Online Events. Enabling Auction-Link. Item Entry

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1 Online Events Many events consist of both a gala event and an online event. Auction Systems and cmarket have develped a link to make your data entry for the gala event and online auction integrate smoothly. cmarket, Inc. is an independent company offering a powerful companion solution for handling the online portion of your event. Auction Systems, Inc. and cmarket, Inc. have developed Auction- Link, connecting the two products to facilitate both portions of our customers events. Contact cmarket, Inc. at to learn more and set up an online event for your organization. Contact Auction Systems to purchase the Auction-Link upgrade. 3. Each Auction-Link key is enabled for a certain time period at the time of your purchase of the key. To view the current time frame, click cmarket, About cmarket Data Bridge. Enabling Auction-Link 1. Click Help, Enable cmarket. 2. Enter the key provided by Auction Systems. Item Entry You may enter item data primarily online via cmarket tools or you may enter item data on a PC using the Auction! software, and then upload your data to cmarket. Tip Make a decision which data entry mode you will use and stick to it as much as possible. Each system has advantages: you and your team are likely to interfere with each other s data if you enter many items using both systems concurrently. Online Events 143

2 Guidelines for Best Results The guidelines below reflect our best practices for data entry and data transfer between your Auction! gala project and the online cmarket items. Use Item Numbers of no more than four numeric characters. Both systems work together smoothly when the fewest items need to be renumbered going either direction. Both systems are compatible with item numbers of four or fewer digits; alternate numbering will make the Auction-Link very difficult. Items appear on the cmarket website in alphabetical order by the Short Item Description, not in numerical order, so name the items as you would like them to appear. Limit the length of each Silent Item category to 21 characters in Auction! Live Items display their category with the additional leading phrase Live_ ; Item Categories for Live Items in Auction! must be limited to 16 characters. When entering items for preview or bidding online, and then subsequently sold or closed at the gala event, mark the Item YES for Live event in cmarket. This will set the items up appropriately for bid sheets and winning bid data entry at the gala event. When entering items that will be previewed online, AND sold or closed online, mark the Item NO for Live event in cmarket. When these items are exported from cmarket and imported to Auction!, they are flagged as online close. Tip You can still enter a winning bid at your gala event for online close items when necessary. When entering the bid, you will simply receive a reminder prompt This item was planned for online closing. Are you sure you wish to replace its bid? Click Yes, and revise as needed. When you revise Item Descriptions inside Auction! for items already online, be sure to upload the revised data to your cmarket online event as well. This ensures both copies of the item information are consistent and accurate when using the Auction-Link. Auction-Link creates a new Auction! project when data is downloaded from the online event into Auction! This project is named specifically for the particular date and time, such as Online Data Import _1537. After reviewing this project for accuracy, close this project. For best merge results, open the Gala dataset and use cmarket Merge to merge online data INTO the full gala Auction! project. Tip When using Auctionpay and doing a post-event cmarket merge, you MUST open the gala Auction! project and merge the Online Data Import project into the gala project. This is critical to retain correct Bid Numbers for those guests who have been flagged as Auctionpay Quick Checkout guests. Special Cases cmarket Place Items When you include cmarket Place items, you select those items directly using cmarket Place. These items are numbered with the initials CMP, a dash(-) and three numbers, such as CMP-105. Auction! does not use letters or dashes in Item Numbers. When CMP items are imported back into Auction!, give them Item Numbers that are distinct from your gala items. For instance, CMP-105 and CMP-111 might be renumbered 4105 and 4111, while gala items might have numbers such as 101, 102, etc. While data for cmarket Place items can be exported from cmarket and imported into Auction! for viewing and reports, the reverse is not true. Item descriptions and associated costs are determined by the consigning vendor, so no changes can be made. Therefore, these items are not exported from Auction! for upload to cmarket. Basket Grouping of Items Basket Component Items from multiple donors should be created and assembled into baskets in the Auction! software, then uploaded to cmarket. Auction! s basket feature retains individual donors for each item, and is capable of grouping as many items as desired into a single saleable basket item. The combined donor name list and total value is exported gracefully to cmarket for upload. 144 Auction! V3 User Guide

