lifecycle
Auction Experts is auctioneer software that manages the full auction cycle for an auction house — from the moment a consignment arrives to the moment the buyer's invoice is paid. Timed, live, sealed-bid and private sales all run from the same back office, on one bidder database and one catalogue.
The cycle
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Consignment | Consignor registration, goods intake, lot data enrichment, labels, consignor contracts. |
| Cataloguing | Categories, images, metadata, lot ordering, XML export for the printed catalogue. |
| Publication | Live on your site and pushed to connected marketplaces. |
| Bidding | Timed, live, sealed, private. Phone and absentee bids. Registration and approval. |
| Close | Winning bids calculated, notifications sent, unsold lots routed to after sale or returned. |
| Settlement | Buyer and consignor invoicing, commission, transport, reminders, payment providers. |
| Accounting | Invoices and results exported to your finance system over the integration API. |
Why it matters that this is one system
Auction houses that run intake in a spreadsheet, cataloguing in a design tool, bidding on a portal and invoicing in an accounting package spend a surprising amount of their week moving data between them — and every transfer is a chance to introduce an error into a legal document.
Here the lot record created at intake is the same record that appears in the catalogue, takes bids, and produces the invoice. Nothing is retyped.
Bidder management
Every bidder has one record: registration details, identity and KYC documents, approval status, bidding history across all your auctions, invoices and payment status. Registrations can be approved manually or automatically, with VIES VAT validation and SMS verification available. Deposits and bidding limits are set per bidder or per auction.
Auction management
Auctions are created with their own bid steps, buyer's premium, VAT treatment, currency and closing behaviour. During a sale the team watches bids in real time, adjusts the timeline, and lets Auction Experts handle outbid notifications and closing. Auctions can be copied, so a recurring monthly sale is set up once.
Lot management
Lots are created individually, uploaded in batch from a spreadsheet, or pushed in through the REST API from your own cataloguing system. Each lot carries images, descriptions and translations, estimates, reserve, per-lot bid steps and closing time. Unsold lots move to the post-auction sale or to the next auction without being re-catalogued.
Invoicing
Invoices are generated automatically at the close of the sale, with buyer's premium, VAT on the premium, and shipping applied by rule rather than by hand. They carry your branding, go out in the buyer's language, and connect to your payment provider for settlement and reconciliation.
Reporting and analytics
Auction Experts reports on what the sale actually did: sell-through rate and hammer total per auction, results per lot and per category, bidder registration and participation, bidding activity over the run of a timed sale, and outstanding invoices. Reports export to Excel, CSV and PDF, and the same data is available through the API if you want it in your own BI tool.
Platform
Auction Experts runs on Microsoft Azure as SaaS with dynamic scaling and 24/7 monitoring, across all modern browsers and devices. Integration is by REST API; authentication is OAuth 2.0 with single sign-on; the event system fires webhooks for custom automation; and the CMS lets your team edit the website, emails and invoice templates without a developer.
The same suite runs a monthly sale of two hundred lots and a portal handling thousands.
What this covers in full
The full feature list →Invoicing and settlement on the full list →
- Automated buyer invoicing When the sale closes, invoices go out with hammer price, premium, VAT and costs already calculated.
- Consignor settlement invoices The seller gets their statement too — what sold, what it made, what you deducted, what they are owed.
- One run creates buyer and consignor invoices together Close the sale once and both sides of the paperwork are produced in the same pass, always reconciling.
- Merge invoices, or one per sender A buyer who won lots from six consignors gets one invoice, or six, depending on how you work.
- Buyer's Agreement before a number is assigned Show the buyer what they owe before the invoice number is issued, so corrections don't break your numbering.
- Credit notes linked to the original invoice Cancel or correct an invoice properly, with the credit note tied to what it reverses.
- Editing invoice lines by hand Add a delivery charge, waive a fee, or fix a line without rebuilding the whole invoice.
- Finalise and lock an invoice Once it is right, freeze it so nobody edits an invoice that has already gone to the buyer.
- Invoice numbering counter Sequential invoice numbers with no gaps, which is what your accountant and the tax office expect.
- Find invoices by number, recipient or status Answer 'has this been paid?' in seconds instead of opening a spreadsheet.
- Eight payment statuses Track whether an invoice was paid by card, PIN, cash, bank transfer, or is still pending — not just paid or unpaid.
- Partial payments tracked A buyer pays half now and half on collection, and the balance is always visible.
- Invoices and reminders sent, with delivery status Chase late payers automatically, and see who was reminded and when.
- Invoice log and internal notes Record the phone call where the buyer promised to pay Friday, against the invoice itself.
- Billing and delivery address frozen on the invoice The invoice keeps the address it was issued to, whatever the buyer changes later.
- Bank transactions reconciled against invoices Import the bank statement and let the system match payments to invoices instead of doing it by eye.
- Consignor payouts with an approval step Money owed to sellers is prepared, approved by a second person, and recorded when sent.
- Payment provider logs When a card payment fails, see exactly what the provider said.
- Peppol e-invoicing Send buyer invoices as structured e-invoices over the Peppol network, so they land directly in the recipient’s accounting system — no PDF to rekey.
Fees, commission and tax on the full list →
- Buyer's premium as a percentage of hammer Add your commission on top of the hammer price automatically, on every lot.
- Fees as a fixed amount or a percentage Charge 20% commission and a flat €5 lot fee, together, on the same invoice.
- Minimum and maximum caps per fee Commission is 15%, but never less than €10 and never more than €2,000.
- Commission tiers by price bracket 25% on the first €50,000, 20% above it — the standard auction-house model, built in.
- Fees set at auction, lot or member level Different rates for a charity sale, for one negotiated lot, or for a regular dealer.
- Fee groups Bundle premium, insurance and lot fee into one named scheme you apply in a click.
- Extra costs on individual lots Add transport, restoration or storage costs to the lots that actually incurred them.
- Commission agreed per bidder Honour the rate you negotiated with a particular trade buyer.
- VAT rates per country, with EU handling Sell to Germany, France and Belgium from one platform and get the VAT right in each case.
- VAT-free and margin scheme Handle second-hand goods sold under the margin scheme, where VAT applies only to your commission.
- BPM for Dutch vehicle sales Handle the Dutch vehicle tax correctly on car lots, separately from VAT.
- Intra-community supply flagged on invoice lines Zero-rate a sale to a VAT-registered business in another EU country, and mark it as such.
- VAT included or excluded, per line Show consumer prices with VAT and trade prices without, on the same platform.
- Intrastat reporting Produce the cross-border goods figures required once your EU trade passes the threshold.