  | Commodities - Equipment, Machines, Parts, and Components | This bid category includes equipment, machinery, parts, and components that are used by the city to conduct routine business activities (i.e. this category does not include heavy equipment). |
| | Commodities - Furniture, Fixtures, and Decorations | This bid category includes furniture, interior fixtures, and interior decorations. |
| | Commodities - Supplies, Materials, and Substances | This bid category includes most supplies, materials, and substances that are used in the regular course of the city's operating activities. |
| | Commodities - Technology and Electronics | This bid category includes electronic products, technology hardware, and related components. |
| | Commodities - Vehicles and Heavy Equipment | This bid category includes cars, trucks, emergency vehicles, other passenger vehicles, fire/rescue vehicles, heavy construction equipment, and large machinery used for transportation, public works activities, or for providing public services. |
| | Projects - Construction, Repair of Buildings or Facilities | This bid category includes labor-and-materials projects that have a specific action plan, goal, and/or objective related to construction, repair, or improvement of public buildings, structures, publicly-owned land, parks, and other public facilities. |
| | Projects - Construction, Repair of Roadways and ROW | This bid category includes labor-and-materials projects that have a specific action plan, goal, and/or objective related to roadways, right-of-ways, traffic control, street lighting, sidewalks, and other projects related to public thoroughfares. |
| | Request For Proposals | This category is used to solicit formal proposals in circumstances that are beyond the scope of State of Alabama Competitive Bid Laws and Public Works Laws and that employ the use of multiple and varied factors as criteria to determine who shall be awarded a contract. |
| | Services - Maintenance, Operations, and Repair Contracts | This bid category includes services that are primarily comprised of labor and skills used to maintain, operate, or repair city facilities, grounds, systems, and equipment; might also include the ancillary consumption of supplies and/or materials within the scope of work. |
| | Services - Professional and Technical | This category includes attorneys, physicians, architects, engineers, appraisers, construction superintendents, teachers, artists, or other individuals possessing a high degree of professional skill where the personality of the individual plays a decisive part in the selection of that person or firm. |
| | Software Solutions | This bid category includes software licensing and/or the acquisition of intellectual rights and privileges; May also include ancillary hardware and/or technical services needed to implement a turnkey information technology system; May also include cloud-based software/systems. |