Practitioner’s guide for procurement pricing

Explore the guide and tools to learn how to optimize pricing in achieving key procurement objectives including best value to Canada.

What we are doing

We have developed the Practitioner's Guide for Procurement Pricing to inform those involved in Government of Canada contracting of the required steps and factors to be considered in making procurement pricing decisions.

The guide aligns the pricing with the overall procurement strategy, objectives and priorities. We are updating guidance on contract costing and pricing in response to independent studies conducted on Canada’s current pricing practices.

We have performed broad stakeholder consultations, research and international benchmarking against practices employed by other jurisdictions to incorporate key messages learned into the guide.

This guide is intended to:

• inform and encourage innovative solutions to obtain the best value for Canada;
• bring clarity and consistency on how pricing is intended to work in a contract; and
• provide best practices for managing pricing throughout the acquisition life cycle.

In order to remain relevant and continually improve, the guide will be updated on a regular basis based on analysis, research, and consultations carried out.

Practitioner's Guide for Procurement Pricing

Updates

The updates of the guide include:

• August 2023: Version 2023-1 was released, including:
  • references to new basis of payment and incentive clauses as well as the audit clauses from the Standard Acquisition Clauses and Conditions (SACC)
  • updates of the pricing tools with functionality and instructions for clarity of use
• January 2022: Version 2022-1 was released, providing:
  • additional guidance on commercial pricing, liquidated damages, contract costing rates and cost management
  • discussion papers on various topics
• December 2020: Phase 3 of the guide was released, including:
  • profit principles for the development of a contract price when market prices are not available and negotiated pricing is required
• December 2019: Phase 2 of the guide was released, providing:
  • additional guidance on basis of payment and the use of incentives
  • new discussion papers on assessing the acceptability of contract costing practices
• February 2019: Phase 1 of the Practitioner’s Guide for Procurement Pricing was launched, which introduced:
  • guidance on the basis of payment and incentives
  • a new costing standard