Live Auction Clerking.
The complete guide to running the Live Console — from opening the sale to fixing mistakes in the heat of battle. Everything clerks and auctioneers need, in the order they need it.
Overview & Prerequisites
What the Live Console is, who uses it, and what needs to be in place before you open it.
↪ For where this sits in the wider platform, see Module 39 — Live Console & Auction Clerking in the User Manual.
The Live Console is the clerking interface used to run a live auction in real time. It processes bids from every platform simultaneously — your website, Bidsquare.com, floor bidders, phone bidders, LiveAuctioneers, and Invaluable — and reconciles winners as the sale progresses.
Multiple simultaneous console users cause data conflicts and duplicate bid entries. One designated clerk operates the console. Everyone else — including a second checker — works from the Lots & Items screen in a separate tab, never from the console itself.
The Live Console tab is locked until 30 minutes before the auction's scheduled start. If you need to open it for a session that's about to begin and the tab is greyed out, edit the auction start time to be 25–30 minutes from now, reload, and the tab will unlock.
What must be in place before you open the console
- Auction is published (Cloud Published toggle on)
- All items are lotted — 0 Unlotted shown in the auction overview
- Bidders are registered and approved for the auction
- Platform paddle ranges are configured (Floor, Phone, LA, Invaluable, etc.)
- Auctioneer Report printed — or Auctioneer Screen open and ready on the podium device
- If running live video: video device and browser permissions tested in advance
Pre-Sale Console Setup
The three toggles, video feed, and the 30-minute holding window.
Open the console in the 30-minute window before the sale. Use this time to set up your toggles, configure messages, prepare the video feed if streaming, and settle in before clicking Start Auction.
The Three Critical Toggles
| Toggle | Recommended | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Enter Floor Numbers | ON | When a floor/phone/LA/INV lot sells, a paddle-number popup appears so the clerk can record the winner without leaving the console. This is the most efficient way to clerk a full sale from one screen. |
| Auto Start Next Lot | ON (with caveats) | Automatically opens the next lot after each sold or passed item — keeps the sale moving at pace. Turn it OFF for the first 10–15 lots if there is any chance you will need to reopen an earlier lot; you cannot reopen while it is on unless you first pass the current lot. |
| Auto Accept Online | OFF for mixed sales | With this on, every online bid is accepted automatically without clerk input — you lose the ability to prioritize a floor bid over an online one. Only enable for pure online-only timed events where no floor bidders are present. |
Live Video Streaming
If streaming audio/video: go to the Audio/Video tab and select your camera and microphone from the dropdowns. The first time you do this, the browser will prompt for camera and microphone permission — allow it. Click Preview to confirm the feed looks correct, then Publish when ready. The video window is moveable by bidders on your website and on Bidsquare.com — they can drag, minimize, or full-screen it.
Streaming is CPU-intensive. Running the live console and the video stream on the same machine simultaneously can degrade console responsiveness. Best practice: one device for the console, a separate device dedicated to streaming. If you must run both on the same machine, this will usually work — but test it in Demo first.
Auctioneer Tools
Three outputs from the Auctioneer menu — set them up before the first lot opens.
| Tool | What the auctioneer sees | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Auctioneer Screen | Current lot details, absentee bids (online and offline separated), phone bid assignments, reserve price in red/green, current bid, running sale totals | Open in a separate tab and drag to the auctioneer's monitor or iPad. Navigate lots with Left/Right arrow keys or the Next/Prev buttons. Moving through lots on this screen does not affect live bidding. |
| Auctioneer Report | Printable PDF of all lots with space to write hammer prices and paddle numbers | Print before the sale. Includes absentee bid values (online and offline), phone operator assignments, reserve prices, and consignor names. Used at the podium as a physical record and cross-check. |
| Floor Screen | Large-format room display showing current lot, current bid, and bidding activity | Open in a separate tab, drag to a room monitor or projector. Updates automatically throughout the sale. |
| Phone Bidder Matrix | Grid view of all lots with active phone bids alongside all assigned operators — full visibility of your phone schedule at a glance | Available from Auctions › [auction] › Phone Bidders tab before and during the sale. Print or display on a second screen for the phone team supervisor. |
The current bid displays in red when the reserve price has not been met, and turns green when the reserve is cleared. This gives the auctioneer a real-time visual indicator at a glance without needing to remember individual reserve values across a full catalog.
