SERVING IOWA GOVERNMENT & EDUCATION AGENCIES
THE EPROCUREMENT PLATFORM IOWA AGENCIES CHOOSE TO MODERNIZE PROCUREMENT
Built for cities, counties, school districts, and community colleges under Iowa Code Chapter 26 public improvement bidding requirements, compliant with Chapter 331 county contracting authority, and built for the scrutiny of the Iowa State Auditor's Office. Contact us to learn about cooperative purchasing options available to Iowa agencies, like the Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS).
Iowa agencies Cooperative purchasing options 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 ACROSS THE MIDWEST
From the Dakotas and the Great Plains to the Heartland and the Great Lakes, PlanetBids helps government agencies in the Midwest and nationwide run compliant, transparent, modern procurement.
CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT
HOW JEFFERSON COUNTY TRANSFORMED
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Eliminated stacks of paper and manual spreadsheet tracking – replaced with a centralized digital system that gives staff real-time visibility into every bid and contract in the pipeline
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Completed the County's first fully paperless procurement project in December 2025, just months after go-live – including electronic bid submission, scoring, and award
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Vendors now self-register and receive automatic notifications for new opportunities, eliminating missed outreach from manual email lists and spreadsheets
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Solicitation templates cut time from request to release – no more switching between programs or rebuilding documents from scratch for each purchase
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18 months in, there is full team buy-in, including a 26-year veteran who now "loves working with PlanetBids"
"I tell my team all the time that when they go home, they shouldn't be taking all the stress of work with them. You shouldn't have to be overwhelmed Monday through Friday with how much work you have and then go home and be stressed because all you see in your mind are all these stacks of paper."
Mike Bagley
Purchasing Director, Jefferson County
IOWA PROCUREMENT COMPLIANCE
BUILT FOR HOW TRI-STATE AGENCIES ARE REQUIRED TO BUY
Iowa procurement runs through a mix of statewide statute and home rule authority. Chapter 26 sets public improvement bidding requirements for every governmental entity, while Chapter 331 governs county contracting specifically. PlanetBids help streamline and automate that work for a county auditor or clerk, who typically also handles budgeting, elections, and records, ensuring procurement meets requirements from the State Auditor's Office while efficiently utilizing taxpayer funds.
Chapter 26 Compliance
PlanetBids structures sealed bid and competitive quote workflows to statutory public improvement thresholds and quotation requirements so your process matches the statute without a manual workaround.
Chapter 331 County Contracting Support
Configures to your county's contracting authority under home rule so a board of supervisors' award decisions are decided based on a documented, competitive record rather than an ad hoc process.
State Auditor Documentation
Every solicitation posting, communication, addendum, approval, and bid opening is timestamped and centralized for easy access during reviews and audits, without having to rebuild a report from email and paper files.
Iowa Finance Authority SRF Compliance
Audit-ready procurement documentation is built for Clean Water and Drinking water State Revolving Fund-financed capital projects, protecting loan draw eligibility when a review requests the file.
DBE & TSB Participation Tracking
Automate DBE vendor outreach logs to generate good faith effort records for IIJA-funded transportation work required by Iowa DOT, and support Targeted Small Business documentation for state and political subdivision contracts.
Rural Bidder Pool Compliance
A shared vendor network helps thin, rural bidder pools meet the competitive bid minimums required by Chapter 26, so your solicitations don't have to be rebid due to lack of response.
REACH EVERY BIDDER
NO SINGLE VENDOR NETWORK
Instead of relying solely on a bid posting network like BidNet Direct's Iowa Purchasing Group or DemandStar, PlanetBids lets you register any vendor anywhere, while adding the solicitation creation, vendor management, evaluation, and reporting tools that streamline your processes and build an entire lifecycle.
NO NEW BID REQUIRED
COOPERATIVE CONTRACTS AVAILABLE
PlanetBids is available on the Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS) as a pre-competed contract so agencies can purchase without issuing a new competitive solicitation, if allowed under home rule.
PROCUREMENT EXPERTISE
NPI-CERTIFIED
PlanetBids is certified as an Achievement in Excellence in Procurement® (AEP) eProcurement Certified platform by the National Procurement Institute, meeting critical standards for Electronic Sourcing (AEP Criteria 7b) and Electronic Evaluations and Automatic Scorecarding (7c).
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
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Vendors are matched to your bids by commodity code, no manual outreach lists required
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Agencies typically jump from 3-4 responses to 10-12 submittals per bid after switching to PlanetBids
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Empire State Development MWBE and SDVOB classifications are built in to meet Iowa's 30% MWBE utilization goals for state-funded projects
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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:
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Vendor registration help calls
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Document upload questions
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Bid submission troubleshooting
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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
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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 Iowa's 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 IOWA PROCUREMENT TEAMS ASK US MOST
Does PlanetBids support Iowa Code Chapter 26 bid thresholds?
Yes, the PlanetBids platform structures sealed bid and quotation workflows so that Chapter 26's public improvement threshold (adjusted annually by Iowa DOT under §314.1B) and Chapter 26.14 competitive quotation requirements are followed and documented.
Does PlanetBids integrate with our Tyler Munis finance system or other ERPs?
Yes, PlanetBids provides API integration with Tyler Technologies platforms and other ERPs. 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.
Can counties operating under Chapter 331 use the same system as cities?
Yes, the PlanetBids platform configures to each agency's contracting authority, whether that's a county's Chapter 331 authority or a city's home rule bidding policy.
Will PlanetBids provide bid records for Iowa State Auditor review?
Yes, PlanetBids retains timestamped records for request approvals, solicitation posting, Q&A, addenda release, bid submission, opening, and evaluation scoring. These records support State Auditor review and open records requests, while your agency remains responsible for the actual compliance.
Can we track DBE or Targeted Small Business participation for federally funded projects?
Yes! Vendor registration fields support both Iowa DOTs federal DBE program and Iowa Economic Development Authority's Targeted Small Business certification, generating the participation documentation IIJA-funded and state contracts require. Vendors can submit their business certification documents directly in the vendor portal for your agency to store and track, with automatic notifications for missing or expired certification, to keep you compliant on all projects.
How does PlanetBids help with Iowa Finance Authority SRF-funded water and sewer projects?
PlanetBids centralizes the procurement record grantors and auditors request for Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund-financed projects, so that documentation is already assembled ahead of a loan draw.
How long does implementation take?
Most agencies are up and running within just a few weeks, including data migration and integration where applicable. Because most customization is done by your team by setting up the system to your needs, we are able to shorten the implementation timeline significantly to meet urgent requirements when necessary.
How much does PlanetBids cost?
PlanetBids is priced as an annual SaaS subscription with no per-bid, vendor, or transaction fees. Pricing is tiered based on the desired features and functionality as well as the number of full users and solicitations posted annually. Because of this, pricing varies based on agency size, bid requirements, and budget, so we recommend speaking to our sales team for a customized quote.
PlanetBids charges a one-time setup fee that covers all implementation, customization, training, integration, and vendor import. We do not charge for extra templates, vendor transfers, or special setup requests. Portal registration, project download, and bid submission is always free for vendors and the public.
READY TO MODERNIZE PROCUREMENT FOR YOUR IOWA 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, no new RFP required
Works inside your existing purchasing authority, no rewrite required
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 agencies love us