purchasing

Vendor Information Center

How to Do Business with the State of Texas

With billions of dollars in purchasing power, Texas requires vendors to provide a wide variety of goods and services.

Where to Start:

1. Learn how Texas classifies your goods and services: Review the list of purchasing class and item codes (numeric) that best represent your offerings. View class and item codes. Purchasers use these codes numbers to identify vendors in certain industries and to categorize products and services they are putting out for bid.
2. Search the Electronic State Business Daily (ESBD): State and local government purchasers post bid opportunities on ESBD — the state's search engine for bid opportunities. Companies can search by government agency or class and item number to find the newest bid postings statewide.
3. Become a Texas vendor: Visit How to Receive Bids to learn how to register as a Texas Vendor on the Centralized Master Bidders List (CMBL).
4. Check Qualifications: Vendors must be in good standing with the state and, if applicable, their franchise tax account status must be “active". Confirm whether your business entity is subject to the Texas franchise tax.

Other Tools and Information

• Vendor Performance Tracking - The Vendor Performance Tracking System (VPTS) provides the state procurement community with a comprehensive tool for evaluating vendor performance to reduce risk in the contract award process. The VPTS tracks exceptional, satisfactory and unsatisfactory vendor performance.