Essential ChatGPT Prompts for Procurement Teams

If you’re not using ChatGPT in your daily work life, you’re missing a huge opportunity to grow faster. Based on my personal experience, I’m confident that AI isn’t going to replace any jobs, at least for now. But if you’re not using AI as part of your work, you will get replaced by someone who knows how to leverage these tools. What used to take us days, even weeks, can now be done in hours with ChatGPT, especially documentation and content creation tasks.

For example, drafting a procurement policy used to take months. Now, if you know the fundamentals of procurement, you can get it done in a few hours. You don’t need to spend time writing from scratch. All you need to do is prompt, review, edit, prompt again, and repeat. With a couple of prompt cycles, you can get to a final output.

And like with any other skill, prompting gets better with practice. There’s no shortcut. But after working with procurement teams to create better policies, RFP templates, and vendor checklists, I decided to build a prompt library focused on procurement. For now, I’ve included prompts for some of the most common procurement use cases, and I’ll keep adding more as I refine what works best.

Here are the prompts:

• Create a Procurement Policy

• Vendor Onboarding Checklist

• RFP Template

• Supplier Email for Better Quotes

• Contract Clauses to Mitigate Risks

• Build a Business Case for Procurement Software

• Purchase Order Creation Guide

Create a procurement policy

One of the most used questions in ChatGPT was: "Write a simple procurement policy for a XX-person company". This is one of the primary task for any growing procurement teams. Pre-AI days, it usually takes months of learning and brainstorming to arrive on a procurement policy that would fit in your company. With GPT, you can give the context of your company and get a policy drafter in minutes. You can't use the output as is, but it will be a good starting point. Here is our prompt that will help you generate a first draft that is half good as your weeks of work.

One of the most frequently asked questions on ChatGPT is: “Write a simple procurement policy for a [XX]-person company.” This task is fundamental for any growing procurement team. Before AI, it typically took months of learning and brainstorming to develop a procurement policy that fit your organization. Now, with GPT, you can provide context about your company and get a solid draft in minutes. You won’t be able to use the output as-is, but it gives you a strong starting point. Here’s a prompt we use to generate a first draft that’s nearly as good as weeks of manual work:

The Prompt:

Write a clear and concise procurement policy for a company with approximately [X employees] in the [industry type] industry.

The policy should:

• Outline the objectives of procurement
• Define roles and responsibilities (emphasize procurement’s role as a gatekeeper in vendor selection, onboarding, and contracting)
• Describe the purchase request and approval process
• Include typical SLAs or turnaround expectations (e.g., 1–2 business days)
• Specify spend thresholds and approval limits
• Provide vendor selection guidelines
• Include guidance for exceptions or emergency purchases
• Clarify the reimbursement process for out-of-policy spending
• Include recordkeeping and audit trail expectations (e.g., where to store POs, invoices, vendor comms)
• End with an acknowledgment clause for employees

Tone: Professional and easy to understand

Format: Use headings and bullet points

Length: Max 1000 words

Procurement Tech Stack: [Tools used]

Vendor Onboarding Checklist

Another highly sought-after template is the “Vendor Onboarding Checklist.” Even on Google, this query sees over 1,000 searches per month. That’s no surprise—finding and onboarding new suppliers is one of the core responsibilities of any procurement team. To make this process easier, I’ve created a simple prompt that helps generate checklist templates tailored to your company’s size, industry, and supplier type.

The Prompt:

Create a detailed vendor onboarding checklist for a company in the [industry type] sector with approximately [X employees].

The checklist should be tailored for onboarding a [supplier type] — e.g., software vendor, raw material supplier, marketing agency, freelancer, etc.

The checklist should:

• Cover legal, financial, and compliance requirements
• Include information collection (e.g., W-9, bank details, business registration)
• Outline risk assessment steps (e.g., background checks, sanctions screening)
• Specify system setup steps (e.g., ERP/vendor portal registration)
• Include internal approvals and documentation steps
• Mention timelines or SLAs if applicable
• Use checklist format with bullet points

Tone: Professional, action-oriented

Format: Headings for major sections, checkboxes for each step

RFP Template

Technically, this should have come before vendor onboarding—but that’s fine. I probably don’t even need to explain why I created a prompt for an RFP Template. It’s a staple in any procurement function, and having a quick way to generate one tailored to your needs is a no-brainer.