3 Upload to cmarket Once items have been entered or revised in Auction!, they re ready for export and upload to cmarket. 1. Click cmarket, Export to cmarket. 2. The Select Items for Export to Online Event screen is displayed. This screen gives control over many item parameters, so you can configure your online event precisely. You can revise the percentage or amount for individual items as needed. 5. cmarket records values in whole dollar amounts. Select your preferred option for rounding penny/decimal amounts. 6. At upper-right, choose Silent, Live, or both groups of items for export. When offering Live Items for sale online, choose Export Live Items by Category. When your event is previewing Live Items online, and they will only be sold at your gala event, click Export All Live Items to Preview Only. 7. Select Item Categories for selling items online or for preview online, as desired. You can re-export your items by category and revise these choices when needed. You can exclude certain categories by leaving them in the Available list. 3. Determine the range of item acquisition dates to use. These are the dates when the items were first entered in Auction! You can view these dates on the Items Grid View, in one of the right-most columns. Choose All Items or Items by Acquisition Date, and enter the date range of interest. 4. Determine how you would like to handle Buy Now or Guaranteed Bids. When you check Enable Guaranteed Bids, specify a percentage for this option. 8. A comma-separated (.csv) file is created. The name is in the form Export_yymmddYour Project Name.csv. The columns and format are set up precisely for direct upload to cmarket. You may preview the file in Excel if desired; be cautious about revising the values or content. 9. the data file to support@cmarket.com. They will import the.csv file into cmarket, and contact you when it s complete. Online Events 145

4 Online Bidding cmarket provides tools to manage and promote your online event. You can create, update, and modify your event website using their templates and tools. You can upload your organization s logo, utilize team colors, and showcase your auction items. cmarket also provides tools for ing announcements, winning bidder notifications, and other communications with your guests. Use the online Resource Center in cmarket Auction Tools to learn more about online auction features, and receive training. For additional assistance, contact support@cmarket.com. Export from cmarket Use the Export to Event Management Software tool on the cmarket website to bring your online results to your Auction! software gala project. These results include leading online bids/winning bids along with their bidder names, and will be used to update the original minimum bids for your gala event with the current leading bids. 1. Log into your organization s online event by going to and clicking Log On. 2. Click Reports. Under the Close section, select Export to Event Management Software. 3. The cmarket Export to Event Management Software screen is displayed. It covers the timing and appropriate use of the report, and appropriate cautions related to the sensitive nature of the reports contents. 146 Auction! V3 User Guide

5 4. Near the bottom right, click Download Report Now. Select the desired location for the data file. You can save the file in My Documents, c:\auction, or another folder location of your choosing. The data file is named: AuctionData_auctionsystems_yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm.csv where yyyy is the year in four digits, mm is the month, etc. Import to Auction! from cmarket 1. Start Auction!, then click cmarket menu, Import from cmarket. 2. Create New Project screen is displayed. The project name is pre-filled with a distinct name, such as: Online Data Import yyyymmdd_hhmm 3. Click Create New Project. Import Setup for Items & Names screen is displayed, providing control of import options. 4. Enter the Starting Bid Number for Online Bidders. Your event attendees are assigned Bid Numbers for the gala event. Online bidders are also assigned Bid Numbers when the online data is imported into a project. Use an entirely different range of Bid Numbers for your online bidders to prevent confusion. For example, when gala paddle numbers range from 101 to 375, select a numeric range such as the 600 s for online bidders. 5. Enter Starting Item Number for Items with invalid Item Numbers. cmarket Place items are numbered with the initials CMP, a dash and three numbers, CMP-105. Auction! uses only numeric Item Numbers. When CMP items are imported into an Auction! project, give item numbers distinct from your gala item numbers. For instance, choose a starting item number such as 4001 for the invalid CMP items, while your gala items might have numbers such as 101, 102, etc. 6. Ideal bid increments for online bidding can be very different from ideal ranges for a silent auction. Bid Increments can be modified during import. You are free to accept the default bid increments, or create your own increments and ranges to which they apply. 7. Set the default taxable status for items imported from cmarket. See Item Pricing, Tips, for more information on nonprofits and sales tax applicability. 8. Click Next and locate the file AuctionData_auctionsystems_yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm.csv in the location you saved it previously. Double click this file to finalize the import. 9. Auction! imports the data and displays a detailed log of results. Review the log for information and errors, then Print or Close the log. The Event Preferences screen is displayed. Revise settings as desired, or click Close to exit this screen. Online Events 147

