Boost recurring donations this giving season with the upsell prompt!With the Auctions app, you can create and configure individual auctions, including their name, dates, status, time zone, what the auction includes, bidder numbering, and how each auction's checkouts are settled.
To create a new auction:
- Open the Auctions Manager.
- Click Add.
- Click the Details tab.
- In the General section, for Name, enter the publicly visible name of the auction.
- For Description, you can enter a description of the auction to show on the front end.
- For Start, select the date and time the auction begins.
- For End, select the date and time the auction ends.
- For Timezone, select the time zone used to display all dates and times to front-end visitors.
- For Status, select one of the following options to control how the auction appears on the front end:
- Hidden: The auction is only viewable by administrators. This is the default.
- Preview: Auction items are visible to anyone, but no bidding or purchasing is available. Items display a "Preview" status indicator.
- Open: Auction items are available to anyone and follow each item's individual status.
- Closed: Auction items are visible to anyone, but no bidding or purchasing is available. Items display a "Closed" status indicator.
- If Status is set to Open and you need to temporarily halt all bidding and purchasing, for Paused, select Yes. When paused, all items display a "Paused" status and all bid and order buttons are hidden. Select No to resume normal bidding.
- For Goal, enter the fundraising target for this auction. The Overview tab measures progress against this figure.
- In the What's in this auction section, for People Bid on Items, Items Sold at a Set Price, Paddle Raise and Sponsors, select No for anything this auction won't have. Each one defaults to Yes. See Choosing what's in an auction.
- In the Manage Bidders section, for Starting Bidder Number, enter the number to count up from when bidders are numbered automatically. The default is 100.
- For Reserved / Skip Numbers, enter any numbers to hold back for pre-printed paddles, as individual numbers and ranges separated by commas, for example
1-99, 500. Automatic assignment and bulk number operations skip these. - In the Settlement Configuration section, leave each setting on Use global default (or blank) to follow your app-wide Checkout & Settlement settings, or choose a value to override it for this auction only. Under each dropdown, a note shows the app-wide value the auction is using at the moment. See Configuring checkout and settlement settings.
- In the Bidder Management section, for Require Mobile Phone, Require Shipping Address and Require Saved Payment Method, select Yes for anything people must provide before they can become a bidder in this auction. Each one defaults to No. See Choosing what bidders must provide.
- Click Save.
Note: Which tabs an auction shows depends on its What's in this auction settings, and the tabs change after you save. Choosing No hides the matching tabs and auction-site pages, but nothing is deleted. You can't turn off something the auction is already using, such as bidding on an auction whose items have bids. For details, see Choosing what's in an auction.
Note: Changing the Status field from Open to Closed or Hidden does not delete any bidding data. It only affects what front-end visitors can see and do.
Note: Nothing is charged automatically. Winning bidders pay from their checkout, or your team collects payment from the auction's Checkouts tab.
Associating the auction with an event
The Details tab also holds the event this auction belongs to. Setting it lets you build your bidder list from the event's attendee list, and enables automatic enrollment as people register.
Click Select next to the event field, choose the event, and click Save. For what the association enables and how to configure enrollment, see Associating an Auction with an Event.
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