previously negotiated terms.

At Levelpath, we believe that software should be simple, and we take pride in creating systems that are built to last, drive progress, and, most importantly, delight users. Our mobile-first approach ensures that you have the power of procurement at your fingertips, anytime and anywhere.

Multitenancy is a software architecture that enables a single instance of an application to serve multiple customers or 'tenants.' Each tenant operates in a shared environment but can customize certain aspects of the application, such as the user interface or access controls, without altering the underlying code.

Natural-language intake is a function that enables employees to submit procurement requests in everyday language without needing to navigate complex forms, categories, or procurement jargon.

Levelpath leverages advanced Optical character recognition technology to provide high-accuracy document processing solutions. Our OCR system is trained on millions of documents to achieve the greatest accuracy in the market, supporting over a hundred different languages and handwriting recognition.

The Levelpath–Oracle Fusion integration provides enterprises with a reliable way to establish supplier master data within Oracle Fusion while preserving the enriched supplier context maintained in Levelpath.

Payment terms are a fundamental aspect of procurement and purchasing that go beyond simple timelines and amounts. They are a critical tool for managing cash flow, building trust, mitigating risks, and facilitating smooth business operations. By understanding and effectively implementing these terms, businesses can create a stable financial foundation that supports growth and success.

The power framework is a strategy for procurement leaders that aids in stakeholder engagement and effective leadership.

Procurement orchestration is the intelligent coordination and automation of processes, stakeholders, and systems to deliver compliant, efficient, and strategically informed operations.

A purchase requisition is a formal internal document that initiates the procurement process within an organization. This document serves as a request to purchase goods or services and is typically submitted to the department manager or procurement team for approval before any actual purchase is made.

Levelpath's AI for platform unifying procurement simplifies the contract redlining process. By leveraging advanced AI and machine learning, the platform can quickly analyze contract terms and identify areas needing negotiation.

Request for Proposal (RFP) is a key tool in strategic sourcing, used to gather detailed proposals from suppliers for complex products or services. Unlike RFIs or RFQs, an RFP outlines specific needs, evaluation criteria, and project goals, and inviting vendors to submit tailored solutions.

The Levelpath-Slack connector is a dedicated native connector that supports sourcing and procurement workflows by enabling real-time notifications, approvals, and collaboration directly within Slack.

Smart procurement refers to the integration of advanced technologies and strategic methodologies to enhance and streamline the purchasing process of organizations. This approach leverages digital tools, analytics, and automation to make procurement more efficient, accurate, and cost-effective.

Source-to-Pay, commonly abbreviated as S2P, is a comprehensive end-to-end procurement process that encompasses all activities from identifying and sourcing suppliers to making final payments for goods and services. This strategic approach leverages digital solutions to optimize the entire procurement lifecycle, enhancing efficiency, transparency, and cost-effectiveness.

Spend analytics, also known as spend analysis, is a comprehensive process that enables organizations to identify cost-saving opportunities, enhance strategic sourcing, and optimize expenses throughout the procurement lifecycle. This data-driven approach has become increasingly crucial for procurement teams seeking to streamline budgets and improve financial performance.

Spend management is a comprehensive procurement function that involves overseeing and optimizing an organization's expenditures to maximize value, reduce costs, and drive growth. This strategic approach encompasses supplier relationship management, budget tracking, and ensuring each dollar spent contributes to the business's profit margin.

Spot buying refers to unplanned, often urgent purchases made outside of regular procurement processes. These purchases are typically one-time, low-value, or unique in nature, and frequently bypass formal request for proposal (RFP) procedures due to time constraints.

Supplier due diligence is the process of evaluating and verifying a supplier’s financial stability, compliance, ethical standards, and operational capability to ensure they meet an organization’s risk, performance, and integrity requirements before and during engagement. It helps organizations build reliable, compliant, and resilient supplier relationships.

Supplier onboarding is the structured process of evaluating, approving, and enabling new suppliers by validating their data, compliance, financial details, and readiness before they can participate in sourcing, contracting, or payment activities.

A supplier risk assessment is the structured process of identifying, evaluating, and managing the risks associated with engaging third-party vendors.

A Supplier System of Record is the authoritative, centralized source of truth for all supplier-related information across the enterprise.

Tactical sourcing is a procurement approach that emphasizes speed and efficiency in the requisition, quote, and order processes. This method focuses on meeting immediate business needs through short-term, transactional purchases aimed at achieving shorter lead times, high-quality goods or services, and competitive prices.

Tail spend typically refers to the purchases that constitute approximately 80% of a company's transactions but account for only about 20% of the total spend by volume.

Third Party Risk Management in procurement helps organizations identify, assess, and mitigate risks across their supplier ecosystem, including financial stability, compliance, cybersecurity, and ESG.

An AI procurement solution is a software platform that uses artificial intelligence to automate procurement workflows such as intake, sourcing, supplier management, and contract review. These tools improve speed, compliance, and decision-making by analyzing data and predicting outcomes in real time. This is a guide to the best AI procurement solutions in 2025.

A two-way match is a financial control process that compares a vendor’s invoice to the purchase order to ensure quantities, prices, and totals align. It helps organizations verify billing accuracy, prevent overpayments, and maintain strong financial governance.

Unmanaged spend, also known as rogue spend, or maverick spend, refers to organizational expenditures that occur outside of established procurement processes. This type of spending poses significant risks to an organization's financial health and operational efficiency.

Webhooks are automated notifications sent from one application to another when specific events occur. Within the Levelpath platform, users can utilize them to notify external applications of events happening within a workspace.