Live Messages & One-Click Templates
Send real-time messages to all bidders. Set up templates once and use them forever.
The Live Messaging Center appears on the right panel of the console. Type any message and click Send — it is broadcast immediately to all bidders viewing the sale on your website and on Bidsquare.com.
One-Click Message Templates
During the 30-minute pre-sale window (after opening the console but before starting the auction), click Add in the messaging panel to create saved templates. Give each one a title (the button label) and a message body. Once saved, those buttons persist across every future sale — you never need to create them again.
Common templates to set up:
- Welcome / Good morning — sent as soon as you start the auction
- Short break — back in X minutes
- Bid fast — lot closing soon
- Phone lines open — contact us if you need assistance
- Final lot coming up
After clicking Start Auction but before opening the first lot, the sale is live but no bidding is possible. This is the perfect moment to post a welcome message and let bidders know the sale is about to begin. Bidders can see the messages even before the first lot opens.
Starting the Auction
Two separate clicks — Start Auction, then Start Lot. Never combined.
Accepting & Managing Bids
The normal flow of a lot — from open to sold.
The lot is open. Bidding is live. Here is the typical rhythm:
Absentee Bids — Online vs Offline
Understanding the difference between bids the system handles automatically and bids you execute manually.
| Type | How it works | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Online max absentee bid | Placed by a bidder on your website or Bidsquare.com before the sale. Bids automatically against competing bids as the lot opens — the system resolves all competing online maxes against each other so only one remains by the time the lot goes live. Clerk sees the result as a green online bid button the moment the lot opens. | Auctioneer Screen, Auctioneer Report |
| Offline absentee bid | A bid submitted directly to the auction house — by phone, email, or in person — and recorded against a bidder's registration by staff. Only visible to the auctioneer and clerk, never to other bidders. Does NOT execute automatically — the auctioneer calls it as a floor bid. | Auctioneer Screen, Auctioneer Report |
The Auctioneer Screen shows both types under the absentee bid section: online max bids labeled "online" and book bids labeled "offline." This is how the auctioneer knows where to start bidding at the top of each lot.
If you want a list of all max absentee bid values before the sale starts, download the Absentee Bidding Activity Report yourself from the Reports section. This is particularly useful for clerks who want to prepare for high-value opening bids.
Floor & Third-Party Paddle Numbers
How to record winners from LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, phone, and floor.
When a lot sells to a floor bid (which covers floor bidders, phone bidders, LiveAuctioneers, and Invaluable), the Enter Floor Numbers popup appears and asks for the winning paddle number. What you type determines what appears in the Lots & Items screen:
| Winner type | What to enter | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| Registered floor bidder | Their paddle number (e.g. 42) | System recognizes the registered bidder and reconciles automatically. Invoice can be generated immediately. |
| Registered phone bidder | Their paddle number (e.g. 501) | Same as floor — auto-reconciled if registered. |
| LiveAuctioneers winner | LA (or the LA paddle number if known, e.g. 901) | Shows as "LA — Reg N/A" until the post-sale EOA import overwrites it with real bidder data. |
| Invaluable winner | INV (or the Invaluable paddle number if known) | Shows as "INV — Reg N/A" until the Session Results import. |
Using consistent labels (LA and INV throughout the sale) makes post-sale filtering instant — you can filter your entire Lots & Items list by those labels to verify all third-party lots before running the EOA import. The import overwrites these placeholder values with real bidder data.
