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.
Navigate this article:
Step 1: EOA Check
Click on the auction title, then go to the EOA tab at the top.
- Any lots sold to a floor bidder but clerked to a LiveAuctioneers bidder
- A floor bidder is any bidder outside of LiveAuctioneers
- Any lots sold to a LiveAuctioneers bidder but clerked to the floor
- Any lots sold to a LiveAuctioneers bidder that are unavailable
- Incorrect hammer prices
Once you are happy with the EOA report, let’s move on to invoicing.
How to Add/Edit Hammer Prices
If you would like to update the hammer prices for several lots in a batch, click on display next to Advanced Hammer Price Management:
Once you are happy with the EOA report, let’s move on to invoicing.
First, click the Payment Options button and prepare the invoice settings. This button will take you to a separate page where you can:
- 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
- Choose your Shipping options
- Add an email address of your choice to carbon copy each invoice that is sent
- Click the CHANGE button to save your changes
- Learn about the Online Payments Fee for houses collecting 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 sale. If you wish to change this setting, please contact our Support team as soon as possible.
Once your Payment Options look good, go back on your browser to return to the Invoices page.
From here, click on the Details page to check your Invoice Message.
You are able to edit your Invoice Message during the auction setup process, while your catalog is online, and post auction. To edit your Invoice Message, from the Details page, click on Policies, then EDIT.
Your Invoice Message will appear on the bottom of each invoice emailed to your buyers. Keep this succinct and only include the most important payment and shipping information, such as:
- Whether you have a payment deadline
- What types of payment methods you accept (if you are not using LivePayments)
- The best way to complete payment (if you use LivePayments, please reference our Guidelines & Best Practices)
- Shipping and pickup information
Provide clear instructions to the buyer about how to complete payment and receive their lot(s).
This is a simple text field and only accepts simple HTML tags such as:
- <b>
- <center>
- <br>
- <p>
Click the Submit button to apply this message to all the invoices.
Step 3: Creating Invoices
Once you have prepared your invoices, click on the Invoices page to start generating the invoices.
On the Invoices page, 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.
Once the invoices are generated, they will be in the Pending status:
This status means the invoice is generated but not sent.
If you would like to check or add shipping charges or alterations, click on each invoice (by clicking on the Invoice # in the first column):
You are able to Add a Discount, send a personalized message to the bidder, and see the invoice history at the bottom of the invoice:
Once the invoices are ready to send, move on to Step 4.
Step 4: 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 your invoices are ready to send, you can either:
- Click on the SEND INVOICE button at the bottom of each invoice, one-by-one, or
- Go to the Invoices page and click on the Put unpaid in mailbag button, and then Send mailbag to send all the invoices out, with a few clicks,
- If there are invoices you wish to hold off on sending, click on the red envelope to remove it from the mailbag before clicking on Send mailbag.
Click the red envelope to remove an invoice from the mailbag:
If you need to add an alternative email address to an invoice, click on the envelope icon on the Invoices page.
Hit the Refresh button. You will now see a green envelope icon next ro each sent invoice...and now wait for the money to pour in!
- Invoices must be paid either entirely via LivePayments, or entirely off-platform. It is not possible to use both on one invoice
- For sales enabled with LivePayments: Once a payment has been manually entered on the invoice, the remaining balance cannot be paid via LiveAuctioneers checkout
- The Online Payments Fee (processing fee for credit card payments) is automatically removed when the full off-platform payment is added to the invoice
- Marking an invoice as fully paid cannot be undone. If you accidentally mark an invoice as fully paid and need to undo it, please contact our Support team.
After the full amount has been added to the invoice, the Estimated Balance Due will be 0.00 and this will automatically adjust the invoice as fully Paid. You will see a timestamp for when the amount was added:
Another way to mark an invoice as paid in full is by clicking on the Paid checkbox near the top-right corner of the invoice. You will be prompted to confirm if you collected sales tax in the total off-platform payment. Note: ATG is not responsible for sales tax accuracy or tax obligations:
You can also mark items as paid off-platform directly from the EOA report:
On your Invoices page, under the Paid column:
- Invoices that are paid off-platform will have a "$" icon.
- Invoices that are paid through LivePayments will have a "live" icon.
You can resend any unpaid invoices either individually or through the mailbag.
To send them individually, click on the respective invoice from the Invoice page, and click on the SEND INVOICE button at the bottom:
To resend any unpaid invoices in bulk, on the Invoice page, click on the Put unpaid in mailbag button, and then Send mailbag:
The bidder(s) will receive their invoice via email and will be able to take direct action from it. If you are on the latest version of invoices, the invoice email to the bidder will look like this:
________
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.