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Online Catalog Tools / Managing Online Bidding

The Mobile Plus™ and Mobile Pro™ packages allow auction administrators to manage the parameters of the online auction catalog, including:

After an event is set up for online bidding, the auction administrator must specify which auction items are to be offered online. This can be done through the Creating an Auction Item Bundle or Auto-create Auction Items forms, or from the Manage Online Bidding page.

The instructions on this page refer to the many Online Catalog Tools. Click the Auction Items & Cataog menu item and choose the Online Catalog Tools options.


To set the bidding start date and end time
  1. Click in the Bidding Start Date text box or on the Calendar button and select the start date.
  2. Select the start time
To set the bidding end date and end time
  1. Click in the Bidding End Date text box or on the Calendar button and select the end date.
  2. Select the end time

Confirm your time zone

The remaining days, hours, minutes, and seconds are calculated and are automatically adjusted for Daylight Savings Time based on the specified time zone.

If your time zone is incorrect, navigate back to the Edit Event page to adjust as needed.

To enable different closing times by section
  1. Check the Enable different closing times by section box to activate different closing times by section.
  2. In the Bidding Options field, select the start date/time and end date/time for each auction section.
  3. Check the Automatically notify winners when bidding ends box to ensure that Silent Auction Pro closes each section on time and sends announcements to all winners.
  4. Click the Save Bidding Options button.
You will only be able to assign start/end times for sections that already have items assigned to them.

For example: if you plan to use 3 sections, but have only assigned auctions items to sections 1 and 2, you will NOT be able to designate the start/end time for section 3 until you have assigned at least one auction item to it.

Section number is assigned during the create auction item process, using either the Create auction item bundle from multiple donations feature or Create auction items from single donations (1 donation : 1 auction item) feature. To enable bid extend
  1. Check the box next to the "Extend bidding by" text.
  2. Select the extend interval.
  3. Click Set bidding end time / extend option to save the settings.

Enabling the bid extend option will automatically extend the ending time of all items offered for online bidding by the interval amount if any bid is placed in the last 10 seconds of the online auction. Users will see the counter decrement to zero and then their page will be refreshed. If bidding has been extended they will see the new expiration count down and the updated status of their bid on their item or items. Bid Extend is not available if you have enabled different closing times by section. Choosing the bid extend option will disable the auto notify feature and you will need to manually notify your bid winners that they have won items. This is easily done from top of the Online Catalog Tools page OR the Check In & Check Out > Notify Winners / Print Results menu option. Select "All Results" and click the Notify winners button. If you choose to use the bid extend option, we recommend that you let your bidders know that the system will automatically extend bidding so that they are not taken by surprise by this feature. Auction Administrators may post a message to online bidders using the Post a group announcement feature.

To enable the auto notify option
  1. Check the box next to the "Automatically notify bid winners..." text. Note that this option is only available if Bid Extend is NOT selected.
To enable or disable online auction catalog
  1. Select Online auction status: Active | Suspended radio button as appropriate. The radio button defaults to the current online bidding status for your group's event.
  2. After clicking the Active or Suspended radio button, the status is changed immediately.

If you set the status to Disable, contacts that are authorized for online bidding will not be allowed to place online bids. They will see a message on the item detail page saying that online bidding is currently disabled for your event.

To individually enable/disable or show/hide auction items in your online catalog

The Online Catalog Tools page allows you to individually control whether an auction item is available for bidding, and whether it displays in the online catalog. Use the Show Online Yes|No and Enable Bidding Yes|No radio buttons for individual items to manage how that item behaves in your online auction catalog.

  1. Scroll (or search using <Ctrl+F>) to find the auction item ID number for which you wish to change the status.
  2. Select the appropriate Yes|No radio button for that item.
  3. After clicking Yes or No for an item, online bidding is immediately enabled/disabled or hidden from the online auction catalog.
In the Online Bidding Statistics table, the data can be sorted by clicking on the column header links. By default, rows are sorted by auction item number (i.e., A#).

When items are marked as "sold," they will appear as such to online bidders. If auction assistants enter bid results via Enter / Edit Bid Results & Cash Pledges, those items are automatically marked as sold in the table.

Text messages can only be received IF the bidder's cell phone number is saved in the Contact record AND they have not selected to Opt Out of text messages originating from Silent Auction Pro™. For more information on text message Opt Out options, see our help page on text notifications. To view the current bidding status and drill down into individual bidding history
  1. Scroll (or search using <Ctrl+F>) to find the auction item for which you wish to view the current status or bid history.
  2. In the Bids column, click the link showing the number of bids to view the item's bid history.