Question and Answers
The subject of the question places it in
the following category: A=All
Auction C=Contacts D=Donations
G=Groups L=Catalog
M=Master Information O=Checkout
P=Reports R=Register T=Tickets
Category ID Question and Answer
A
25 What is the use of the button with
binoculars on it?
This is a search feature. If there is not
a search field for what every you are looking for, the search button can be
used to search for any word, words, or
part of a word or phrase in any field. Click the button, type in part of a
word or more, and choose from the drop
down lists what field you want to search and whether you want to search
the
whole field or just part of the field.
33 Can this program be used for more than
just auctions?
Absolutely, As many new auctions as you
need can be set up. You can also set up new projects that are used for
contacts and groups rather than an
auction. This project can be used to manage any type of groups for your
organization. There are group reports for
printing a directory, envelops, tri-fold letters, address labels, attendance
sheets, mailbox or file folder labels and
sending emails to any group that you have set up. You can also use
groups to track your sports teams,
classes, board members, PTA, students, organization members and much
34 What is involved in creating a new
auction?
About 4 mouse clicks, adding a name, date
and choosing an auction owner (which is chosen from the contacts
list). This is all that is required to get
started, the rest depends on how many of the added features you want to
42 What is the difference between starting a
new auction from scratch or coping setup information?
Starting from scratch means the Master
Information form will contain all default setup information. Coping from
another auction means that a new auction
will be set up with the same Master Information that was used in a
previous auction of your choice. This
saves allot of time if the same organization does a second auction using the
same incentive rules and report verbiage
as before.
43 How do I know with which auction I am
working?
The Navigation Ribbon shows the current
auction ID number, name and date, in the yellow fields.
44 How do I switch to a different auction?
From the main Ribbon form, click on the
more button, then click on the switch to different auction button. There
you
will encounter a dropped down list of auctions in order by date. Click on the
auction that you want to open.
When the auction is opened, you will be taken to
the Master Information form just in case the user needs to
change any of the setup information.
C
1 Does every auction use the same list of
business and individual contacts?
Yes, all contact information is added only
once and is used for all groups such as solicitors, donors, event guests
and any other group the user adds.
2 What are the required fields?
Only the address and the zip code are
required. Each entry on the contacts table will either have a business name,
a last and first name or both. The user
does not have to waste their time entering the city and state, they
automatically populate after entering the
zip code.
3 Why are there so many extra information
fields such as emergency phone numbers, email and website?
Just for versatility. This program can be
used as the main contacts database for any charity organization, school,
church etc. There is no need to maintain a
separate database to manage your organization.
4 Can a person be a solicitor and a donor?
Anyone can belong to as many groups as you
need them to. The solicitor’s group is set up automatically for
every auction but the user can set up as
many other groups as they want to.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Page 1 of 7
Category ID Question and Answer
6 Even though the program contains 42,000
zip codes, what if I run across one that is not in the database.
Simply click on the "More"
button and then the "Zip code" button and add the City, State and Zip
code one
time, and then it will always be there.
7 Why can’t I delete contact names?
As with any database, once they are linked
to other tables because they have been used elsewhere in the program,
you can not delete them because it would
cause missing information on other forms; however you can make them
“inactive”.
8 How does the program know the difference
between business contacts and personal contacts?
If there is anything typed in the business
name field that makes it a non-person contact. There are instances where
you
need to set up fake contacts for internal use and these would be named in the
business field also. Anytime
there is a business name and a first and
last name, the program considers the first and last name as the “business
contact person” and will add the person’s
name as a second line in the address below the business name.
10 Why are there “Publish” checkmarks only
beside email and cell phone numbers?
When printing a name and address directory
for your organization, some folks don’t want their email address or
cell phone numbers to be printed, even
though they allow the office to have those numbers. If the person wants
the numbers to be printed in the
directory, check the box beside only what each person wants printed.
11 What is the “No mass mail” check box used
for?
There are times that you will have the
same address in the database more than once because a donor who owns a
small business may have the business
address entered because he donated, and also his name along with his
spouse in a separate entry because they
attended an event. If you don’t want two exact pieces of mail going to the
same address, check one of the contact
records “No mass mail” checkbox. You could also have two adult siblings
living at the same address with no need to
double mailings.
