Purchasing Policies and Procedures Training Course

Duration 10 days 18 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Procurement Managers, Purchasing Officers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-P-059

Before you join: Participants should understand basic purchasing terminology, including requisitions, purchase orders, suppliers, invoices and contracts.

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

Purchasing policies and procedures determine how employees request, source, approve, order, receive and pay for goods and services. When these rules are unclear, organisations face maverick spend, delayed purchases, inconsistent supplier treatment, weak audit trails and avoidable disputes between procurement, finance and operational teams. Effective policies must control risk without creating approval bottlenecks or forcing users to work outside the process.

This course teaches participants to design, document and manage purchasing policies, procedures, service-level agreements and supporting controls. Participants examine policy architecture, delegated authority, purchase-to-pay workflows, sourcing thresholds, competitive bidding rules, supplier onboarding, contract handover, emergency purchasing and exception management. They use RACI, SIPOC, Kraljic segmentation, control matrices and process mapping to convert organisational requirements into workable procedures.

Instructor-led sessions combine short technical briefings with realistic cases from public bodies, banks, manufacturers, NGOs and large corporate purchasing functions. Participants analyse policy failures, map approval routes, set service levels, test controls against procurement scenarios and refine documents through peer review. Each participant develops a purchasing policy and procedures pack containing defined roles, workflows, approval limits, sourcing routes, templates, controls and performance measures that can be adapted for their employer.

The course suits procurement professionals and managers who already work with purchasing processes and now need to improve governance, consistency and service performance. It is particularly relevant where purchasing activity is decentralised, spend is poorly controlled, audit findings recur, or stakeholders need clearer guidance on when and how procurement involvement is required.

What you will be able to do

  • Design a purchasing policy hierarchy with clear ownership, scope and approval authority
  • Map purchase-to-pay procedures using SIPOC, swimlane diagrams and decision points
  • Set sourcing thresholds and competitive bidding rules aligned with risk and spend
  • Create delegated authority matrices and RACI models for purchasing decisions
  • Draft measurable procurement service-level agreements and escalation routes
  • Build control matrices linking purchasing risks to preventive and detective controls
  • Establish exception, emergency purchasing and waiver procedures with audit trails
  • Present a complete purchasing policy and procedures pack for stakeholder approval

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce policy documents that staff can follow without repeated clarification
  • Diagnose approval and process failures using structured workflow analysis
  • Handle purchasing exceptions with documented authority and defensible rationale
  • Set realistic internal service levels for requisitions, sourcing and purchase orders
  • Build evidence for progression into procurement governance or category management roles

For your organisation

  • Reduce off-contract and unauthorised purchasing through clearer mandatory procedures
  • Improve audit readiness with traceable approvals, waivers and control ownership
  • Shorten purchasing cycle times by removing unclear handoffs and duplicate checks
  • Create consistent supplier treatment through defined sourcing and onboarding rules
  • Give budget holders practical guidance on approvals, thresholds and procurement involvement

Course modules

18 modules over 10 days

Participants can structure a purchasing policy framework with clear authority, ownership and document controls.

  • Procurement operating model linked to delegated authority and business objectives
  • Policy hierarchy: board policy, standards, procedures, guidance and templates
  • Three-lines model roles for budget holders, procurement and internal audit
  • RACI matrices separating accountable approvals from responsible purchasing activities
  • Process ownership and document-control rules using version registers
  • Policy exceptions logged with rationale, authority and expiry dates

Participants can assess current purchasing arrangements and prioritise policy and procedure gaps.

  • Current-state assessment using document review, interviews and transaction sampling
  • Pain-point analysis separating policy gaps, process failures and capability issues
  • Spend analysis identifies repeat purchases, fragmented demand and unmanaged categories
  • Control-gap register records risk, cause, consequence and proposed treatment
  • Stakeholder mapping identifies policy users, decision makers and affected suppliers
  • Prioritisation matrix ranks improvement actions by risk, value and implementation effort

Participants can map an end-to-end purchase-to-pay process with roles, handoffs and controls.

  • SIPOC defines suppliers, inputs, process steps, outputs and internal customers
  • Swimlane diagrams show requisition, approval, ordering, receipt and payment handoffs
  • Decision diamonds distinguish mandatory procurement involvement from routine buying
  • Process boundaries define where sourcing ends and contract management begins
  • Cycle-time measures identify queues, rework loops and approval bottlenecks
  • Failure-mode review tests handoffs against missing information and delayed decisions

Participants can define controlled requisition procedures that improve demand quality before purchase.

  • Requisition specifications distinguish need statements from supplier-specific product descriptions
  • Business-case requirements scale according to spend, risk and commitment duration
  • Budget availability checks occur before sourcing or purchase-order release
  • Demand aggregation rules identify opportunities for consolidated purchasing requirements
  • Catalogues and framework agreements guide users toward approved buying routes
  • Requisition checklists capture scope, funding, timing and stakeholder requirements

Participants can select proportionate sourcing routes using spend, supply risk and category characteristics.

