Tutorial Video – Creating a New Webcast Auction
This guide covers how to Create a Webcast Auction in the Webtron Dashboard. If you are using Vendor+, click here for the guide on how to Create a Webcast Auction in Vendor+. Each step covers the tabs that appear in the New Auction menu on the Webtron Dashboard, click any of the Chapter titles to skip ahead.
All Fields marked with a red * are required but can be filled in with placeholders and edited at a later time.
Step 1 – General Settings
Name of Auction and Description*
Fill in the Name/Title of your Auction and Description. The Name and Description appear on the Current Auctions page and at the top of the Auction catalogue on your Portal:
The Name of your Auction can be 75 characters or less in length, and is the general name of your Auction event. The Description can be 3000 characters in length, but we recommend 500 characters max.
Currency, Bidding Extension and Purchase Cut-Off
Currency – Your default Currency is set in your Auctioneer profile and will be pre-filled here, but you can click the dropdown and select a different currency if needed.
This currency will also be pre-filled for any Items you Create or Import later on, but the currency can also be set on a per-Item basis.
Bidding Extension – This option only applies to Timed Auctions, you can leave it as is.
Purchase Cut-off – This setting only applies to Timed Auctions as well, you can leave it as is.
Buyer’s Premium* and Additional Taxes
Your Buyer’s Premium and additional tax rates (BP Tax, Hammer Tax and Charges Tax) will be auto-filled based on your Auctioneer profile default, but you can change them here for this specific Auction.
These fields support decimalised figures, match the following formatting (e.g. 15.00, whole figure and 2-digit decimal).
Step 2 – Set an Auction Logo (Optional)
You can set a Logo for your Auction that appears on the Current Auctions page and inside the Essential/Sale Information panels:
Setting a Logo is optional, but if you decide to, here are our recommend image specifications:
- File Type – JPEG (JPG), PNG or TIFF.
- File Size – 200KB or lower recommended (20MB Maximum file size but compression heavily recommended).
- Image Dimensions – 900px (Width) x 900px (Height).
Step 3 – Dates
Under the Dates tab, only the following fields are required to successfully Create your Webcast Auction:
- Auction Start Date & Time.
- Auction Viewing – By Appointment Only
Our recommendation:
- Set your Auction Start Date & Time* – these can be filled with placeholders and changed later. Click the Date to open the Calendar panel and select a date, then choose an Hour and Minute from the dropdowns to the right.
- Set your Auction Viewing to By Appointment Only – Yes, and type out your Inspection details in the Comment on Viewing field.
Enable Webcast Pre-Bidding is optional and can be toggled on or off at any stage by editing the auction. Your Webcast Auction is also visible at any point before the Auction Start Date & Time when in Live status and unhidden.
Step 4 – Location
Tick the Use Auctioneer Address checkbox to automatically fill in your address details with the default Address set inside your Auctioneer profile.
If you need to fill in a different Auction Location, only the City, Postal/Zip Code and Country fields are required.
Step 5 – Documents (Optional)
Any attached Documents will appear and be downloadable from the Essential Information panel during the Live (Pre-Bidding) phase:
Attaching Documents at the Auction-level is optional, but if you decide to, here are the supported document-types and specifications:
- File Types – Word Documents (.docx), Adobe PDFs (.pdf), and Spreadsheets (.csv or .xlsx).
- Number of Attachments – No cap for no. of Documents
- File Size Limit – 20MB Maximum individual file size.
Drag and drop any of the supported Documents inside the dashed-area or click Choose Files to select them from your device’s Finder/File Explorer, the Upload will begin after you hit Save Auction.
Our Recommendations:
- Documents can also be attached on a per-Item basis, we recommend attaching Item-specific Documents to their respective Item instead of at Auction-level.
Click here for our Document Recommendations guide for more information on PDFs (converting, compressing, and more).
Step 6 – Contacts (Optional)
Contacts can be assigned on a per-Auction basis and add relevant Contact Details to your Essential/Sale Information panels for your Bidders.
Assigning a Contact is optional, and new Contact profiles can be created in the Users & Groups > Contacts menu.
Once created, tick the checkbox next to a Contact to assign them to that Auction, or click Add New on the Auctions & Items > View Auctions page after you have saved your auction. There is no limit on the no. of Contacts you can assign to an Auction.
Step 7 – Supporting Content (Optional)
We do not recommend altering any of the options in this menu if you are still new to Creating Auctions, click here for our full Supporting Content Explained guide.
Save Auction
You can now click Save Auction (we don’t recommend ticking Save as Draft. The Auction Draft status is largely redundant).
If you have filled out and set all of the required fields correctly, you will now return to the View Auctions page and see the Auction Created confirmation message at the top of your screen.