12 What is a “Bad customer” on the contacts
form?
Someone who passes bad checks for steals,
that you do not want to return to another auction. If this is checked,
their name will appear in RED on the
contact, ticket and Registration forms as a warning.
13 Why would you use a field called
“Miscellaneous information for directory” for an auction?
This field would not be used for an
auction. There is another feature of the program whereby an organization such
as a church or school can create a project
that is only used for managing the members of the organization. The
parents names would show up in the printed
directory and their children’s names could be added to the printout if
desired.
14 What does the “Active” checkbox on the
contacts form do?
It removes folks from drop down lists that
are no longer involved but cannot be deleted because of links in the
program.
15 Why is there a “Click to remove solicitor”
button beside the solicitor field? Why can’t I just delete the
Although the solicitor field looks just
like all the other fields, the field is actually a sub-form, which means the
solicitor name is stored on another table
and the complete record must be deleted from that table, not just the
name. Incidentally, this is also true with
the group’s field. Removing someone from a group means deleting the
complete record from the groups table.
31 How many contacts will the program hold?
As many as you have time to enter.
32 Are the solicitor lists and all other user
created group’s auction specific?
Yes, the user has the ability to create as
many different groups as are needed for any kind of option imaginable for
any particular auction. Any contact can be
added to as many groups as necessary.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Page 2 of 7
Category ID Question and Answer
46 Why would I use the Paste contacts
datasheet and why does it always open up empty?
This datasheet is used for importing lists
of contact information that may have come to an auctioneer in the form
of a list via email, spreadsheet or word
document. This information can be copied to the clipboard and pasted
into this datasheet all at one time rather
then being retyped into the contacts form one at a time. The datasheet
always opens empty because it is only used
to adding new contacts, not editing existing contacts.
C, A, G
45 Why would I want to copy solicitors from
another auction?
When the same organization is doing
another auction, they may use the same solicitor for the same donor year
after year. This information is auction
specific and would take allot of time to manually transfer that information
to a new auction. By coping the solicitors
from a previous auction, it gives a starting point so that only changes
need to be made for new solicitors coming
in or old solicitors leaving.
C, D
9 With the address and zip code being
required fields, how do I enter a fake contact for internal use or
Simply enter a 0 in the address field and
00000 in the zip code field. Any address with 00000 as the zip code will
not
show up or be printed on a mass mailing list.
C, D, T
16 Why are all the fields on the data sheet
forms locked so I can’t change anything until I click one of the
There are a couple reasons for this. 1)
When you are working in a datasheet, the tab, enter or arrow buttons take
you to the next field and many times
automatically highlights the contents of that field. It is very easy to
accidentally bump any key on the keyboard
and delete or change the contents of that field. When working in a
database, you will never be asked to save
anything because as soon as you leave the field, it is automatically
saved or lost. By using the unlock buttons
you have to make a decision to change information. 2) There is a lot
of information that is allowed or not
allowed to be entered on forms to keep the program working properly. Some
of
this information is displayed on a datasheet to help the user find what they
are looking for, but would cause
unwanted results if it were allowed to be
changed.
17 What does it mean when I see a button on a
form such as the ticket entry form that says “Add a new
If there is already a name in the “Guest”
field, the button will take you directly to that contacts information so it
can be modified. If there is NO name in
that field, the contact form will open up blank, so a new contact can be
added. Note: If you are searching for a
contact name that does not appear on the drop down list, press the Esc
button on your keyboard twice, to clear
the record so the contacts form will open up blank so the contact that was
not
found can be entered in the database.
18 What is the “Show all records” button all
about?
If you look at the navigation buttons at
the bottom of the form, there is a number displayed to the right of the
buttons. This tells you how many records
there are on the table that you are working with. If you choose a name
or number from one of the gray search
fields, you will notice that the number changes to a 1, because you have
filtered the record set to the one record
that you are viewing. The "show all records" button brings back all
records on the table so you can use the
navigation buttons at the bottom to cycle through the records.
C, G
5 How long would it take to set up groups
and produce address labels or sheets?
It takes about 10 seconds to create a
group, about 10 seconds to add 1 person to that group and after all contacts
are added to the group it takes about 10
mouse clicks to choose the type of report you want to print and the rest
of the time depends on the speed of the
printer.
