Very low risk purchases under £10,000

Check the mandated contracts (pre-approved suppliers) list

Mandated contracts are pre-approved suppliers that all employees can use to buy goods and services that are frequently needed.

When you need to buy something, you must first check the list of mandated contracts (pre-approved suppliers) to see if your need can be met using an existing contract.

If the goods or services you need to buy are not covered by an existing guidance, you can use this guidance to make a purchase.

Making one-off purchases

We class something as a one-off purchase if, to the best of your knowledge, the council is unlikely to buy from the supplier again and the total spend will not be over £10,000 (ten thousand).

You can check My Oracle to find out if the council has used a suitable supplier before. If you need to make a purchase through My Oracle, you can find information about making payments and adding new suppliers in the guidance on paying for goods and services using My Oracle.

If the total spend may be over £10,000

If a purchase will require multiple payments over a period of time, or where many orders will be placed with a single supplier, contact the procurement team for advice.

Paying for goods and services under £10,000

The most common way to pay for goods and services that cost under £2,000 is by using a purchase card (P-Card).

Purchase cards (P-Cards)

P-Cards can be used for one off purchases of less than £2,000 (two thousand) where:

• the supplier is not already listed on My Oracle as an existing supplier
• there are no mandated contracts that cover your requirement

Any employee can apply to hold a purchase card. You can check with your manager to find out if there is a P-Card in your team that can be used for your order. 

If you do not have access to a card, find out how to apply for, use and manage a purchase card. 

Amazon purchases

P-Cards can be used to purchase low value items on Amazon that cannot be purchased through our other mandated contracts.

All purchases must be made using the Amazon Business Prime Account. 

To get access to the Amazon Business account, you will need to email procurement.team@essex.gov.uk using the heading ‘Amazon Business’.

You will then be sent an ‘invitation email’ which will giving you access to the system, where you can set up a new account or migrate across an existing Amazon Business account.  

Electronic payment request tool (EPRT)

The electronic payment request tool (EPRT) may be used where:

• it is not possible or practical to use a P-Card
• the supplier is not already listed on My Oracle as an existing supplier
• there are no mandated contracts that cover your requirement

EPRT can be used to pay for one off goods and services purchases under the value of £10,000 (ten thousand) where the supplier is not on My Oracle, and you do not expect to trade with them again.

Find out more about paying for goods and services using EPRT.

Petty cash

Petty cash is used by a small number of teams to make payments where there is no alternative, such as when making a one-off allowance payment to an asylum seeker. See the petty cash page for guidance.