Boost recurring donations this giving season with the upsell prompt!With the Auctions app, you can have bidders cover the card processing fee on what they pay. If the fee isn't being added, check the causes below in order. The first two are the most common, because both settings start switched off.
The fee is controlled by two settings: Cover Transaction Fees (Off, Opt-in or Mandatory) and Fee Percent. Both have an app-wide default, on the Checkout & Settlement tab of the Auctions Configuration, and each auction can override them under Settlement Configuration on its Details tab. See Configuring checkout and settlement settings.
1. Fee Percent is 0
The app-wide Fee Percent starts at 0, and a fee of 0% adds nothing, even when Cover Transaction Fees is Mandatory. At 0%, bidders see no fee and no mention of one.
The two settings are inherited separately. An auction can use a Mandatory fee from the app-wide default while its own Fee Percent is 0, or the reverse.
How to tell: open the auction's Details tab and look at Fee Percent under Settlement Configuration. A blank field shows the app-wide value, grayed out. If that reads 0, the app-wide default is 0.
What to do: enter a percentage for the auction, or set the app-wide Fee Percent, and click Save.
2. Cover Transaction Fees is Off
The app-wide Cover Transaction Fees starts as Off. When the auction uses the app-wide value, its setting reads Use global default, with a note such as "Use global default — currently Off". Fee Percent is grayed out while fees are Off.
What to do: choose Opt-in or Mandatory for the auction or app-wide, and click Save.
3. The fee is Opt-in and the bidder didn't choose it
With Opt-in, a bidder paying from their own checkout sees "Cover the X% processing fee so 100% of my payment goes to the cause." The box starts unticked, so the fee is added only if they tick it.
4. Your team switched the fee off for that charge
When you take a card payment on the Checkouts tab, Add N% processing fee decides whether the fee is added:
- Opt-in: on a single charge, the toggle starts off. Switch it on to add the fee.
- Mandatory: the toggle starts on. If someone switched it off, the note reads "Required for this auction — waived for this charge."
- Batch charges: the toggle starts on for both Opt-in and Mandatory. If it was switched off, each result reads "(fee waived)".
5. The payment wasn't by card
Processing fees apply only to card payments. Cash, check and write-offs never carry a fee.
Checking what was charged
Open the bidder's checkout on the Checkouts tab. In Payments and Adjustments, a payment that carried a fee notes "includes $X processing fee". Across the auction, the Collected tile shows fees separately, as "+$X in fees".
Changing the settings affects only payments taken afterward. It doesn't add a fee to payments already made.
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