47 On the Group Directory form, what are my
group options?
There are radio buttons at the top of the
form that allow you to select everyone in the database, businesses only or
individuals only or one or more groups. To
select only one group, click on that group and then choose the
report that you want. To choose more than
one group, click on the first group then hold down the Ctrl button on
your keyboard while you choose each
additional group. They will highlight as you choose them. When all of the
groups you want included in the report are
chosen, click the desired report button.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Page 3 of 7
Category ID Question and Answer
L
19 When working with the catalog, what
happens if I generate more catalog numbers than I need?
It doesn’t really hurt anything, but it
will cause some records to be displayed on some reports or datasheets with
missing information. Unwanted records can
be deleted by clicking on the record selector button to the left of the
catalog number and then pressing delete.
If there is a donation attached to the catalog number, you will not be
able to delete it.
20 How do I know how many silent or live
auction numbers to generate?
You only need to generate a number for
package items that you plan to put together. Once you have added several
donated items to each generated catalog number
to form the packages, the “Automatically generate catalog
number” button will do the rest. If you
accidentally generate more numbers that you need to start with, just add
one donated item to each generated number
to use them up, before automatically generating the rest of the
numbers.
22 What is the difference between a “Fixed
priced miscellaneous item” and an “Instant sale of a
The only difference is that a fixed price
item is set up before the auction so a miscellaneous sheet can be printed
for transporting the bid number back to
the checkout table when it is sold, whereas an instant sale is done at the
checkout table and gets the item, price,
and bid number entered all at the same time and no paper sheet is printed.
23 What exactly is the “Bid rate” field used
for?
If you are not printing pre-priced silent
bid sheets it is not used for anything. If you are printing pre-priced silent
bid sheets, the bid rate is used to change
the numbers on the silent bid sheet. This is important if you have a
donation with the reported value much
lower then you think it should be, because the pre-printed prices are
calculated from the reported value of the
item. You don’t want to fudge the reported value to come up with the
right printed prices because that will
mess up the receipt value for the donor and the buyer, therefore you use the
bid rate to simply make the bid prices
what you want them to be on the pre-printed sheets. Note: Remember that
all calculations in this area are used to
figure the Buy-It-Now price that appears at the bottom of the pre-printed
silent bid sheet. All bid increments on
the bid sheet are then calculated from the B-I-N amount. The B-I-N
amount is calculated is by multiplying the
reported value from the donations form (of all items in the catalog lot)
times the bid rate, times the B-I-N
percentage on the Master information form for this auction. As you change the
bid rate number, you can watch the B-I-N
number change. If you don’t want to keep guessing at the bid rate, to
come up with the desired B-I-N amount,
simply enter the desired B-I-N amount in the bid rate field (any amount
above 5) and the above described
calculations will not take place but rather the amount you entered will be used
as the B-I-N.
24 What if I add a donated item to a package
and then decide I want to remove it or move it to a different
There are a couple different ways to fix
this problem. 1) Go back to the catalog number which contains the
unwanted item and click on the record
selector at the left of the item and press the delete button. Then open the
correct catalog number and add that item
to that catalog lot. 2) Open the donations datasheet and click on the
“Order by ID and unlock (Catalog number)”
button. Scroll down to the donated item that you want to change,
and either delete the catalog number or
change it to the desired catalog number.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Page 4 of 7
Category ID Question and Answer
26 What is the best way to enter the bid
number and price for any sold item?
This may depend on whether the item is
silent, live, or fixed price miscellaneous. For silent items the best way
would be to use the enter bids form;
however, there are two ways to enter bids on this form if you are using pre-
priced silent bid sheets. You can enter
bids by typing in the catalog number first to bring up the correct item then
press tab or enter to move to the price field.
Type in the price (usually whole numbers, no need to enter the .00)
and then press tab or enter to move to the
bid number field. Type in the bid number and then press tab or enter to
move back to the catalog number field where
you can type in the next catalog number to start the next item.
