Queensland’s Maranoa council has set up a new five-star rating system to help local firms win government contracts.

The new 'My Maranoa' rating system aims to allow more business to benefit in their local economy.

Councillor Davis Schefe said companies will also be able to use their new star logo on promotional materials.

“In the past we've had a 10 per cent weighting for local business but there's been no clear definition of local business, so in the past we've had businesses float in from out of town, rent an office, call themselves local and then want that weighting applied to their tender,” he told reports.

Cr Schefe said it was now a fairer system.

“For example, five star is a 100 per cent locally owned business, their directors live here, all of their employees live here, obviously there's a net benefit for our community out of that,” he said.

“Then you step back to a four star where you might have one director living here and 75 per cent of their workforce and then it steps right down.”