GC Auctions - Closing an Auction and Reviewing Results

Applies to: GC Events with GC Auctions enabled

Roles: Events administrators with the Manage Registrations permission

Location: Auction > Dashboard and Auction > Closeouts

Outcome: Bidding is closed, results are reviewed, and winners and pledge donors are notified.

Summary: Once bidding ends, take a few minutes to review results before anyone is notified. Handle items below reserve and resolve unknown paddles and duplicates. Then select Confirm & Notify to send winners and pledge donors to checkout.

This article covers

• Monitoring the auction from the dashboard
• Extending, pausing, closing early, and reopening silent bidding
• Reviewing items and pledges in Closeouts
• Handling below-reserve items
• Resolving unknown paddles and duplicates
• Confirm & Notify

Monitor the auction from the dashboard

While your auction is running, the Auction Dashboard shows live totals, items sold, bidders with bids, checkout status, and paddle raise activity. It refreshes every five seconds.

[Screenshot: Dashboard with active auction]

Silent auction controls

On the Silent Auction card:

• Extend closing time: Push the end time back by 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes. Every open item's close time moves with it.
• Pause bidding / Resume bidding: Temporarily stop bidding, for example during the program. When you resume, the paused time is added back to the end time. Bidders see that bidding is paused.
• Close early: End bidding now. With Hold for admin review on, winners are locked in from the current high bids. Nothing is invoiced or emailed until you select Confirm & Notify.
• Reopen bidding: Put silent items back up for bidding for 15, 30, 60, or 120 minutes.

Important: You can only undo a close for a short time. You can reopen bidding while results are in review, or within five minutes after the auction fully closes, as long as no one has paid. After that, the close is final. If you're notifying winners immediately (no admin review), closing early generates invoices and sends emails.

Step 1: Open Closeouts

When bidding ends and you're holding for admin review, the dashboard shows "Bidding has ended — review winners before donors are notified." Select Review Winners, or go to Auction > Closeouts.

The Transaction Manager shows a summary (total committed, items sold, items flagged, pledges, and pledges flagged) and two tabs: Items and Pledges.

Tip: You can start reviewing while bidding is still open, but Confirm & Notify is only available once all bidding has ended.

Step 2: Review items

On the Items tab, filter by All, Flagged, Silent, Live, or Unsold. Start with Flagged items. Flags include:

• Below reserve
• No payment on file
• Bid-amount anomaly (an amount that looks unusual, like a possible typo)
• No bids — unsold

From each item's actions menu, you can:

• Void high bid: For silent items with other bids, the next-highest bidder becomes the winner. Otherwise the item is marked unsold.
• Override amount: Correct the winning amount.
• Reassign to bidder: Give the item to another bidder who bid on it (silent items only).
• Withdraw item: Void all bids. No winner, no invoice, no emails.

Handling below-reserve items

• Silent items that end below reserve are unsold by default. To sell anyway, select Award to high bidder. The item sells at the bidder's own bid, not the reserve price.
• Live items recorded below reserve are marked sold and flagged. To undo the sale, select Reverse to Not sold. Unsold items don't bill or notify their high bidder.

You can change your mind on either until you select Confirm & Notify.

Step 3: Review paddle raise pledges

On the Pledges tab, look for these statuses:

• Unknown paddle: The paddle number doesn't match a registered bidder.
• Possible duplicate: The same paddle pledged the same level twice on one appeal.
• Voided: The pledge has been voided.

To resolve them:

• Fix paddle: Search by name or paddle number, select the Correct bidder, and select Link to bidder. Only registered bidders can be selected. If the person isn't registered yet, register them on the Bidders page first.
• Not a duplicate: Keep both pledges. The second one settles as a second gift.
• Void pledge: Remove a pledge keyed twice by mistake. The donor isn't notified.
• Reassign to donor or Override amount: Correct who made the pledge or the amount.

Step 4: Confirm & Notify

When everything looks right, select Confirm & Notify. The confirmation shows how many winners will be notified and how many invoices will be generated, plus warnings about any winners without a card on file.

After you confirm:

• Winner emails go out in about five minutes. Until then, you can still reopen the auction.
• Each winner gets one email ("You won! Complete your checkout…") listing their items won and paddle raise pledges, with a Pay now button. Donors who only made pledges get a "Complete your gift…" email.
• This is the first notification, so it starts your checkout reminder and auto-charge clock.
• Bidders with voided, withdrawn, or reassigned bids aren't notified, and losing bidders don't receive an email.

Important: Once the emails go out, this can't be undone. Double-check the Flagged filters on both tabs before you confirm.

Some winners won't receive an email:

• Winners without a card on file or a GiveCampus account
• Donors whose pledges were recorded under a paddle number that was never matched to a bidder

Follow up with them from Checkouts.

What happens next

The Closeouts page moves to Checkouts, where you can track and collect payment. See Checkout, Offline Payments, and Refunds.

Keywords: close auction, end auction, extend bidding, pause bidding, close early, reopen bidding, review winners, closeouts, transaction manager, below reserve, unknown paddle, duplicate pledge, confirm and notify, winner email