This process can be used to enter any bids
whether for pre-priced sheets, blank sheets, live or miscellaneous
items. There is another way to enter bids
if pre-priced silent bid sheets were used. The lower portion of the form
should look exactly like the pre-priced
silent auction sheets. If the user is more of a point and click type of person
rather than a number type of person, it may be
easier to use the second method. Use the drop down list to choose
the
catalog item that you want to enter the information for. Look at the pre-priced
bid sheet to see what bid
number is beside the highest bid price.
Use the drop down list beside that dollar amount to choose the bid
number. When you click the bid number, the
bid number and bid amount will automatically populate the fields
at the top for you. Now you are ready to
choose the next catalog number and repeat the process.
Note: There is one thing that I need to mentions here. When using this
method you will notice that the
amount paid for the item is not the same
as what was marked on the bid sheet. That is because the data base
calculates everything to several decimal
points even though the amounts are shown rounded to the nearest dollar.
Some amounts will show lower and some will
show higher. When the buyer checks out, the amount in the field
at the top of this page will appear on the
invoice, however to keep from having to handle any change at the
checkout, there is a checkbox on the
Master Information form that can be checked to cause all checkout amounts
to round up to the next even dollar.
If you are working with live auction items as they are being sold during
the live auction and you are not sure
of the order in which the items will be
sold, it may be easier to use the “Generate #” form. When this form is
open, click on the radio button that
filters the live items so they are the only items showing, then click on the
“Show price and bid number” button to turn
on those fields. This way you can search for the item being
auctioned and then enter the price when it
sells and the bid number when that information becomes available.
27 How can I just print one or two bid sheets
or miscellaneous sheets?
Open the “Packages” form and select the
catalog number that you want to print a sheet for. Click on the button
for the desired sheet at the bottom of the
form.
28 How can I print all of the bid sheets at
one time?
Open the reports form and use one of the
P30 section reports.
29 How do we keep silent and live auction
items separated in the catalog?
This is done automatically because all
silent item catalog numbers start with number 1, live item numbers start
with number 1001, and miscellaneous item
numbers start with 2001.
M
48 On the Master Information form there are
purple fields to store information that is used elsewhere in the
The other information is just for keeping
everything together in one place. This way all of the decisions made by
the auction committee can be recorded and
be readily available for anyone who asks.
49 On the Master Information form, what does
the “Archive this auction” checkbox do?
When an auction is complete, checking this
box will remove it from the list of auctions to switch to when the
user is switching to another auction. It
simply moves the auction to a second list which can be accessed by
clicking the “Open archived auction”
button on the Switch to a Different Auction form. This way it keeps the
normal “Open Auction” list to the auctions
that have not been completed yet.
O
21 Why are there two or there different
places that allow me to enter the same information such as bid
For your convenience. For different
situations there are different ways to display and modify information. You can
use the form that you like best or that
arranges the records in the easiest manner for the operation you are
performing.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Page 5 of 7
Category ID Question and Answer
35 How does the “Enter payment” form work at
checkout?
This is an exceptionally versatile form as
it will accept several different combinations of entering data. When you
click on the “Enter payment” button, the
form opens with the payment method which is determined by the
default payment method chosen on the
default payment method form. The payment method can be changed at any
time but the default should be set to what
ever payment method you feel will be used the most. If there are more
than one checkout lines, each user can set
a different payment method so you can have a cash line and a credit card
line. The form can be navigated by pressing
either the tab or the enter button to go to the next field and to add
the payment. This means that if all
information in the form is correct when the form opens and the buyer is not
paying by check, the user can press the
tab or enter button 5 times and the transaction is done.
The form also opens with the balance due field automatically populated.
If the balance due will be paid to the
exact amount and with one payment form,
all you need to do is choose the payment method if it is not already
correct, enter the check number if paying
by check and click the add payment button. The total payments should
match the balance due.
If the buyer happens to say that they would like to also make a donation
of a particular amount above the
amount they owe, the user can press the
enter button once, type in the amount of the donation and then press
enter 4 more times to complete the
transaction.
If the buyer happens to say that they would like to make a donation but
rather than a particular donation
amount, just raise my amount due to a
particular amount, the user can press the enter button twice, enter the new
total due amount and then press the enter
button 3 more times to complete the transaction. The donation amount
will automatically be calculated and
entered in the donation field.