If a second person is cross-referencing live against LiveAuctioneers or Invaluable: open the Lots & Items screen in a separate tab, configure your columns to show just Lot Number, Title, and Bidder, and have that person check for discrepancies as the sale runs. They can correct the bidder and hammer price directly from that screen without touching the console.
Increments & Off-Increment Bids
The system uses your preset increment table but can accept any number you type.
The asking price is what the system shows to online bidders as the next acceptable bid. It is driven automatically by your preset increment table — but the clerk can override it at any time.
Changing the Asking Price
Type any value into the Asking Bid field and press Enter or click Change. The new asking price is immediately shown to all online bidders. Use this to:
- Jump the bid when a room bidder calls out a large number (e.g. skip from $5,000 asking to $40,000)
- Drop the asking price to attract interest when a lot is stalling
- Accept a split bid from a bidder who won't match the standard increment
Off-Increment Bids — Snap-Back Behavior
If the clerk sets an off-increment asking price (e.g. $33,999 instead of $34,000) and a bid is placed at that value, the next asking price automatically snaps back to the correct next increment — not $33,999 + $1. The increment table re-engages after every off-increment bid. This means you can accommodate any split bid without losing the table structure.
Online bidders cannot bid at arbitrary amounts — they can only place a bid at whatever asking price the clerk has set. This gives the clerk full control over pace and prevents bidders from jumping ahead or submitting amounts the auctioneer hasn't opened the bidding at.
Passing & Closing Lots
Pass, Sold, and what happens on screen when you do each.
- Sold — closes the lot to the current high bidder. If Enter Floor Numbers is on, the paddle popup appears. Once entered, if Auto Start Next Lot is on, the next lot opens immediately.
- Pass — closes the lot with no sale. The item remains in the catalog as unsold. Passed lots can be relisted into another auction after the sale using Batch Actions → Move or Remove Items from Sale.
The Live Console will not prevent you from clicking Sold on a lot that has not met its reserve. The reserve is flagged clearly in red on both the Live Console and the Auctioneer Screen — but the decision to sell or pass belongs to the auctioneer. This is intentional: consignors sometimes authorize sales below reserve, or reserve prices are informational rather than binding.
Undo Last Bid
Roll back one bid at a time — or all the way to the start of the lot.
The Undo Last Bid button removes the most recent bid. Click it again to remove the next most recent, and again, all the way back to the moment the lot first opened. There is no limit on how many times you can undo.
If you undo all bids back to the very start of the lot, any online max absentee bids that were placed before the sale are automatically reinstated — they come back to life exactly as they were. This means no mistake is truly irreversible. You can roll all the way back to the beginning and start the lot again from scratch with all absentee data intact.
Note: only max absentee bids are reinstated on a full undo. Straight live bids placed during the sale (someone clicking the bid button in real time) are not brought back — they were genuinely placed in competition, not pre-agreed maximums.
Background Clerking Fixes
Correct a mistake without touching the console — the preferred method.
The most professional and least disruptive way to correct a clerking error during a live sale. While the console operator keeps the auction moving, a second person (or the clerk between lots) corrects records directly in the Lots & Items screen.
How to correct a clerking record
Experienced clerks keep a pad of paper on the desk. Any lot that needs a correction gets a quick note — lot number, correct bidder paddle, correct hammer price. Pass the note to the front desk operator or fix it yourself between lots. This approach handles 95% of all mistakes without ever touching the console or opening a lot.
Reopening a Lot
Last resort only. Step-by-step — it is easy to get wrong.
When you reopen a passed or sold lot, it becomes live for bidding again — on your website and on Bidsquare.com simultaneously. Online bidders can see the lot reopen and can place new bids. This can cause confusion, generate new winning bid emails to incorrect recipients, and slow your auctioneer down. Always exhaust background fixes first. Reopen only when there is no other option.
