Boost recurring donations this giving season with the upsell prompt!With the Auctions app, you can decide how bidders' checkouts are settled: whether a card is needed to bid, how payments are collected, processing fees, sales tax, receipts and collection instructions. You set app-wide defaults once, and each auction uses them unless you override a setting for that auction.
Note: Nothing is charged automatically. Bidders pay from their checkout, or your team collects payment on the auction's Checkouts tab.
Setting the app-wide defaults
- In the administrator, go to Auctions → Configuration. How you reach the Auctions menu depends on which administrator your site has. See Viewing and managing Auctions in the administrator.
- The Auctions Configuration screen opens on the Checkout & Settlement tab.
- Set each setting, using the table below.
- Click Save.
If a value is not valid, an alert lists the fields to fix. It starts "Please fix the following Checkout & Settlement field(s) before saving:". Percentages must be between 0 and 100, with up to two decimal places. Resend Cooldown (Minutes) must be a whole number. On this screen, Fee Percent is required when Cover Transaction Fees is set to Opt-in or Mandatory.
Overriding a setting for one auction
- Open the Auctions Manager.
- Click the title of the auction.
- Click the Details tab.
- In the Settlement Configuration section, leave a setting on Use global default (or blank) to follow the app-wide value, or choose a value for this auction only.
- Click Save.
Under each dropdown, a note shows the app-wide value the auction is using at the moment, for example "Use global default — currently Batch review". If the app-wide setting has never been saved, the note ends in "(app default)". A blank text field shows the app-wide value in gray.
Important: A blank field uses the app-wide value, but 0 is a real setting. For example, a Sales Tax Rate of 0 turns tax off for that auction, even if your app-wide rate is 6.
If an auction's value is not valid, an alert starting "Please fix the following Settlement Configuration field(s) before saving:" lists the fields to fix.
The settings
| Setting | Options and app-wide default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Require Card to Bid | No, Yes or Above a threshold. Default: No. | Whether a bidder must have an unexpired card on file before they bid or use Buy Now. Above a threshold asks for a card only when the bid, or the item's Buy Now price, is at or above the threshold. Bidders your team added without a user account are not asked. |
| Card-to-Bid Threshold Amount | An amount. Default: 0. | The amount used by Above a threshold. Grayed out unless Require Card to Bid is Above a threshold. |
| Settlement Mode | Batch review or Manual. Default: Batch review. | Batch review lets your team charge saved cards for many bidders at once, after reviewing the list. Manual turns batch charging off. Bidders pay from their checkout, and your team takes or records payments one bidder at a time. |
| Allow Offline Payments | Yes or No. Default: Yes. | Whether your team can record cash and check payments on a bidder's checkout. |
| Require Payment Before Release | Yes or No. Default: No. | When Yes, items belonging to a bidder who still owes money show as Held on the Fulfillments tab and can't be marked picked up or shipped until the bidder pays in full. |
| Cover Transaction Fees | Off, Opt-in or Mandatory. Default: Off. | Whether bidders cover the card processing fee. Opt-in offers bidders the choice. Mandatory adds the fee to card payments. |
| Fee Percent | A percentage. Default: 0. | The processing fee, as a percentage of the card payment. It applies only to card payments, never to cash or check, and only when it is above 0. Grayed out when Cover Transaction Fees is Off. |
| Show Fair Market Value on Receipts | Yes or No. Default: Yes. | Adds Fair market value and Deductible columns, and a For your tax records statement, to the receipt emailed when a bidder pays in full. |
| Sales Tax Rate | A percentage. Default: 0. | The sales tax rate. Tax is charged on the fair market value of won items and fixed price purchases, not on the price paid. |
| Sales Tax Label | Text. Default: Sales tax. | The name of the tax line on the bidder's checkout and receipt, for example "Sales tax" or "HST". |
| Resend Cooldown (Minutes) | A whole number. Default: 30. | The minimum time between checkout links sent to the same bidder. 0 turns the cooldown off. |
| Collection Instructions | Text. Default: blank. | Where and when guests collect what they bought. Plain text; line breaks are kept. Shown on the bidder's checkout once they have paid in full, and on their receipt, but only to bidders with an item to collect in person. Blank shows nothing. |
More about the settings
- Fee Percent on an auction. An auction's own Fee Percent applies even when its Cover Transaction Fees is left on Use global default. To change only the rate for one auction, enter a Fee Percent there and leave the mode alone.
- Resend Cooldown. When your team sends a checkout link to one bidder within the cooldown, a warning appears with a Send anyway button. In the reminder review, bidders contacted within the cooldown are marked Within cooldown and start unticked. Ticking one of them does not send them a reminder.
- Collection Instructions. "An item to collect in person" means an item tracked for fulfillment that does not require shipping. When you copy an auction, its Collection Instructions are cleared, so you can enter the new date and place.
- Show Fair Market Value on Receipts affects only the emailed receipt. The bidder's checkout page always shows the fair market value and estimated tax-deductible amount.
Checkout email sender (per auction only)
The Settlement Configuration section also has four fields that exist only on the auction: Checkout Email From Address, Checkout Email From Name, Checkout Email Reply-To Address and Checkout Email Reply-To Name.
Despite their names, these set the sender for every email this auction sends, not only checkout emails. That includes bid, outbid, win, order, registration, checkout link and receipt emails. The one exception is the "reserve price not met" email. Leave a field blank to use the app-wide Email Sender Identity tab on the Auctions Configuration screen, or your site's default sender if that is also blank.
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