How to Invoice Bidders

While you might send your invoices to winning bidders, we highly recommend taking advantage of the LiveAuctioneers invoicing system. Bidders generally expect to receive our invoices, and it also provides a good opportunity to check your internal records against LiveAuctioneers’ records.

This article provides steps for preparing and sending invoices to winning bidders. 

Click here for information on adding off-platform payments to invoices, or click here for information on manually marking invoices as paid.

This article contains the following sections:

• Prior to Invoicing
• Preparing Invoices
• Creating Invoices
• Editing Invoices
• Sending Invoices
• Troubleshooting

Prior to Invoicing

Prior to sending invoices to winning bidders, you should review your End of Auction (EOA) report. 

Preparing Invoices

Set Your Payment Options

1. From your Seller Dashboard, click on the Auctions button at the top of the page and select Post-Auction.
2. Click on the title of the applicable auction.
3. Click on the Invoices button.
4. Click on the Payment Options button. A new page will open.
5. Select your Payment Options:
   1. Sales Tax: Set sales tax for houses not collecting through LivePayments or houses that are outside of the US.
      • Click the Change button to save your changes.
   2. Shipping: Indicate whether you will be: 
      • Manually calculating and adding shipping fees to your invoices.
      • Not charging bidders for shipping.
   3. Invoice Processing: To have a copy of each sent invoice also sent to another address, add the email address of your choice to the Carbon Copy field.
      • Click the Change button to save your changes.
   4. Online Payments Fee: This option is only for auction houses collecting payments through LivePayments. The option to either absorb the online payments fee or pass the fee onto the bidder is selected at the time you set up your auction. If you wish to change this setting, please contact our Seller Support team as soon as possible.
      • If you intend to pass the online payments fee on to bidders, please ensure this is clearly stated in both your Terms and Conditions and Payment Policy, or your Invoice Message.

        

Review Your Invoice Message

Once your Payment Options are set, you can review and update your Invoice Message. 

You can edit your Invoice Message during the auction setup process, while your catalog is online, and post auction. 

1. From your Seller Dashboard, click on the Auctions button at the top of the page and select Post-Auction.
2. Click on the title of the applicable auction.
3. Under the Details tab, click on the Policies link.
4. Scroll down to the Invoice Message field. To make edits, click the Edit button.
5. Make any necessary edits and click the Save button to save the changes.

Once you have prepared your invoices, click on the Invoices page to start generating the invoices.

For a walkthrough of all the features found on a LiveAuctioneers' invoice, click here.

1. From your Seller Dashboard, click on the Auctions button at the top of the page and select Post-Auction.
2. Click on the title of the applicable auction.
3. Click on the Invoices button.
4. Click on the Create Invoices (or the Recreate Failed Invoices) button to generate all the invoices. 
   • This will create a unique reference number for each invoice.
5. Once the invoices are generated, they will be in the Pending status, meaning the invoice has been generated but not sent.
6. If you would like to review an invoice or make any alterations, click on the Invoice # and the invoice will open in a separate tab.

Editing Invoices

Fees & Discounts

To add or update the fees on an invoice, navigate to the Invoice page and click on the Invoice #. The invoice will open in a separate tab.

• To remove a fee you added, click the Remove link to the right of the fee. Fees must be removed in the order in which they were added.

Scroll down further and use the Add a Discount and Amount fields to add a discount to the invoice. Click the Save button to the right of the fields to add it to the invoice. 

• To remove a discount you added, click the Remove link to the right of the discount. Discounts must be removed in the order in which they were added.

Add/Remove Lots

• If you need to edit remove a lot from an invoice, it will first need to be removed from the EOA. Click here for more information.
• If you need to add a lot to an invoice, you will need to submit a request to LiveAuctioneers. Click here for more information.

Personalized Messaging

To send a personalized message to the bidder, enter the text into the Message to Bidder field. The message will appear on the Invoice the bidder receives. 

Sending Invoices

For auction houses using LivePayments: Any invoices that are not sent within 72 hours following auction close will be automatically generated and sent to the winning bidders. This ensures they receive their invoices and can complete payment in a timely manner. For more information, click here.

Once they're ready, invoices can be sent individually or in bulk.

Send Invoices Individually

To send an individual invoice, click on the respective invoice from the Invoice page, and the click on the Send Invoice button found in the bottom left corner of the invoice.

Send Invoices in Bulk

1. From your Seller Dashboard, click on the Auctions button at the top of the page and select Post-Auction.
2. Click on the title of the applicable auction.
3. Click on the Invoices button. 
4. Click on the Put Unpaid in Mailbag button. This will place all of the unpaid invoices into the mailbag- meaning they are ready to be sent. 
   • If there are any invoices you wish to hold off on sending, click on the Red Envelope icon to the right of the invoice number to remove it from the mailbag. 
   • If you need to change the email address the invoice is being sent to, make sure you add the invoice to the mailbag before changing the email address.
5. Click on the Send Mailbag button to send all of the invoices in the mailbag.
6. Click the Refresh button. The status of each of the invoices you placed in your mailbag should now show as Sent.

If needed, Invoices can re-sent using the same steps as above.

Sending an Invoice to an Alternative Email Address

If a bidder is requesting to have their invoice sent to a different email address than the one on file, you can do this by navigating to the Invoice page and clicking on the White Envelope icon to the right of the applicable invoice.

A small pop-up field will open where you can type in the alternate email address and click the Change button to save the change.

The invoice can then be sent as normal. Please note, if you are sending invoice in bulk, make sure you add the invoice to the mailbag before updating the email address.

Troubleshooting

Bidder Not Receiving Invoices

If you have a bidder stating that they are not receiving their invoice, please email support@liveauctioneers.com. Our team can check the system to see if the email address on file is receiving our emails. You can also instruct them to contact our bidder support team directly at info@liveauctioneers.com.

Related Processes:

• Did you sell a lot after the sale is over? Click here.
• Do you need to remove Lots from your EOA report? Click here.
• Do you need to issue a refund? Click here.
• Do you need to file a dispute against a non-paying bidder? Click here.