SERVING ARKANSAS GOVERNMENT & EDUCATION AGENCIES
THE EPROCUREMENT PLATFORM ARKANSAS AGENCIES CHOOSE TO MODERNIZE PROCUREMENT
Built to streamline and simplify procurement and competitive bidding for cities, counties, school districts, and special districts, with documentation that meets Arkansas Legislative Audit review compliance. Contact us to learn about cooperative purchasing options available to Arkansas agencies.
Arkansas agencies Cooperative purchasing options like the Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS) are available to allow your agency to purchase PlanetBids without a new competitive solicitation. Ask our team about options for your agency type.
TRUSTED BY AGENCIES IN THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY
From the Dakotas to Illinois, Oklahoma to Missouri, Kentucky to Arkansas, agencies in the Midwest and Great Plains rely on PlanetBids to run compliant, transparent, modern procurement.
ARKANSAS PROCUREMENT COMPLIANCE
BUILT FOR HOW ARKANSAS AGENCIES ARE REQUIRED TO BUY
Arkansas purchasing is governed by Arkansas Procurement Law (Arkansas Code Title 19), and competitive bidding is tied to a threshold that resets each year based on the Consumer Price Index. That moving target lands on offices that are often staffed with only a single clerk-treasurer or county judge's staff handling procurement alongside other duties. PlanetBids is designed to help these small agencies automate routine tasks and create more defensible documentation.
Municipal Bid Compliance
PlanetBids documents every step of a city's competitive bidding process, from request and solicitation creation to notice and addenda release to evaluation and award, so agencies can demonstrate their processes and reasoning under required thresholds.
County Purchasing Compliance
Structure your county's bidding workflow into a consistent, repeatable process with automated documentation that is easily accessible for review, regardless of agency size.
School District Compliance
Provide line item price formatting and centralize solicitation records for construction, transportation, equipment, and food service purchasing to give your business office a clear, complete audit trail under any threshold.
Arkansas Legislative Audit Documentation
PlanetBids timestamps, tracks, and centralizes every step of the procurement process across request, solicitation, and award, providing a complete, exportable file for any audit or review.
Federal Grant Compliance
Audit-ready procurement documentation is built for state revolving fund and USDA Rural Development-financed water and sewer projects, protecting funding eligibility for suburban and improvement districts during review.
Federal DBE Outreach
Automated vendor outreach logs and centralized business certification document management generates the good faith effort records required for federally-funded highway, transit, or environmental infrastructure work.
COOPERATIVE PURCHASING
Cooperative Purchasing Options
Arkansas agencies may be able to purchase PlanetBids through an existing cooperative contract like the Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS), eliminating the need for a new competitive solicitation. Ask your PlanetBids rep about available cooperative vehicles for your agency type.
PROCUREMENT EXPERTISE
NPI-CERTIFIED
PlanetBids is a proud member of NIGP and a regular attendee and sponsor of the annual NIGP Forum, as well as attending annual American Public Works and Government Finance Officers Association events.
ACTIVE IN ARKANSAS MARKET
SAMPO Conference Presence
PlanetBids attends the Suffolk Association of Municipal Purchasing Officials (SAMPO) conference. We're active in the Arkansas procurement community and connected to purchasing professionals across Long Island and the wider Arkansas market. PlanetBids also attends the NIGP Annual Forum nationally.
THE PLATFORM
EVERYTHING YOUR PROCUREMENT TEAM NEEDS, NOTHING YOU DON'T.
PlanetBids is a modular, end-to-end procurement lifecycle platform. Start with what you need and add modules as your agency grows.
Requests & Solicitations
Create, publish, and manage IFBs, RFPs, RFQs, and RFIs from guided templates. Get live countdowns, drag-and-drop documents, and real-time status tracking.
Vendor Management
Create a centralized vendor registry with real-time Empire State Development MWBE and SDVOB certification verification. Automated outreach by commodity code generates good-faith effort documentation for State Comptroller pre-audit packages and Empire State Development utilization reports.
Compliance & Audit Trails
Every action is timestamped and logged, with automatic bid tabulation, sealed bid verification, and complete documentation trails that hold up to protests – $50B+ processed, zero valid protests.
Contract Management
Centralize awarded contracts with automated expiration alerts, amendment tracking, and insurance certificate management so you ever miss a renewal or compliance deadline.
