Boost recurring donations this giving season with the upsell prompt!A paddle raise is recorded at speed, in a dark room, by people watching for raised hands. Some commitments will have been entered against an unknown bidder, and some will have been entered twice. This is the tidy-up, and it is best done the morning after while the night is still fresh.
Open the auction's Paddle Raise tab to work through the commitments list.
1. Deal with duplicates first
Select Show possible duplicates. Commitments sharing the same bidder, level and amount are highlighted.
Two spotters catching the same raised paddle is the single most common recording error, so start here — clearing duplicates before anything else stops you chasing a supporter about a commitment they never made.
For each genuine duplicate, click Void on one of the pair, then Confirm Void. The voided row stays in the list for the record and drops out of Total Raised.
Note: A commitment flagged as a possible duplicate is held back from the Live Display until confirmed, so during the event the room will not have seen both.
2. Attach the unknown bidders
Commitments recorded with Unknown bidder show whatever description your spotter typed — "Table 5, blue tie". Work through these while people still remember the room.
- Click Edit on the commitment.
- Search for the bidder by number or name and select them.
- Click Save.
The Entered By column tells you who recorded each one, so you know who to ask about an ambiguous description.
If a commitment genuinely cannot be attributed, leave it. It still counts toward your total, but it isn't added to anyone's checkout, so nobody is asked to pay it. As soon as you attach a bidder, it's added to that bidder's checkout.
3. Check the total
Total Raised is the sum of every commitment that has not been voided. Compare it against what your emcee announced from the stage — a mismatch usually means a duplicate you have not voided yet, or a commitment recorded against the wrong level.
Select Hide voided to see only the live commitments while you check.
4. Correct anything else
Edit on any row lets you change the bidder, the giving level, the amount and the description. Use it for a commitment logged at the wrong level, or an amount taken down wrongly.
Important: Voiding cannot be undone from this screen, and a giving level cannot be deleted while it still has commitments against it. Void the commitments first if you genuinely need to remove a level.
How pledges are collected
Reconciling commitments does not itself collect any money, but it decides what each bidder is asked to pay. Every commitment attached to a bidder appears on that bidder's checkout, alongside the items they won or bought, and is paid the same way. Collect it from the auction's Checkouts tab, or let the bidder pay from their own checkout. When the checkout is paid in full, the commitment's status changes to Paid.
Your corrections here carry through to the checkout. Voiding a commitment removes it from the bidder's bill, and changing its bidder or amount changes what each bidder owes. A commitment held as a possible duplicate isn't billed until it's confirmed.
Important: Finish reconciling before you send checkout links or charge cards. If you void a commitment after the bidder has paid for it, it is removed from their checkout, but nothing is refunded and the checkout does not show a refund as due.
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