Start Here: Overview

What You Need to Know:

Your subscription provides access to an Account page and one or more Event sites.

The Account page is the place to manage your account - renew or upgrade your subscription, create new event sites, migrate data between event sites and add/remove Account Managers.

The Event site(s) is where your team will add items to the catalog, sell tickets and run your event.

Only Account Managers have access to the Account page.   An Account Manager login/password also provides access to every Event Site associated with the account.

Everyone else must access a desired Event site directly using its unique URL.

New event sites are pre-populated with basic information about your organization (from your account page) and the most commonly used settings.  This allows most features to work right "out-of-the-box".   You can review and adjust the site settings at Admin > Site Settings anytime, but it's most common to do so as you prepare to start using a particular feature.   

Help is just a click away. . .there are a myriad of help icons embedded right on your site.  The tips and instructions display in pop-up windows or in a sidebar so you don't have to leave the page you're working on to find an answer.

There are a number of shared tools found throughout the software.  Learning them early will help you navigate the software like a pro and quickly access the data you need to make your decisions.

The Invitation system is a key tool to learn and embrace early.  The software uses invitations to provide your supporters with easy access to the online functions of your event site.  The emailed invitations contain a personalized link which brings each recipient to the desired page/form, logged in and ready to go.   You can invite selected supporters to donate, buy tickets, place online bids and much, more more.

New to Auctions?  You're not alone.  A surprising number of our customers have little or no experience running an auction - much less experience with auction software.  If you are one of those indefatigable folk who stepped up when no one else would - and are now wondering how to get started, here's a tip. . .

It may help to start at the end - think about how you want to use the software on event night.  You want to be able to:

• Pre-check-in or painlessly check your guests in (and probably capture and vault their credit card information upfront); 
• Easily place the items they buy and/or win in their virtual shopping carts;
• Quickly check-out your guests and collect their payments (or even let them check out themselves via smartphone).

Your job is to load the data you'll need for each of these tasks prior to your event:

1. In order have guests, you'll need to sell or issue tickets (which generates bidder numbers and "shopping carts").   
2. In order to sell things during your event, you'll need to create catalog items for everything you wish to place in your guests shopping carts.
3. In order to vault and process credit cards, you'll need to connect your event site to an Internet Payment Gateway. 

How to Get Started:

First, take the fast track to becoming a power user by checking out these tips for navigating the software and using the tools available:

• Help Resources and Video
• Learning the Tools Shared by all Datapages and Video
• Tracking your Progress with Live Reports
• Creating Custom Reports

If you haven't already, you'll want to  subscribe Create a New Event.

Many Hands Make Light Work so you'll want to Create a User Account for each member of your team so they can get started too.

Next, there are a few general settings that are used across multiple features - so it's a good idea to review and/or set-up these first:

• Entering Info About Your Site And Event
• Setting up the Donor Receipt
• Setting up the Guest/Sales Receipt
• Review the Privacy Policy and Terms provided for your site

Finally, make a plan for how you will load the data for your donors, items, and guests to your site.   Guest data is usually created during the ticket sales process but returning users can Migrate some data from previous event sites and everyone can Import some data that already exists on a spreadsheet.