Project Evaluation
Multi-round scoring with unlimited evaluators, consensus or individual scoring modes, and exportable matrices supports complex RFP evaluations for capital projects and bond programs.
AI with Guardrails
AI tools are built specifically for public procurement, with the compliance controls government agencies require. Get faster drafting and smarter vendor matching, within the boundaries your policies demand.
Requests & Solicitations
Create, publish, and manage IFBs, RFPs, RFQs, and RFIs from guided templates. Get live countdowns, drag-and-drop documents, and real-time status tracking.
Vendor Management
Create a centralized vendor registry with real-time Empire State Development MWBE and SDVOB certification verification. Automated outreach by commodity code generates good-faith effort documentation for State Comptroller pre-audit packages and Empire State Development utilization reports.
Compliance & Audit Trails
Every action is timestamped and logged, with automatic bid tabulation, sealed bid verification, and complete documentation trails that hold up to protests – $50B+ processed, zero valid protests.
Contract Management
Centralize awarded contracts with automated expiration alerts, amendment tracking, and insurance certificate management so you ever miss a renewal or compliance deadline.
Project Evaluation
Multi-round scoring with unlimited evaluators, consensus or individual scoring modes, and exportable matrices supports complex RFP evaluations for capital projects and bond programs.
AI with Guardrails
AI tools are built specifically for public procurement, with the compliance controls government agencies require. Get faster drafting and smarter vendor matching, within the boundaries your policies demand.
THE VENDOR ADVANTAGE
MORE QUALIFIED BIDDERS, ZERO VENDOR PHONE CALLS TO YOUR TEAM.
A deep, pre-qualified vendor network and a dedicated support team handles vendors for you, so your purchasing office can focus on procurement, not vendor phone calls.
VENDOR
NETWORK
40K+ qualified vendors ready to bid on your solicitations
-
Vendors are matched to your bids by commodity code, no manual outreach lists required
-
Agencies typically jump from 3-4 responses to 10-12 submittals per bid after switching to PlanetBids
-
Empire State Development MWBE and SDVOB classifications are built in to meet Arkansas' 30% MWBE utilization goals for state-funded projects
-
Vendors can register and bid for free, removing the friction that keeps small businesses out
EXCLUSIVE
DEDICATED
VENDOR SUPPORT
We help your vendors so you don't have to
When a vendor has a question about your solicitation, how to upload documents, or how to register, they call us, not your purchasing office. Our dedicated vendor support team handles it directly so your team stays focused on procurement. For you, this means no more:
-
Vendor registration help calls
-
Document upload questions
-
Bid submission troubleshooting
-
Addenda & notification questions
Results: Fewer incomplete bids, more competitive responses, and hours back in your team's week, every single procurement cycle.
VENDOR NETWORK
40K+ qualified vendors ready to bid on your solicitations
-
Vendors are matched to your bids by commodity code, no manual outreach lists required
-
Agencies typically jump from 3-4 responses to 10-12 submittals per bid after switching to PlanetBids
-
Empire State Development MWBE and SDVOB classifications are built in to meet Arkansas' 30% MWBE utilization goals for state-funded projects
-
Vendors can register and bid for free, removing the friction that keeps small businesses out
DEDICATED VENDOR SUPPORT
We help your vendors so you don't have to
When a vendor has a question about your solicitation, how to upload documents, or how to register, they call us, not your purchasing office. Our dedicated vendor support team handles it directly so your team stays focused on procurement. For you, this means no more:
-
Vendor registration help calls
-
Document upload questions
-
Bid submission troubleshooting
-
Addenda & notification questions
Results: Fewer incomplete bids, more competitive responses, and hours back in your team's week, every single procurement cycle.
WHO WE ARE
Built by procurement professionals, for procurement professionals
PlanetBids was founded specifically for the public procurement industry, and we understand the needs of procurement professionals. That origin matters, as every feature, every workflow, and every support interaction are designed to reflect how actual purchasing teams manage work under budget pressure, public scrutiny, and legal compliance requirements.
Designed for public procurement since 2000
We're not an ERP company that added a procurement module. We're not a startup that pivoted into GovTech. We're not a big conglomerate chasing a new market. We are a 25-year-old company whose entire business is built around making procurement professionals more effective.
100% US-based support staff with procurement backgrounds
Our in-house support team includes people with real public procurement backgrounds. When you call with a question about sealed bid procedures or vendor protest prevention, you're talking to someone who has managed that process themselves and understands your issues.
