Glossary

An Access Code (or Access Token link) gives a guest direct access to a specific event website — allowing them to bid, make donations, purchase items, and settle their balance via the My Account page without using a password.

Note: An Access Code does not give guests access to their Your Profile page. Profile access is tied to an email address and password, and requires signing in with those credentials instead.

Anti-Sniping (also called Bid Extension or Soft Close) refers to a feature that automatically extends the bidding period when a bid is placed in the final moments before an auction closes. This prevents bidders from "sniping" — placing a last-second bid that doesn't give others a chance to respond.

See Bid Extension Rules for configuration options.

Bid Extension (also called Anti-Sniping or Soft Close) automatically extends the bidding period when a bid is placed in the final moments before an auction closes. This prevents bidders from winning an item by placing a last-second bid that other participants don't have time to respond to.

See Bid Extension Rules for configuration options.

Biddable Items are item types that participants can place bids on. Auctria supports three biddable item types:

See Item Types for more information.

A Buy It Now Only item is purchased instantly when a bidder clicks the Buy Now button. The item is immediately added to their account — not their shopping cart — and reserved for them, just like winning an auction item.

Note: This action cannot be undone by the bidder, and the purchase will appear immediately in your auction dashboards.

See Buy It Now Only Items for setup details.

A Dessert Dash is a fun, competitive fundraising activity for in-person events. Guests contribute donations as a table, and the table with the highest total gets first pick from a selection of desserts — one per table. Each subsequent table picks in order from highest to lowest donation total.

Auctria handles the Dessert Dash automatically: items are generated for each table, individual contributions appear on participant statements, and results are ranked in the dashboard. Requires Tables and Seating to be set up in your event.

See Dessert Dash Dashboard for setup and recording instructions.

A Donation Item is used to accept donations through the event website from participants who are not purchasing an item or winning an auction. Donation items can also represent specific projects or causes that participants can contribute to for a designated purpose.

A Final Bid is the winning bid recorded for Paper Bidding and Live Bidding type items. Unlike online bidding — where the winning bid is determined automatically when bidding closes — final bids for paper and live items are entered manually by the organizer.

See Record Paper Bids and Record Live Bids for more details.

A For Sale Item is sold at a fixed price and can be purchased by multiple participants. Use For Sale Items for merchandise, food and drink tickets, raffle tickets, and anything else where participants are buying outright rather than bidding to win.

An Item Donor is a person, company, or organization that has contributed an item to your fundraiser for you to auction, sell, or raffle off to participants. Item Donors are saved at the organization level, so they're available across all of your events.

See Item Donors for details on adding and managing donors.

The Live Auction Number (also called Live Number or Live #) is a secondary index used to arrange Live Bidding items in a custom order that's separate from their standard item number sequence. This is useful for organizing the order in which items are presented by an auctioneer during a live auction.

A Live Bidding Type Item is an item sold or auctioned at an in-person event, typically led by an auctioneer, emcee, or another member of your team. Final bids are recorded manually once the item has been sold.

Also called Max Bid (formerly Proxy Bidding).

When enabled, the Maximum Bid feature allows bidders to set the highest amount they're willing to pay for an item. Auctria will then bid on their behalf automatically, placing the minimum bid needed to keep them in the lead — up to their maximum amount. This feature is only available for Online Bidding type items.

See Maximum Bidding for setup and configuration details.

A Negative Payment is used to create an audit trail when refunding a non-credit card payment, such as cash or check. To record one, use the standard Checkout page and enter a negative value as the payment amount. The entry will appear under the participant's Activity tab.

See Negative Payment Refund for more details.

A Negative Purchase reduces an event's income and is recorded through the Sales Dashboard using the Record Purchases function. This is typically used when an organizer needs to record a credit given to a participant — for example, if a raffle prize winner receives $100 off an item, that discount is not income and cannot be recorded as a payment.

An Online Bidding Type Item is an item where all bidding is handled electronically through Auctria, typically via the event website. Bidding closes automatically at the end of the configured online bidding period.

Online Pre-Bidding allows bidders to place bids on Paper and Live bidding type items before an in-person event begins. This helps generate interest and raise the starting bid ahead of the event.

The highest pre-bid placed before the item's online bidding end time becomes the Starting Bid for that item at the in-person event. The end time is taken from the default auction online bidding end time, or from the item's Override Online Bidding End Time if one has been set.

See Online Bidding Settings for configuration details.

A Paper Bidding Type item has its final bid recorded from a paper bid sheet at an in-person event. These items can accept online pre-bids before the event. By default, final bids are entered manually by the organizer, but if online bidding is enabled with timed closing, the item will close automatically at the online bidding end time and the winner is determined by the online bids.

A Partial Type Item is designed to be bundled as part of a basket or package, and is not intended to be sold individually. Partial items are combined with other items to create a single lot for auction or sale.

In Auctria, a Participant is anyone who contributes to your event — whether by bidding, purchasing items, or donating. The term is used inclusively to cover all types of attendees and supporters.

See Participants for details on adding and managing participants.

The Paddle # (also called the Paddle Number) is an optional numeric identifier assigned to each participant. While it can be ignored in many cases, it is required for certain operations such as in-person auction bidding, and linking or merging participant records.

See Participant Numbering for setup and configuration options.

Proxy Bidding is the former name for what is now called Maximum Bidding in Auctria. The feature allows bidders to set the highest amount they're willing to pay for an Online Bidding type item, and Auctria will automatically bid on their behalf up to that amount. If you encounter references to Proxy Bidding in older documentation, Maximum Bidding is the current equivalent.

A QR Code (Quick Response Code) is a scannable code that mobile devices can read using their camera. In Auctria, QR codes are commonly used to share your event website address, provide bidder access links, and display item information — making it easy to get guests to the right place quickly.

See Get QR Code for instructions on generating and sharing your event's QR code.

A Raffle Prize Item is an item used as a raffle prize or awarded to a participant at no cost. Raffle Prize Items are linked to a raffle draw — they are not the same as the For Sale items used to sell raffle tickets.

In Auctria, Raffle Tickets are created as For Sale items and represent purchasable "lots" that enter participants into a raffle. You can automatically select winners, or you can draw and record winners manually, from the Raffles page in the dashboard.

See Raffles for setup and running instructions.

A Reserve Price is the minimum bid an item must reach in order to be won at auction. This field is available for Online, Live, and Paper bidding type items. For items with multiple winners, each winning bid must meet or exceed the Reserve Price individually.

See Online Bidding Type, Live Bidding Type, and Paper Bidding Type for details on where this setting appears.

In Auctria, Tickets are used exclusively for event admission and similar access-control purposes, such as limiting bidding to ticket holders. They should not be used for other kinds of tickets — for raffle tickets, use the Raffles feature; for drink or food tickets, use For Sale Items instead.

See Tickets for setup instructions.

A User is a person with login credentials to the Auctria event dashboard who helps organize and manage the fundraiser. They are usually fellow members of your organization, board members, or volunteers. Users can be assigned different permission levels to control what they can access and edit.

See Users for details on adding users and managing permissions.