Any time the cashier needs to make change and wants help calculating the
change amount, the user can enter
the Amt Tender in the field, press enter
to see the amount of changed that needs to be returned to the buyer and
then press enter again to complete the
transaction. The Amt tender and change field does nothing for the program
and its use is solely up to the users
discretion.
If more than one payment method will be used to complete the payment,
process one payment method at a
time. For instance, if the buyer wants to
pay $200 cash and put the rest on a credit card, change the payment
method to cash and the balance due to $200
and press the add payment button. Then press the enter payment
button again to open the payment form.
Choose credit card as a payment method and click add payment to
complete the transaction. When all
payments are made, the total payments should match the balance due.
Note: The total payments amount showing above the list of payments does
NOT include any donations
made. It only reflects payments made
against the balance due.
Note: Once a payment has been made, no changes can be made to that
entry. If there is any mistake or any
change that needs to be made to any
payment, click on the record selector to the left of the payment, and press the
delete button to remove it, then you can click
the enter payment button again to re-do the transaction.
36 How does the buyer get a receipt?
As soon as all payments have been made,
click the 1 button at the top of the checkout form if you only want to
print one copy of the receipt. Click the 2
button if you want to print 2 copies of the receipt. If you want to print
every receipt for the whole auction at one
time, click the large button at the top left corner of the checkout form.
37 What if a buyer finds something on their
invoice that they do not think they purchased or finds a
After all of the bid sheets are processed,
they should all be arraigned in numerical order just in case you need to
find one of them during check out. In this
case you would pull the bid sheet for the item in question to see if the
buyer is correct or mistaken. If you find
that the buyer is correct and there was a mistake made when entering
bids, the user would need to go back to
the enter bids form and make the necessary corrections. Note: This will
possibly change another buyer’s invoice so
a note should be made of who the other buyer was that the item was
accidentally charged to and then
immediately checked to see if that buyer has already checked out and may have
already taken the item or may need a
refund or need to make another payment if the item was added to their
invoice etc.
38 When I open the check out form and choose
a buyer, I only see one item listed, where are the other items?
If you look to the far left of the balance
due amount, you will see a set of record navigation buttons. Click the
right or left arrow to cycle through each
catalog lot. At each catalog lot, every donation that was sold in that lot
will be listed separately. If the catalog
lot had a title, it will show to the right of the catalog number.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Page 6 of 7
Category ID Question and Answer
39 On the checkout form, what is the
difference between the Value, Price and the Tax deductible amount?
The value is the sum of the value of every
item in the catalog lot, as reported by the donor. The Price is the
amount the buyer paid for the catalog lot.
The Tax deductible amount is the difference between the reported value
of the catalog lot and the amount the
buyer paid for the lot, only if the amount paid is higher then the value,
otherwise this figure will be $0.00. This
is the portion of the sale that may be tax deductible to the buyer. The
value shown beside the caption “Amount
that may be tax deductible” is the sum of all amounts paid above the
value for all catalog lots.
40 On the Summery form, what is the Total
Expenses by Type sub-form used for?
This sub-form would be used by an
auctioneer who is providing the checkout service for another party. After the
auction, the auctioneer would choose the
expense type and enter the amount of the expense. These are then
deducted from the auction profit to leave
the Auction Net Profit amount which is the amount of the collected
funds that the auctioneer would give to the
fundraiser group. This amount also reflects any percentage of sales that
are
charged against the auction, buyer’s premiums or tax that was collected by the
checkout service that will be
sent to the government agency.
41 What is the “Update form” button at the
top of the Summery form used for?
There is a possibility that another form
could be opened in the program with changes being made that could
change the summery information. Clicking
this button will refresh all information on the form.
P
50 On the “Auction Reports” form, why do
buttons that open the reports start with letters?
If you look at the tabs along the top of
the form, one of the letters in the description is underlined. This makes
that letter a hot key and allows the user
to open that tab by holding down the Alt key on the keyboard while
pressing the underlined letter key. By
using this letter at the beginning of every button on that tab, it make it
much easier for quick reference to a
particular report by calling out the letter of the tab it is on and the number
of
T, R
30 Why are there two sides to the ticket and
registration form that look almost alike and have to same fields?
The fields on the left side are always for
adding NEW information whereas the gray fields on the right side are for
searching for already ENTERED information
that you may want to view or modify.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Page 7 of 7