It's Software, not Magic...

Auction! dramatically simplifies running your event.  You have more capability at your fingertips, and produce important documents, such as bid sheets, catalog, gift certificates and invoices rapidly.  However, event software does not replace planning ahead, training volunteers, and anticipating outcomes.  We share some of our client "school of hard knocks" stories, along with some tips here, to help you be more successful.

Record Payments Promptly

From time to time we hear from organizations who are struggling with post-event financial accountability.  How does this happen?  In some cases, the reservations team focuses on table groupings and menu selections.  Setting up tickets and payments seems like "overhead."  Or on event night, the cashier does not record payments on invoices, but simply accepts payment.  The school business manager picks up and deposits the cash and checks, and now the auction team is trying to figure out who paid, whose credit card to charge, etc.

Financial accountability is important for your event.  When you're about to charge guest credit cards (via Auctionpay or manually,) it is vital to have recorded cash and check payments correctly.  We suggest:

• Pre-event:  Create a ticket type for each price point that may be used by guests.  Record their reservations/ticket purchases AND record the payments made.  See Tickets & Reservations Improvements for more details.
   

• Event night:  Auction! prints a standard or custom payment block on invoices.  It's quick and easy for your cashiers to initial it and record check numbers, cash received, or last few digits of a credit card.  Train your team to take just a moment to record these key data, and fold the cash or check INSIDE the cashier's copy of the invoice.  You can take these back to data entry to record them in the software on event night, or the following day.
   

• Post-event:  When using Auctionpay terminals and the Sync Linkage, do not record credit card payments made on event night.  The Sync takes care of these for you automatically.

Try as you go:  Print Samples

Auction! is designed to handle many conventional and some unconventional forms of addressing people.  Reports and Documents have a great deal of flexibility (but not infinitely so.)  The formats are documented, but many clients don't feel they have time to read the user guide.  In these cases, the fastest way to learn a program is to try it out, look at the results, and then check the user guide for additional insight.

So, enter a few names and items, and then try printing bid sheets, name tags, catalogs and reports, etc.  Review the results carefully, and take a few moments to look through the appropriate sections of the user guide.  The Sample V3 Pikes Peak Snowball Project has examples of different data entry styles, and you can test your data entry format here.  You can readily adjust your team's data entry for best results now, instead of correcting entries later.

It's easy to forget small details; when you print the sample bidder invoices, you'll see the default tax disclaimer, and it will remind you to decide how you want to handle this.  Similarly for details such as sales tax rates.  (Yes, many nonprofits are obligated to collect sales tax for some or all auction items.)  So DO take time to print examples of every document you'll produce while you're learning the program; you'll be able to plan for the best results.

Let Go of Perfectionism

We know--this is hard!  Typical auction chairs (including ourselves) are control freaks.  We want everything to be perfect!  It isn't always possible.  Sometimes it could be possible, but it means you or your teammates will miss sleep and be very stressed.  TRY to maintain perspective; on the scale of human endeavors and tribulations, minor details of a fundraising auction really are just that: minor details.

When valued members of your community bring last minute items, and the items "don't fit" in the precisely numbered sequences designed for each category, let it go!  Don't renumber everything at the last minute.  Your guests will not check to see if each item on the tables is in perfect numeric order.  They won't reduce their support of your organization if there's a skipped item number in the catalog. 

Lengthy, cute, "flossy," and entertaining item descriptions are wonderful, but if your guests left their reading glasses at home, they'll appreciate short, specific and "to the point" descriptions in a larger font size.  They're more likely to bid when they can read what they're bidding on.

It's convenient to sell pledge/multi-buyer items to guests prior to the event; the guest needs to have a bid number to purchase these items.  We hear "but I have to wait until the last minute to assign bid numbers automatically, in perfect numeric order."  Why?  Having bid numbers align with alphabetical order is convenient, but there is no inherent need or requirement for this.  Give out bid numbers as you need to do so, and try not to fret about the ones that "aren't in order." 

Catalogs are last-minute stressors.  The items keep coming in, and you may feel compelled to include every item.  Then you're up all night revising item descriptions instead of handing the copy to your printer.  Use the Auction! Catalog Addendum capability to create an insert of "late arrivals" if you like, and send the catalog with "on-time" items to the printer.  You'll get more sleep.

You may have donors bringing items in on event day.  Don't feel compelled to write "glamour descriptions" for these items.  Create a few pro-forma items, say 995, 996, etc., with the title "Just Arrived!" a few days before your event and print their bid sheets.  When an item is brought in at the last minute, HAND-write a brief description under the Just Arrived! title, along with a minimum bid and bid increments, and put the item on an auction table.  If you have time to revise it to something more specific, great, but don't worry about it.  You've done everything you need to sell the item on event night.

Re-direct your targets for perfection:  focus on acquiring superb items for auction, securing attendance of generous bidders, a smooth and easy flow for welcoming, seating and entertaining guests, checking out, and graciously thanking your guests and donors for their generosity.  They'll be glad to come back to your event next year! 

One of our clients put this in a great way at the end of her email:

"Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape."