Procurement Analytics Using Excel Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Procurement Analysts, Category Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-P-123

Before you join: Participants should be comfortable using Excel worksheets, sorting and filtering data, applying basic formulas and creating simple charts.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Procurement teams hold large volumes of purchasing, supplier, contract, invoice and inventory data, yet many reports remain static extracts with limited diagnostic value. Buyers need to identify spend concentration, off-contract purchasing, price variance, supplier underperformance, forecast error and savings leakage quickly enough to support sourcing decisions. This course develops the Excel methods used to turn operational procurement data into controlled analysis, management reporting and targeted action.

Participants work through the full analytical cycle: defining reliable procurement data, cleaning extracts, building calculation models, analysing spend, measuring supplier performance, testing contract compliance, tracking savings and forecasting demand. The course uses Excel Tables, formulas, PivotTables, Power Query, charts and structured models. Participants also apply procurement methods including Pareto analysis, supplier scorecards, price-volume-mix analysis, ABC classification, total cost of ownership and the Kraljic Portfolio Matrix.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with worked procurement cases, guided spreadsheet builds, group interpretation of findings and decision simulations. Cases reflect common purchasing situations such as fragmented indirect spend, contract price leakage, delayed deliveries, inventory exposure and competing supplier quotations. Participants receive a certificate of completion and leave with a reusable procurement analytics workbook structure, KPI definitions, scorecard formats and an application plan for their own reporting priorities. The five-day course is available in classrooms in 50+ cities or live online, with training days running from 08:30 to 16:30.

The course suits procurement professionals who already use Excel for operational reporting and need stronger analytical discipline. It is particularly relevant where procurement must provide evidence for category strategy, supplier reviews, savings governance, audit requests or management decisions.

What you will be able to do

  • Clean and structure procurement extracts using Excel Tables and Power Query
  • Build spend analysis models using PivotTables, formulas and supplier-category hierarchies
  • Calculate supplier performance measures for delivery, quality, price and service
  • Identify contract leakage and maverick spend through price and compliance analysis
  • Evaluate savings using approved baselines, price-volume-mix analysis and implementation dates
  • Forecast purchasing demand using moving averages, exponential smoothing and forecast-error measures
  • Develop procurement dashboards with controlled KPIs, charts and exception indicators
  • Create a procurement analytics action plan with data ownership and reporting controls

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce defensible spend and supplier analyses without waiting for specialist reporting support
  • Identify price leakage, fragmented buying and compliance exceptions with traceable calculations
  • Present procurement findings through management-ready dashboards and targeted commentary
  • Assess reported savings against baselines, volumes and implementation evidence
  • Build a practical portfolio of Excel models for category and supplier reviews

For your organisation

  • Improves visibility of addressable spend, concentration risk and tail-spend opportunities
  • Reduces off-contract purchasing through measurable compliance monitoring and exception reporting
  • Strengthens supplier reviews with consistent delivery, quality, cost and service measures
  • Provides auditable savings calculations aligned to documented baselines and implementation dates
  • Shortens reporting cycles through reusable Excel models and controlled data-refresh routines

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define, assess and control the procurement data required for reliable analysis.

  • Spend cube dimensions: supplier, category, business unit, geography and period
  • Distinguishing purchase orders, invoices, receipts, contracts and supplier master records
  • Data dictionaries define field meanings, source systems, owners and refresh dates
  • Classifying direct, indirect, capital and services expenditure consistently
  • Three-way match exceptions and their effect on spend analysis
  • Data-quality checks for duplicates, nulls, currency errors and obsolete suppliers

Participants can import, clean and combine procurement data into controlled Excel models.

  • Importing CSV and ERP extracts with Power Query connections
  • Cleaning supplier names using TRIM, CLEAN, SUBSTITUTE and mapping tables
  • Standardising dates, currencies, units and category codes before analysis
  • Appending monthly files and merging lookup tables through query joins
  • Creating audit columns for transformations, source dates and refresh status
  • Excel Tables, structured references and named ranges for controlled models

Participants can build transparent procurement calculations using appropriate Excel functions.

  • SUMIFS and COUNTIFS calculations for supplier, category and period analysis
  • XLOOKUP retrieves contracts, categories and supplier attributes from reference tables
  • IFERROR, IF, AND and OR manage procurement-data exceptions transparently
  • YEAR, MONTH, EOMONTH and NETWORKDAYS support time-based purchasing measures
  • RANK.EQ and LARGE identify highest-value suppliers and purchase orders
  • Weighted average price calculations separate mix changes from price movements

Participants can analyse spend patterns and prioritise categories for procurement action.

  • Pareto analysis isolates high-value suppliers, categories and tail-spend segments
  • Building spend cubes with PivotTables, slicers and drill-down detail
  • Calculating addressable spend and excluding taxes, payroll and intercompany charges
  • Tail-spend thresholds identify fragmented buying and low-value transaction burdens
  • Herfindahl-Hirschman Index measures supplier concentration within critical categories
  • Category segmentation combines spend, supplier count, demand volatility and risk

Participants can construct supplier scorecards and identify material performance exceptions.

  • On-time-in-full measures use promised dates, receipt dates and quantities
  • Purchase-price variance separates contracted, requested and invoiced price differences
  • Defect-rate and return data create supplier quality performance measures
  • Weighted scorecards combine delivery, quality, cost, service and compliance criteria
  • Control charts distinguish common-cause variation from supplier performance signals
  • Supplier scorecard thresholds trigger corrective-action and review workflows

Participants can quantify compliance gaps, savings performance and value leakage.

