Turning a policy into a tool

Small purchases create a surprising amount of paperwork. Federal rules let agencies like ours buy low-cost items without competitive quotes, as long as the price is reasonable and documented. But each request still adds work for our purchasing staff.

I wanted to give them one clear document showing the authority for these purchases, so they would have less to review.

Step one: the memo

I asked Claude for a memo laying out the federal and local authority for small purchases, including from online retailers.

Step two: stop and read the real policy

Before it revised anything, I told it to wait until I could upload the City's actual procurement procedures. I am glad I did. The first draft was built from federal rules, and the local policy differs in ways that matter:

• Our ceiling for the next tier of purchases is much lower than the federal one.
• Three quotes are always required at that tier.
• A check against the federal list of barred vendors is required at every dollar amount, even the smallest.

On that last point Claude had told me earlier that the check only applied above a certain amount. When it read our policy, it said it had been wrong and corrected the memo.

Step three: the form, then the tool

Next came a price determination form that matches the one in our procedures. Then came the part I like most: a small web page that asks questions about a purchase, one at a time, and produces the right completed form at the end.

That is the jump worth noticing. A policy is something people have to read. A tool is something people can just use. I describe the tool itself in A wizard that fills out the procurement forms.

Knowing when to stop

Claude offered to extend the wizard to four more forms. I said no. I want to live with the first two before building more.

Where it falls short

It will write from general rules if that is all it has. Your local policy is the one that counts, so give it the document.

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Part of the series 27 ways I actually use AI. Claude drafted this post from the record of our work together.