How to become Procurement Clerk in 2024

Procurement Clerk Compile information and records to draw up purchase orders for procurement of materials and services.

Procurement Clerk is Also Know as

In different settings, Procurement Clerk is titled as

  • Buyer
  • Procurement Assistant
  • Procurement Officer
  • Procurement Specialist
  • Purchasing Assistant
  • Purchasing Associate
  • Purchasing Clerk
  • Purchasing Coordinator
  • Purchasing Specialist
  • Warehouse Clerk

Education and Training of Procurement Clerk

Procurement Clerk is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Procurement Clerk

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Education Required for Procurement Clerk

These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Degrees Related to Procurement Clerk

Training Required for Procurement Clerk

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Procurement Clerk in different industries are

What Do Procurement Clerk do?

  • Prepare purchase orders and send copies to suppliers and to departments originating requests.
  • Determine if inventory quantities are sufficient for needs, ordering more materials when necessary.
  • Respond to customer and supplier inquiries about order status, changes, or cancellations.
  • Perform buying duties when necessary.
  • Contact suppliers to schedule or expedite deliveries and to resolve shortages, missed or late deliveries, and other problems.
  • Review requisition orders to verify accuracy, terminology, and specifications.
  • Prepare, maintain, and review purchasing files, reports and price lists.
  • Compare prices, specifications, and delivery dates to determine the best bid among potential suppliers.
  • Track the status of requisitions, contracts, and orders.
  • Calculate costs of orders, and charge or forward invoices to appropriate accounts.
  • Check shipments when they arrive to ensure that orders have been filled correctly and that goods meet specifications.
  • Compare suppliers' bills with bids and purchase orders to verify accuracy.
  • Locate suppliers, using sources such as catalogs and the internet, and interview them to gather information about products to be ordered.
  • Maintain knowledge of all organizational and governmental rules affecting purchases, and provide information about these rules to organization staff members and to vendors.
  • Monitor in-house inventory movement and complete inventory transfer forms for bookkeeping purposes.
  • Monitor contractor performance, recommending contract modifications when necessary.
  • Prepare invitation-of-bid forms, and mail forms to supplier firms or distribute forms for public posting.
  • Train and supervise subordinates and other staff.
  • Approve and pay bills.

Qualities of Good Procurement Clerk

  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.

Tools Used by Procurement Clerk

  • Copy machines
  • Document scanners
  • Electronic cash registers
  • Laser facsimile machines
  • Multiline telephone systems
  • Personal computers

Technology Skills required for Procurement Clerk

  • Autotask
  • Electronic data interchange EDI software
  • Enterprise resource planning ERP software
  • IBM Maximo Asset Management
  • Intuit QuickBooks
  • Inventory tracking software
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft SharePoint
  • Microsoft Windows
  • Microsoft Word
  • Oracle Database
  • Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne
  • Oracle PeopleSoft
  • Radiant Systems CounterPoint
  • SAP Business Objects
  • SAP software
  • Web browser software
  • Word processing software
  • Work scheduling software