Auctioneer software for auction houses

The auctioneer suite showing an auction in progress

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.

Bidder management in the auctioneer software — Bidder registration and approval

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.

Invoicing and settlement in the auctioneer software — Invoicing, commissions and settlement

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 invoicingWhen the sale closes, invoices go out with hammer price, premium, VAT and costs already calculated.
Consignor settlement invoicesThe seller gets their statement too — what sold, what it made, what you deducted, what they are owed.
One run creates buyer and consignor invoices togetherClose the sale once and both sides of the paperwork are produced in the same pass, always reconciling.
Merge invoices, or one per senderA buyer who won lots from six consignors gets one invoice, or six, depending on how you work.
Buyer's Agreement before a number is assignedShow the buyer what they owe before the invoice number is issued, so corrections don't break your numbering.
Credit notes linked to the original invoiceCancel or correct an invoice properly, with the credit note tied to what it reverses.
Editing invoice lines by handAdd a delivery charge, waive a fee, or fix a line without rebuilding the whole invoice.
Finalise and lock an invoiceOnce it is right, freeze it so nobody edits an invoice that has already gone to the buyer.
Invoice numbering counterSequential invoice numbers with no gaps, which is what your accountant and the tax office expect.
Find invoices by number, recipient or statusAnswer 'has this been paid?' in seconds instead of opening a spreadsheet.
Eight payment statusesTrack whether an invoice was paid by card, PIN, cash, bank transfer, or is still pending — not just paid or unpaid.
Partial payments trackedA buyer pays half now and half on collection, and the balance is always visible.
Invoices and reminders sent, with delivery statusChase late payers automatically, and see who was reminded and when.
Invoice log and internal notesRecord the phone call where the buyer promised to pay Friday, against the invoice itself.
Billing and delivery address frozen on the invoiceThe invoice keeps the address it was issued to, whatever the buyer changes later.
Bank transactions reconciled against invoicesImport the bank statement and let the system match payments to invoices instead of doing it by eye.
Consignor payouts with an approval stepMoney owed to sellers is prepared, approved by a second person, and recorded when sent.
Payment provider logsWhen a card payment fails, see exactly what the provider said.
Peppol e-invoicingSend 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 hammerAdd your commission on top of the hammer price automatically, on every lot.
Fees as a fixed amount or a percentageCharge 20% commission and a flat €5 lot fee, together, on the same invoice.
Minimum and maximum caps per feeCommission is 15%, but never less than €10 and never more than €2,000.
Commission tiers by price bracket25% on the first €50,000, 20% above it — the standard auction-house model, built in.
Fees set at auction, lot or member levelDifferent rates for a charity sale, for one negotiated lot, or for a regular dealer.
Fee groupsBundle premium, insurance and lot fee into one named scheme you apply in a click.
Extra costs on individual lotsAdd transport, restoration or storage costs to the lots that actually incurred them.
Commission agreed per bidderHonour the rate you negotiated with a particular trade buyer.
VAT rates per country, with EU handlingSell to Germany, France and Belgium from one platform and get the VAT right in each case.
VAT-free and margin schemeHandle second-hand goods sold under the margin scheme, where VAT applies only to your commission.
BPM for Dutch vehicle salesHandle the Dutch vehicle tax correctly on car lots, separately from VAT.
Intra-community supply flagged on invoice linesZero-rate a sale to a VAT-registered business in another EU country, and mark it as such.
VAT included or excluded, per lineShow consumer prices with VAT and trade prices without, on the same platform.
Intrastat reportingProduce the cross-border goods figures required once your EU trade passes the threshold.

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