6 10. Review project data for accuracy, printing reports as desired. Make corrections or revisions required by additional circumstances (such as a Buy Now bid placed by phone.) Close the Online Data Import yyyymmdd_hhmm project. Merging Gala Data and Online Results 1. Open your gala event project. 2. (Network Users) Click Settings, Switch to Exclusive Access. 3. Click cmarket, Merge. Special Cases Duplicate Names When online bidders and gala attendee bidders appear to be the same name, Auction! will merge these names into one record. See Matching Name Information. If the names do not match (e.g. Becca Jones bids online and Robert & Rebecca Jones are your gala attendees), then there will be two distinct name records. AFTER completing the cmarket merge, you may wish to revise the winning bidder number for Becca s online purchases to be the bid number for Robert & Rebecca Jones. This will then show BOTH online auction purchases and gala event purchases on the SAME invoice on event night. If you do not have time for this step, the Jones gala purchases will appear on one invoice and online purchases will appear on a separate invoice for Becca. 4. Select the Online Data Import yyyymmdd_hhmm project. 5. Merge options are pre-selected for cmarket to online merges. 6. Click Merge to bring online data INTO the existing gala project. 148 Auction! V3 User Guide

7 Online Items That Will Be Sold At Your Gala Event When online bids exist for an item, the highest online bid will be automatically recorded as the current winning/leading bid, until you enter a higher winning bid on event night. When you print bid sheets for these items, the current winning/leading bid is shown on the first line of the bid sheet; it becomes the opening bid. We recommend you turn preprinted bid increments ON so the next bid levels are immediately apparent to gala attendees. Online Items That Have Been Sold Online When an item has been sold online and will not be open for further bidding at your gala event, you might still print its bid sheet to let gala attendees know that online sale for the item is complete. The winning bid is listed on the bid line. Closing cmarket Place Items All cmarket Place items must be closed in the cmarket auction tool, whether the item goes to the live event and is closed in Auction! or not. Closing within the cmarket auction tool notifies the item vendor that the item is sold. This triggers the invoice and instructions on receiving the item. Changing Online Item Status Items are marked as either online AND gala event or online ONLY. To change this designation after importing your data from cmarket into Auction!, use the Item Maintenance feature. 1. Click cmarket, Item Maintenance. 2. Move the selected item from online only to gala event or from gala event to online only, as desired. Note For items closed/sold online, you can access credit card information for winning bidders by downloading the Secure Credit Card Report. Credit card information becomes available on this report once items are closed. Credit card information is only available for successful online bidders. Online Events 149

8 Online Items With Absentee Bids Some online auctions use absentee bidding. When absentee bids exist, the Auction! bid sheet will indicate Absentee Bids Exist. We recommend you highlight this phrase so your gala attendees are aware that they need to bid higher than the Absentee Bid in order to win these items. You can assign volunteers to proxy bid during the event on behalf of the absentee bidders. Or, you can simply compare the bid sheet to the absentee bidder report at data entry to determine the highest bid and bidder. To compare bids at data entry, select Live Event - Absentee Bidders Report to display a list of items from your online auction that are available for bidding at your gala event. This report shows bidder names, the amount of the absentee bid, and the current leading bid for each item. When bid sheets indicate Absentee Bids Exist, compare the bid sheet to the absentee bidder report before entering the winning bid. 150 Auction! V3 User Guide