๐Ÿ“† Scheduling Auctions

Setting up auctions with the correct schedule is quick an easy, even creating multi-day auctions. Here is an overview of how to do it.

General Set Up

To create the auction, click Add New Auction

This can be done either by the plus icon in the top menu, or via the Add New Auction button on the Auctions menu.

Field

Image

Field

Image

Catalogue Launch

This field is not mandatory. It is purely an informative date if you wish to communicate to clients when you are planning to publish the auction catalogue on the website. It will show in the Auction Details section on the web module when the auction is in the planned state.


Aftersale Deadline

This field is only necessary if you plan to offer all unsold lots in a separate online aftersale auction once the regular auction has concluded. This date and time is when the aftersale auction will be closed for offers.

Shipping Date

Again, this field is not mandatory. If you plan to offer shipping and would like to communicate to buyers that the lots will be completed on a specific date, then enter it here.

Settlement Date

The date entered here will show as the Due Date on the settlement PDFs.

Payments to vendors can be made on a different date to the one stated here if necessary.

Multi-Day Auctions

If youโ€™re planning an auction that will be held over more than one day, there is an easy tool for scheduling these days.

Function

Image

Function

Image

Date

For each auction day, select the date (the dates donโ€™t have to be consecutive, you could have a gap between days).

Start

Pick the Start time. For both Live and Timed auctions, this is purely an informational field to communicate to clients when the day will begin.

End

Pick the End time. For Timed auctions this is very important as each lot has its own end time and countdown timer, we need to choose when the last lot will end, to calculate when the other lots will be scheduled to end.

For Live auctions this is less important. As we donโ€™t necessarily know when an auction, or auction day, will end in a live auction, the optional time entered here can serve as a guide to bidders.

First lot of the day

This field is available for every day after day one. The number entered in this field tells us where in the catalogue an auction day ends and where the next day begins. So if we enter in 101 for the first lot of the day for day two, then day one will contain lots 1-100 and day 2 will contain 101 onwards. If there is a third day, we will again specify which lot we want to be the first lot of the day.

It must be a high number than the first lot of the day of the previous day.

Description

We can add a description to each auction day to communicate to clients what will be sold on each day. This will display above the catalogue when the auction is in progress and in the Auction Details when the auction is in the planned state. This field is optional.

ย 

It is also possible to filter the administration Catalogue screen by the auction day, so you only see the lots part of the selected day.

ย 

Multi-Session Days

We can use the same logic for scheduling the different days above, to divide up sections of a single day. This only works for live auctions. Here is how to set up one of these days.

Function

Image

Function

Image

Date

For each โ€˜dayโ€™ added, choose the same date. In the example here day 1, 2 and 3 are all Oct 18, 2021

We can choose the start and end time for each of these sessions. For a live auction the start time will most likely be more relevant and accurate than the end time.

When can then show what is being sold during each โ€˜dayโ€™ (session) by using the Description field.

As before, we need to specify the First lot of the day (session) for day two (session) onwards.

Once this is completed, here is how the sale information is would display online.

Lot End Times

Because end times work differently for live and timed auctions, we must display this differently for each auction type.

We cannot know the exact end time for a live auction, only the day that it will end, because there are many variables that could affect when the lot closes.

For a timed auction, however, we do have a scheduled end time for when the lot will close (not including any automatic clock extensions).

See the table below to see the differences.

Timed Auction

Live Auction

Timed Auction

Live Auction

Administration Catalogue

Administration Catalogue

Web Catalogue

Web Catalogue

ย 

ย 

Related content