Purchasing policy template for finance teams
Set out how your company buys goods and services, sets up suppliers, checks invoices and pays them, with a call-back check that stops payments going to a fraudster. This purchasing policy template is one Word procedure with a bank detail change form at the back.
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What the policy looks like
When you need it
Any company where more than one person can order, approve or pay needs one written way of buying and paying. Adopt the policy or review it when:
- Budget holders start ordering without the finance director seeing every purchase
- You take on new suppliers often, or move to a new purchasing or payment system
- A supplier asks you to change their bank details
- Auditors ask how invoices are approved and payment runs released
- A duplicate or wrong payment went out and nobody spotted it
How to use the purchasing policy template
- Set your limits first. Quote, purchase order and signatory thresholds are suggestions in brackets. Match them to your delegated authority matrix.
- Name your systems and teams. Fill in the accounting system, the invoice inbox and who in accounts payable sets up suppliers.
- Keep the call-back steps as they are. Every bank detail change follows the same seven steps, however the request arrives.
- Set your payment run day and terms. Enter the day you pay and your normal supplier terms.
- Print the change form. Accounts payable completes one for every bank detail change and keeps it with the supplier record.
- Name the owner and approver. Add the next review date and tell budget holders where the policy lives.
Questions
What should a purchasing policy include?
When quotes are needed, when to raise a purchase order and who approves it, how new suppliers are set up and checked, how bank detail changes are confirmed, how invoices are matched to orders, and how payment runs are prepared, approved and released.
What is a purchase order policy?
The part of a purchasing policy that says when a purchase order must be raised before you commit to spend, who approves it, and which regular costs don't need one. In this policy the person who raises an order can't approve it.
How do you check a change to supplier bank details?
Don't act on the request or reply to it. Call the supplier on a number you already hold, speak to someone you have dealt with before and ask them to tell you the old and new details. A second person checks the record before the change is made, and a small test payment confirms the new account.
Will the bank refund a payment sent to a fraudster?
The Payment Systems Regulator's reimbursement rules for authorised push payment fraud cover individuals, micro-enterprises and charities. Most companies fall outside them, which is why the call-back check matters.
Who should approve a payment run?
Someone who didn't prepare it. In this policy the financial controller reviews the run against the invoices, and two signatories release it in the bank above a set amount.
Also in the finance policies and procedures manual
Who it's for
Finance directors and financial controllers who want one clear way of buying, checking invoices and paying suppliers.
Last checked
Checked against the Payment Systems Regulator's authorised push payment fraud rules in November 2026.