  • Kraljic Matrix classifies purchases by profit impact and supply risk
  • Sourcing thresholds link purchase value to quotation and tender requirements
  • Low-value buying procedures balance administrative cost against control requirements
  • Strategic purchases require category plans, stakeholder governance and market analysis
  • Sole-source criteria distinguish genuine technical necessity from purchasing convenience
  • Framework call-off rules define competition, selection and award documentation

Participants can document fair, proportionate competitive bidding procedures and evaluation controls.

  • Quotation procedures specify minimum suppliers, response periods and evaluation records
  • Invitation-to-tender packs define scope, timetable, criteria and submission instructions
  • Evaluation criteria separate mandatory requirements from weighted award criteria
  • Bid-opening controls protect confidentiality, timing and documented receipt evidence
  • Moderation procedures reconcile evaluator scores and record material scoring changes
  • Award approval papers document recommendation, value, risk and procurement route

Participants can create approval structures that match financial authority, risk and accountability.

  • Delegated authority schedules define financial limits by role and commitment type
  • Approval matrices distinguish requisition, sourcing, award, contract and invoice approvals
  • Segregation-of-duties checks prevent requestor, approver and receiver conflicts
  • Escalation routes address absent approvers, urgent requirements and disputed decisions
  • Electronic workflow rules prevent approval routing outside authorised system controls
  • Authority reviews reflect organisational changes, delegated limits and audit findings

Participants can establish supplier onboarding procedures that protect data quality and supplier integrity.

  • Supplier onboarding workflow verifies legal identity, tax data and bank details
  • Due diligence tiers reflect supplier risk, spend, geography and service criticality
  • Sanctions screening procedures define checks, evidence retention and escalation
  • Master-data controls restrict supplier creation, amendment and duplicate record approval
  • Supplier codes of conduct set expected ethical and labour standards
  • Onboarding service levels specify ownership, response times and information requirements

Participants can define transaction controls from purchase order creation through invoice payment.

  • No-PO-no-pay policy defines permitted exceptions and enforcement responsibilities
  • Purchase-order content includes specification, quantity, price, terms and coding
  • Goods-receipt procedures confirm delivery, quality acceptance and quantity variances
  • Three-way matching compares purchase order, receipt record and supplier invoice
  • Invoice dispute workflow assigns investigation, supplier communication and resolution ownership
  • Tolerance limits govern acceptable price, quantity and freight variances

Participants can connect sourcing outcomes to operational purchasing and contract administration procedures.

  • Contract handover packs transfer pricing, scope, contacts and performance requirements
  • Approved supplier lists record contract status, expiry dates and ordering instructions
  • Catalogue management controls item descriptions, prices and user access rights
  • Contract change procedures define authority, evidence and commercial assessment
  • Renewal calendars trigger review before contract expiry or extension decisions
  • Supplier performance data informs purchasing guidance and future sourcing decisions

Participants can draft service-level agreements that define measurable procurement service commitments.

  • SLA scope distinguishes procurement services from stakeholder and supplier responsibilities
  • Service catalogue defines standard requests, deliverables and entry criteria
  • Response-time targets cover requisition review, sourcing support and purchase-order creation
  • Resolution-time measures address queries, blocked orders and supplier data issues
  • Service credits and remedies suit selected outsourced procurement arrangements
  • Escalation matrices specify operational, management and executive resolution levels

Participants can build a purchasing control matrix linking risks, controls, evidence and owners.

  • Risk registers assess likelihood, impact, control effectiveness and residual exposure
  • Control matrices link purchasing risks to preventive and detective controls
  • Key controls identify approvals, competition evidence and supplier master-data checks
  • Control owners retain evidence according to records-retention schedules
  • Fraud indicators include split orders, conflicts and unusual supplier changes
  • Control testing plans define samples, evidence sources and remediation actions

Participants can embed ethical conduct, conflict management and responsible purchasing requirements into procedures.

  • Conflict-of-interest declarations cover staff, evaluators and decision-making participants
  • Gifts and hospitality rules define thresholds, declarations and prohibited conduct
  • Supplier due diligence considers labour practices, environmental impacts and human rights
  • ISO 20400 principles inform responsible purchasing policy commitments and objectives
  • Whistleblowing routes protect reporting of suspected procurement misconduct
  • Ethical breach procedures define investigation, sanctions and supplier communication

Participants can manage urgent and exceptional purchases without losing accountability or audit evidence.

  • Emergency purchasing criteria distinguish immediate risk from poor planning
  • Waiver forms record justification, alternatives considered and approving authority
  • Retrospective approval rules limit regularisation after unauthorised commitments
  • Business continuity procedures identify pre-approved suppliers and emergency spending limits
  • Exception registers reveal recurring causes, values, users and affected categories
  • Post-event reviews convert emergency purchases into preventive improvement actions

Participants can write purchasing documents that are clear, controlled and usable by non-specialists.

  • Plain-language drafting uses mandatory terms, defined roles and active instructions
  • Policy clauses state purpose, scope, principles, responsibilities and compliance consequences
  • Procedure steps specify trigger, owner, action, evidence and next decision
  • Decision trees guide users through thresholds, sourcing routes and approval requirements
  • Document templates standardise waivers, evaluation records and approval papers
  • Readability testing identifies ambiguous terms, missing steps and conflicting instructions

Participants can plan implementation of revised purchasing policies and procedures with measurable adoption actions.

  • Implementation plans sequence approvals, system changes, communications and training
  • Stakeholder impact assessments identify changed behaviours, barriers and support needs
  • Communication plans tailor messages for requestors, approvers, suppliers and executives
  • Procedure training maps user groups to required knowledge and evidence
  • Pilot testing validates workflow design before wider policy release
  • Adoption measures track policy acknowledgement, purchase-order compliance and exception volumes

Participants can monitor purchasing policy performance and use findings to improve procedures.

  • Procurement dashboards report cycle time, compliance, savings and exception trends
  • Key performance indicators distinguish service quality from policy compliance measures
  • Internal audit testing examines evidence, approvals, competition and segregation controls
  • Management reviews assess recurring findings, policy fitness and corrective actions
  • Root-cause analysis uses five whys and fishbone diagrams for failures
  • Policy review calendars trigger updates after risk, system or organisational changes

Participants can build, review and present a complete purchasing policy and procedures pack for organisational approval.

  • Policy scope defines covered spend, entities, users and excluded transactions
  • Process maps connect requisition, sourcing, approval, ordering, receipt and payment
  • Authority matrix assigns approval limits, escalation routes and segregation controls
  • Sourcing rules specify thresholds, competition requirements, waivers and documentation
  • SLA measures establish service commitments, reporting cadence and issue escalation
  • Peer review tests clarity, control evidence, practicality and implementation readiness

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

What you take back to work

  1. Purchasing policy template
  2. Purchase-to-pay swimlane map
  3. Delegated authority matrix
  4. Procurement service-level agreement template
  5. Purchasing risk and control matrix
  6. Policy implementation and communications plan

Who should attend

  • Procurement Managers — need consistent purchasing rules across teams and categories
  • Purchasing Officers — apply procedures and require clearer decision boundaries
  • Procurement Analysts — document workflows, controls and service performance measures
  • Finance Managers — strengthen spend controls, approvals and purchase-order compliance
  • Operations Managers — reduce purchasing delays while meeting governance requirements
  • Internal Audit Staff — assess purchasing controls and evidence policy compliance

Skills and tools covered

Policy draftingProcess mappingApproval governanceSourcing controlsSLA designCompliance monitoring

Tools and standards

RACI matrix, SIPOC, Kraljic Matrix, ISO 20400

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings followed by policy analysis, case work, group discussions, process-mapping tasks and purchasing simulations. Participants examine realistic requisition, tender, approval, supplier onboarding and exception scenarios, then apply the methods to their own operating context. Facilitated peer review tests whether drafted rules are clear, proportionate and auditable. Application planning throughout the course helps participants identify stakeholders, evidence requirements, implementation steps and measures for adopting revised purchasing procedures.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic purchasing terminology, including requisitions, purchase orders, suppliers, invoices and contracts. At least six months of experience in procurement, purchasing, finance, operations or supplier administration is recommended. Participants should be able to describe their organisation's current purchasing route and common approval issues. Previous experience writing policies, conducting audits or using process-mapping software is not required. The course does not assume legal training, specialist public procurement knowledge or prior use of formal quality-management standards.

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 understand basic purchasing activities such as requisitions, purchase orders, suppliers and invoices. The course is designed for people with practical exposure to procurement, finance or operational purchasing; prior policy-writing experience is not required.

Bring a current purchasing policy, approval matrix, process map or examples of recurring purchasing issues if you can share them appropriately. You will use these materials to identify improvements, but attendance does not depend on bringing confidential documents.

It is suited to procurement managers, purchasing officers, analysts, finance managers, operations managers and internal audit staff. It is most useful for people responsible for improving purchasing governance rather than negotiating individual supplier deals.

Sourcing courses focus on market engagement, tendering and supplier selection, while contract management courses focus on managing supplier obligations after award. This course focuses on the rules, workflows, approval structures and controls that govern purchasing activity from demand through payment.

Participants leave with a structured policy and procedures pack that can be adapted to their organisation. The tools support practical tasks such as revising approval limits, documenting waiver rules, setting procurement service levels and preparing for audit reviews.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The first part builds core policy, process and control documents; later sessions deepen supplier, SLA, risk, implementation and monitoring work before the final capstone presentation.

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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