A solid foundation of PlanetBids agencies
550+ agencies. 1,000+ users. 99% retention. Zero valid bid protests across $50B+ in contracts processed. Our company has stayed focused on one thing for 25 years, and we have the track record to prove it.
WHAT ARKANSAS PROCUREMENT TEAMS ASK US MOST
Can our Arkansas agency purchase PlanetBids without going through a new bid process?
Potentially yes, depending on your agency type and purchasing thresholds, cooperative purchasing options may be available that allow Arkansas agencies to execute a contract without issuing a new competitive solicitation. One such option is a cooperative contract available on the Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS). Contact our team to discuss the procurement paths available for your specific agency.
If a direct procurement path is preferred, our team can provide pre-approved legal resolution language addressing common counsel concerns including General Municipal Law 103 authorization and cooperative purchasing authority.
Does PlanetBids integrate with ERPs or financial systems?
Yes, PlanetBids provides API integration with ERP systems. The integration passes awarded contract data, vendor information, and purchase requisitions between systems, eliminating duplicate entry while maintaining your ERP as the financial system of record.
PlanetBids handles the vendor-facing competitive bidding process, vendor management, bid solicitation, evaluation, and award, then pushes clean contract and vendor data into your ERP for encumbrance and payment processing. Most clients keep their ERP for accounting while using PlanetBids for the public procurement workflow.
Our bid thresholds change every year. How does PlanetBids keep up with the Consumer Price Index adjustment?
PlanetBids tracks your procurement processes and budget spending to meet whatever threshold your city, county, or school district is required to meet. Your solicitations are always measured against this year's figure, rather than last year's.
Can PlanetBids replace our newspaper legal notice publication requirement.
PlanetBids cannot post in your local newspaper on your behalf, but it does provide a public notice of new solicitations through your agency's dedicated PlanetBids vendor portal, accessible wherever you list the link, like your agency's website. You can do this in addition to newspaper posting to reach a wider network of potential bidders and accept digital bid submissions.
We're a county judge's office with one purchasing clerk. How much work does PlanetBids actually take?
PlanetBids is designed to help alleviate the tedious manual work associated with procurement for small teams, automating repetitive processes and the documentation required for compliance review. Setup and day-to-day use are built to make procurement easier for small teams, not to add extra steps.
How quickly can we go live, and what does implementation cost?
Agencies are typically up and running within a few weeks, including implementation, training, customization, integration, and vendor import. You do not need to add additional staff to support implementation.
We do charge a one-time setup fee to support the cost of implementation, training, and any required customization. We do not charge vendor, transaction, or per-bid fees.
Does PlanetBids produce documentation for Arkansas Legislative Audit compliance review?
Yes, PlanetBids tracks, records, and timestamps every request, approval, solicitation notice, Q&A response, addendum, bid submission, evaluation, and award in a centralized, easily accessible file for compliance review.
Can our suburban improvement district or water/sewer improvement district use PlanetBids?
Absolutely. PlanetBids is designed to fit all public agencies' procurement workflows, and water, public works, and utilities are prime use cases. Improvement districts with minimal dedicated staff can automate tedious and repetitive tasks and create more defensible processes and documentation to maintain compliance.
How does PlanetBids integrate with our existing finance or accounting system?
PlanetBids operates on the solicitation and bidding side and can pass vendor and award data to your finance system, rather than duplicating it. PlanetBids becomes the system of record for the procurement process, while your finance system remains the system of record for accounting.
How much does PlanetBids cost?
PlanetBids is a SaaS subscription platform, with no per-bid, vendor, or transaction fees. Pricing is tiered based on desired features and functionality, number of full users required, and number of solicitations posted per year. We do not charge vendors to view or bid on projects. Because pricing is customized to each individual agency, we recommend speaking to our sales team for a tailored quote.
READY TO MODERNIZE PROCUREMENT FOR YOUR ARKANSAS AGENCY?
Book a 30-minute demo with a member of our dedicated public sector sales team. We'll show you the platform, walk through the TIPS contract process, and answer questions specific to your agency type.
Available on TIPS cooperative with no new RFP required
Creates centralized, easily accessible, timestamped records of all procurement activities for review
US-based in-house support with extensive procurement expertise
Pricing is tiered, with options for any agency size and budget
99% client retention means our clients love us