[Jodi R]

Good Monday Morning!!

I'm looking to get ideas of how you run your auction checkout. We just had an event last week and the checkout didn't go as smoothly as we would have liked. Our auction checkout for our annual gala works like clockwork, but this event was different. For our gala we have volunteers go around to the winners' tables and get their credit card info and give them their receipts, but this event is a food and wine tasting, so there are no seats. A few specific questions:

1. If you use computers the night-of, do you have winners come right up to the person on the computer to check out or do you have them fill out a form with their contact/credit card info?

2. Do you run credit cards that night or do you hold them until you get to the office the next day?

3. What kind of receipt, if any, does the winner get that night? And if they do get a receipt, do you also send one after the event with a "thank you" letter?

4. How do you let the winners know that they have won? Or do you? Do the majority of winners just know that they've won?

THANKS in advance!!

[andrea.bbbs]

We don't use a RE product, we use one called Auction. Before event night, all auction items and guests are entered in. The few guests who come in that night who have no data entered - perhaps they are a guest of someone, or seated at a sponsor table - we enter their data on the way in.

We bring card machines (2 i think), laptop, and a printer. When the silent closes, all bid sheets are collected, and someone reads off the bidder number and winning bid to me. I can enter up to about 150 items in under 10 minutes.

The program allows us to print one invoice at a time. We tried printing two copies of each invoice out ahead of time, but that always fouls up because someone is always trying to check out while we are doing it.

i sit at one end with the laptop and printer. the people come up to me, give a name or bidder number, i run two invoices, give one invoice to a runner who gets the items, and I pass the other copy to the next available checkout person, depending on whether they are charging or writing a check. The card machines are downloaded the next business day. Auction allows me to find invoices by number or name, so the find is pretty quick, and by the time both pages finish printing i have already sent the next pair.

The invoice has the item name, number, donor value, purchaser, address, etc., plus IRS wording. On the next business day i enter the gift batches and generate thankyou letters for purchasing auction items.

[Nina Williams]

I closed many an auction, but always manually. There were 3 part NCR bid sheets. We wrote the CC# on the bid sheets and handed the buyer the "yellow" copy and an instant receipt. The CCs would be run the following workday(s). A letter detailing the purchase and if or if not any of the purchase was tax deductible would be sent the following week with their actually CC receipt. It was always a time consuming and laborious process so I can see an auction program could help, but as nothing was actually paid for that night, mistakes in addition etc could be checked out before proccessing the CC.

[Ctblitz]

We use a separate software for our auction as well. It's called Auction Tracker. The entire guest list is in the database prior to the evenings event.

We have a laptop at the registration table for any walk-up guests/registrants. We also work with Auction Pay, which is a prepay system for credit card swiping. That way at the end of the evening, if the guest purchased anything we have their credit card on the auctionpay terminals and it eliminates the long lines at Checkout. Once we have closed registration, the Auctionpay terminal is synched with our Auction Software that way the database knows who has Prepaid for the evening.

I have 3 computers set up for data entry, as the silent tables close we input all winning bids with those three computers. Throughout the night we have 3 laptops set up in a kiosk format all around the auction area, the software allows the guests to type in their bid numbers and see what they've won and to print out a copy. This cuts down considerably on the "early checkout" people.

When we actually open the checkout area to allow guests to pay for items, we have 6 additional laptops, one per checkout volunteer. They use the software to close out guests paying with a check or cash, inputting all of the appropriate information into the auction software. If the guest has already pre registered with Auctionpay, they are what we consider "Quick Checkout" and we print them out a receipt for the items that they purchased and send them to the tables and our Bid Monitors to pick up their items.

The wrapup and the charging of credit cards works through the Auctionpay terminals, and is usually finished a few days after the event. That way we make sure all of the loose ends are wrapped up prior.

I just realized that the information above is QUITE a handful, and I'm sorry if I wrote too much, I hope this helps somewhat.

Christopher

[ecox]

We do not have specific Auction software. We use a 3 part NCR bidsheet. When silent closes two top sheets are pulled and brought to checkout. Filed by bidder number (alpha takes too long and penmanship make names very hard to read as compared to numbers) which has been assigned upon checkin at the auction. We have 3-4 checkers each set up with credit card machines and who can also take cash or checks. We have filers/pullers who pull the bid files (based on the bid #s where all purchased items have been placed after closeout). These pulled files are given to the checkers when the purchaser present themselves to a checker to make payment. Payment is made and type of payment is noted on both remaining copies in file. Second copies are pulled and given to purchaser to claim items at tables or around event site. First copies are put in payment pouches with checks/credit card receipts attached or marked Paid Cash. Credit card machines are batched out at end of evening. We checked out 110 people in approximately 40 minutes at the last event. Next day all I have to do is add credit card batch totals, total amount of checks, total amount of cash and we know how much we took in at the event. In my opinion the credit card machines and well-trained volunteer checkers are the key component of checkout. We've had so many compliments on how well our check-out works.