How to reopen a lot (step by step)
Instructions are also shown on screen in the Live Console — hover the question mark tooltip if you need a reminder mid-sale.
An online bidder who won a lot received a notification email (if winning bid notifications are enabled). When the lot is reopened, they may be confused about their status. If your team can identify and call that bidder quickly, do so. If winning bid notifications are disabled on your account, this is less urgent — but it is still good practice to send a message via the Live Center explaining the situation.
Fixing Sold / Passed Mistakes
Accidentally sold something that should have been passed? Passed when it should have been sold?
Hit Pass when you meant to Sell
Do not reopen the lot. Instead: go to the Lots & Items screen, find the lot, click the pencil icon in the Bidder column, and manually enter the winning bidder and hammer price. The item is now recorded as sold to the correct bidder. No console action needed, no disruption to the auction flow.
Hit Sold when you meant to Pass
Go to the Lots & Items screen, find the lot, click its title to open the lot view page. At the top of the sold detail section you will see a small trash can icon. Click it and confirm deletion. The lot is now cleared back to unsold status.
Changing a Bidder's Registration Type
Online bidder wants to bid in the room? Floor bidder wants to switch to online?
If an online bidder walks into the room and wants a physical paddle number, find them in the User Registration tab, click Edit Bidder on their row, and change the Platform dropdown from their website platform to Floor. This assigns them a floor paddle number they can hold up in the room.
If the bidder has placed online max absentee bids and you then change their registration to floor, those online bids remain active. If your buyer's premium differs between floor and online, any lots they win online will be invoiced at the online BP rate, not the floor rate. Delete their online absentee bids first (bidder can retract by placing a bid of zero, or staff can delete from their profile) if you want them to bid purely as a floor bidder.
The reverse situation — a floor bidder who wants to switch to bidding online — requires no admin action. As long as they are approved in the system with any paddle number, they can log in to your website and bid online. The system recognizes the online source and applies the correct online buyer's premium to any lots they win that way.
Ending the Auction
One click. Hammer prices post immediately. The Live Auction tab disappears.
When the final lot is sold or passed, click End and confirm. What happens immediately:
- The Live Auction tab disappears from your website and Bidsquare.com for all bidders
- Hammer prices for all sold lots are posted on catalog pages automatically
- The sale state moves to Closed
- Bidding is disabled for all remaining items
Bidders can still view their bid history by clicking the number of bids on any lot page — this is visible and persists as long as the catalog remains published. Post-auction unsold re-offers can be done before clicking End: use the lot dropdown to reopen any passed lot, take fresh bids, sell or pass it, then return to the holding pattern and navigate forward to End when truly finished.
Generating Invoices Mid-Sale
A bidder wants to pay and leave before the auction ends.
Generating an invoice for one bidder while the auction is still running is fully supported and has no impact on the live sale. Two ways to do it:
- From the user profile — go to Users, find the bidder, open their profile, go to Invoices tab, click Generate New Invoice. Only auctions with outstanding lots sold to that bidder will be available to select.
- From the auction's Invoices tab — navigate to the auction, click the Invoices tab, click Generate New Invoice, and select the specific bidder. Do not generate invoices for "all buyers" or you will generate invoices for every winner in the sale at that moment — most of which are not ready to pay yet.
The Generate New Invoice screen defaults to all eligible buyers. If you click Generate without selecting a specific bidder, you will create New-status invoices for every winner recorded to that point in the sale. These can be deleted (deleted invoices are always retained in the Invoice Journal), but it is a messy situation mid-auction. Select the individual bidder by name before clicking Generate.
The Auction Audit Log
A timestamped record of every interaction with the auction engine — your best troubleshooting tool.
The Audit Log records every action the auction engine processes: absentee bids received, live bids submitted and accepted, lots started, floor bids posted, items sold and passed, messages sent — all with timestamps down to the thousandth of a second, in UTC. It begins recording from the moment the catalog is published, not just from when the live sale starts.