  • Contract-compliance analysis compares invoice prices against contracted price lists
  • Maverick-spend flags identify purchases outside approved suppliers and contracts
  • Price-volume-mix analysis separates demand changes from negotiated price effects
  • Baseline rules distinguish cost avoidance, hard savings and budget variance
  • Calculating realised savings from implementation dates, volumes and approved baselines
  • Waterfall charts communicate savings bridges, leakage and outstanding opportunities

Participants can use demand and lead-time data to support purchasing and inventory decisions.

  • Moving averages forecast stable demand from consumption history
  • Exponential smoothing weights recent demand when building replenishment forecasts
  • Forecast error uses MAD, MAPE and bias to compare models
  • Reorder point calculations combine lead time, demand rate and safety stock
  • ABC analysis prioritises stock control by annual consumption value
  • Supplier lead-time variability exposes service-risk and working-capital implications

Participants can compare sourcing options using cost, risk and supplier evaluation models.

  • Kraljic Portfolio Matrix positions categories by profit impact and supply risk
  • Should-cost breakdowns separate materials, labour, overheads, logistics and margin
  • Request-for-quotation bid comparisons normalise price, terms and total landed cost
  • Total cost of ownership includes acquisition, operation, quality and disposal costs
  • Scenario tables test volume, currency, freight and payment-term assumptions
  • Supplier rationalisation analysis balances consolidation savings against continuity risk

Participants can design procurement dashboards that support management decisions and action.

  • Procurement KPI trees link savings, compliance, service, risk and cash
  • PivotCharts and slicers create controlled views for category and supplier managers
  • Conditional formatting highlights threshold breaches, outliers and deteriorating trends
  • Waterfall, Pareto and variance charts match the management question
  • Dashboard controls document metric definitions, refresh dates and data limitations
  • Executive commentary distinguishes findings, implications, decisions and assigned actions

Participants can establish ownership, reporting controls and a practical analytics implementation plan.

  • RACI matrices assign ownership for data, metrics, approvals and escalation
  • Data refresh calendars align source extracts, validation checks and reporting deadlines
  • Exception logs record root causes, corrective actions, owners and due dates
  • Materiality thresholds determine which variances require buyer or manager intervention
  • Procurement analytics roadmap prioritises quick wins, dependencies, resources and milestones
  • Personal application plans specify first dashboard, stakeholders, data and review cadence

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Procurement data-quality checklist
  2. Spend-analysis workbook template
  3. Supplier performance scorecard
  4. Contract-compliance exception report
  5. Savings validation model
  6. Procurement dashboard and application plan

Who should attend

  • Procurement Analysts — need repeatable methods for turning purchasing data into decisions
  • Category Managers — need evidence for sourcing priorities, supplier strategies and savings plans
  • Buyers — need to monitor prices, compliance, delivery and purchase-order exceptions
  • Procurement Managers — need controlled KPIs for team performance and executive reporting
  • Supply Chain Analysts — need to connect demand, lead-time and inventory measures
  • Finance Business Partners — need traceable procurement savings and spend variance analysis

Skills and tools covered

Spend analysisSupplier scorecardsContract complianceSavings validationDemand forecastingExcel dashboard design

Tools and standards

Microsoft Excel, Power Query, PivotTables, Kraljic Portfolio Matrix

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings followed by spreadsheet-based procurement cases and facilitated group analysis. Participants build models from realistic purchasing extracts, then interpret results in sourcing, supplier-review and savings-governance scenarios. Guided work covers Power Query preparation, formulas, PivotTables, scorecards, forecasting and dashboard design. Group discussions test how analytical findings should be communicated to category managers, finance teams and senior decision-makers. Each participant completes an application plan for a priority procurement reporting need.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable using Excel worksheets, sorting and filtering data, applying basic formulas and creating simple charts. Familiarity with purchase orders, invoices, suppliers, contracts or category spend is expected, gained through procurement, supply chain, finance or operational roles. Participants should understand common procurement terms such as supplier, purchase order, invoice and spend category. Prior use of PivotTables is helpful but not essential. Programming, SQL, statistics qualifications, Power BI experience and advanced Excel automation are not required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

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

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should be able to work with worksheets, basic formulas, sorting and filtering. The course teaches the procurement uses of PivotTables, Power Query and more advanced formulas from the ground up, so prior specialist reporting experience is not required.

Bring a laptop with a current desktop version of Microsoft Excel where possible, plus a charger. Course files are provided; you may also bring non-confidential examples of reporting challenges or anonymised data questions.

It is designed for procurement analysts, buyers, category managers, procurement managers and supply chain analysts. Finance business partners involved in spend, savings or supplier reporting will also benefit.

The focus is procurement decision-making rather than generic spreadsheet skills or visualisation alone. Models, measures and cases address spend, suppliers, contracts, savings, sourcing, demand and inventory.

You can adapt the workbook structures and KPI definitions to your purchase-order, invoice, contract and supplier data. The course also covers data ownership, refresh routines and exception reporting needed to sustain the analysis.

The course contains ten connected modules, covering data preparation, analysis, performance measurement, forecasting, reporting and governance. Each training day runs 08:30 to 16:30 and includes approximately 6.5 contact hours, with breaks and lunch scheduled separately.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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