The Prompt:

Create a Request for Proposal (RFP) template based on the following inputs:

• Industry: [e.g., SaaS, manufacturing, healthcare, logistics]
• Type of product/service being procured: [e.g., marketing agency, ERP software, raw materials, consulting services]
• Company size: [Startup, SME, Enterprise]
• Vendor engagement model: [e.g., pilot project, retainer, full implementation]
• Contract type: [fixed-price, time-and-materials, annual contract]
• Compliance or regulatory requirements: [e.g., HIPAA, SOC 2, ISO, none]
• Evaluation approach: [e.g., weighted scorecard, lowest bid, best-fit]
• Number of vendors expected: [e.g., single vendor, multi-vendor split]

The template should include:

• A structured format with section headers
• Custom instructions for vendors
• Project scope and deliverables
• Submission guidelines and deadlines
• Evaluation criteria
• Terms and conditions relevant to the inputs

Tone: Professional

Format: Sectioned layout using headings and bullet points

Supplier Email for Better Quote

Email writing is one of those tedious tasks that quickly starts to feel monotonous—especially when you’re doing it at scale. The challenge with volume is that it can drain your creativity, and that’s when you risk missing opportunities to make your message count. Reaching out to suppliers is a core part of procurement work, particularly when the stakes are high—like negotiating prices or asking for better quotes. One wrong word, or an email that comes off as too transactional, can hurt your chances. That’s why I created a prompt that helps you craft persuasive supplier emails on the go.

The Prompt:

Write a professional and polite email to a supplier asking if there’s room for a better quote or pricing adjustment.

The email should include:

• A brief appreciation or context (e.g., “Thanks for the proposal”)
• Clear explanation of pricing concern (e.g., budget limits, comparison with other vendors, volume commitment)
• A trade-off or justification (e.g., longer commitment, bulk order, flexible delivery)
• A clear, respectful ask for revised pricing

Optional inputs to tailor the message:

• Type of product/service: [e.g., SaaS subscription, logistics, raw materials]
• Type of engagement: [e.g., new vendor, renewal, expansion]
• Your target or reference price (if applicable)
• Timeline for response (e.g., “We’re finalizing this week”)

Tone: Professional, relationship-oriented

Length: 150–200 words

Contract Clause to Mitigate Risk

For buyers, contract clauses can be a nightmare. One misstep could cost your company, not just financially, but also in terms of reputation. If you’re someone who dreads approving contracts, even after a legal review, this prompt is for you. It helps surface the key clauses needed to mitigate supplier risk, tailored to your industry and supplier type.

The Prompt:

Generate a list of contract clauses to help mitigate third-party supplier risk for a company in the [industry type] engaging a [supplier type].

The clauses should address the following areas:

• Liability and indemnification
• Right to audit and compliance oversight
• Subcontracting limitations
• Data privacy and security (e.g., breach notification, encryption standards)
• Termination triggers for risk or non-compliance
• Business continuity and disaster recovery obligations
• SLA enforcement and penalties
• Insurance coverage requirements
• Change notification obligations
• Acknowledgment of buyer’s policies (e.g., ESG, code of conduct)

Tone: Legal yet plain-language

Format: Section headers with clause text under each

Optional: Tailor the level of complexity to suit a [startup / SME / enterprise]

Business case for Procurement Automation

I’ve seen so many procurement professionals struggle to get approval for the budget to implement a procurement system. It’s even harder when you report to a finance team, they’ll often push you to just use the ERP or accounting system to manage procurement. The worst part? You know you need a dedicated procurement system, but you’re not sure how to build a strong business case for it. That’s exactly what this prompt is designed to help with. It can draft a business case for you and the more context you provide, the more accurate and persuasive the output will be.

The Prompt:

Write a business case for implementing procurement automation at a company in the [industry type] sector with approximately [X employees].

The business case should include:

• Executive summary
• Current procurement challenges (manual processes, lack of visibility, compliance gaps, etc.)
• Benefits of automation (cost savings, efficiency, control, compliance, scalability)
• Estimated ROI and payback timeline (ballpark ranges acceptable)
• Key features to look for in a procurement automation tool
• Risks of inaction or delaying automation
• Recommendations and next steps

Audience: [e.g., CFO, COO, Procurement Head, Board of Directors]

Tone: Professional and persuasive

Length: 500–700 words

Optional: Include real-world examples or benchmarks from similar companies

Purchase order Creation Guide for Non-procurement teams

If anyone could create a PO, there’d be no need for procurement buyers. For most non-procurement folks, filling out a purchase order feels like trying to fly an aircraft. How many times have you seen someone go completely blank when asked for the budget code on their purchase request? That’s why it’s so important to educate non-procurement teams on how to create POs properly—it reduces the burden on buyers. Here’s a prompt to help you generate a step-by-step guide for creating a purchase order.

The Prompt:

Create a simple, step-by-step guide to help non-procurement teams understand how to raise a Purchase Order (PO) at a company in the [industry type] with approximately [X employees].

The guide should include:

• When a PO is required (with examples of common use cases)
• Information typically needed to raise a PO
• Step-by-step instructions to submit a PO request (tailored for [tool used, e.g., Excel, NetSuite, Precoro, etc.])
• What happens after the PO is submitted (approval flow, vendor notification, etc.)
• Do’s and Don’ts (e.g., don’t commit to a vendor before PO approval)
• Whom to contact for help or exceptions

Tone: Friendly, plain-language (for non-procurement users)

Format: Use headings, bullet points, and simple examples

Optional: Include tool-specific screenshots or template descriptions if available

To be updated...

Hope you found these prompts useful. I’ll keep updating this blog with more prompts as I cover additional procurement use cases.