Searching the Audit Log
The most effective way to search is by Item ID — the unique barcode number for a specific item. This filters the log to show only interactions with that one lot, making it straightforward to reconstruct the exact sequence of events.
The Audit Log is your primary evidence in any chargeback investigation or bidder dispute. Export it to CSV as soon as any issue is flagged — before anything in the system is changed. The log is immutable and timestamped to the millisecond, making it a reliable record for both internal review and formal dispute processes.
Item Activity Log
Who changed what on an item, and when — separate from the Audit Log.
The Auction Audit Log tracks the auction engine — bids, lots opened, sold, passed. The Item Activity Log tracks manual changes made to an item record by staff: description edits, lot number changes, condition updates, event assignments, image changes. Each record shows the exact staff account that made the change, what it was changed from, and what it was changed to.
Use this to answer questions like: who changed the description on this lot after it was published? When was this item moved into the auction? What was the original lot number before it was reassigned?
Not all staff accounts can see the Item Activity Log by default. If a staff member cannot see it on an item's tab list, the primary admin needs to enable the Activity Log permission on that person's staff account under Settings › Manage Staff.
Best Practices & Tips
Collected from live auction training sessions across multiple auction houses.
- Run a mock auction before your first live sale. Create a test auction in Demo, register test user accounts, place absentee bids, and run the full flow from Start Auction to End. There is nothing like doing it for real — even in a sandbox — to build muscle memory. Anyone on the team can create a demo bidder account at demo.bidsquare.com and register to bid, place absentee bids, and experience the sale from the bidder side.
- Two-person setup is the most professional configuration. One person on the Live Console — eyes on the bidding, fingers on the buttons. One person on the Lots & Items screen in a separate browser tab — watching for discrepancies, correcting mistakes silently. The console operator never breaks rhythm; the second person handles everything else.
- Disable Auto Start Next Lot for the opening lots if there is any chance of needing to reopen. Once you are confident the first 10–15 lots are clean, turn it back on for pace. You can toggle it any time without stopping the sale.
- Keep LA and INV entries consistent throughout the sale. If you type LA for LiveAuctioneers on Lot 1, type LA on every subsequent LA lot. After the sale, a single filter on "LA" in the Lots & Items list shows you every lot requiring EOA reconciliation — inconsistent labels make this much harder.
- Note, don't reopen. A pad of paper on the clerk's desk captures every mistake in real time. Pass the note to the front desk; they correct it silently while the auctioneer continues. Reopening is the last resort — not the standard operating procedure.
- Print the Auctioneer Report before every sale. Even if the auctioneer uses the digital Auctioneer Screen, the printed sheets provide a physical backup. Absentee bids, phone bid assignments, reserve prices — all there at the podium without depending on a screen or a network connection.
- Test browser permissions before auction day. On locked-down corporate machines, browser camera and microphone permissions sometimes require IT intervention. If streaming video, test permissions on the actual machine that will be used at least one day in advance.
- Bidsquare.com bidder email addresses are not shown. This is by design — privacy and platform rules, same as LiveAuctioneers and Invaluable. You will see a registration with no email — that is normal for Bidsquare marketplace registrations.
Day-of Support
How to reach help during a live sale — including what to do if your onboarding contact is unavailable.
| Contact | When to use | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Phone: 1-800-657-0092 | Live sale emergencies, urgent technical issues | Mon–Fri 9am–5.30pm ET, weekend support same hours |
| Email: support@bidsquare.com | Issues that can wait a few minutes, documentation requests, absentee bid report requests | Same hours, monitored |
| Onboarding manager | Nuanced questions about your specific setup, post-sale processing help | Reach them by email or a scheduled video call |
If something critical happens mid-sale and you need to email for help, send to: support@bidsquare.com and your onboarding manager. Three sets of eyes on one email means the fastest possible response — someone will see it and act immediately.