atgPay: Invoicing and Bidder Payments

Post event, winning bidders must be invoiced in order to utilize the atgPay feature. This article outlines how to utilize this process.

This article consists of the following sections:

• Invoicing the Winning Bidder
• Passing Credit Card Fees to the Bidder
• Buyer Payments
• Multiple Invoice Payments
• Tracking Payments
• Marking Invoices as Paid
• When to Ship/Release Items

Invoicing the Winning Bidder

Invoices are generated and sent from AuctionBuilder. The invoicing process, including access, editing, management, printing and emailing are outlined in the Invoicing article. 

If needed, shipping fees can be applied to the invoice prior to sending. For more information, see atgPay: Shipping Options and Fees.

For information on using both APN and atgPay in the same event, click here.

Payment Reminder Emails

After bidders receive their invoice, they will automatically receive up to two additional emails reminding them to pay their invoice. The emails will come from payments@proxibid.com. 

The first reminder email will be sent 2 calendar days after the invoice was sent, if the invoice is still unpaid. The subject line of the first email will be "Proxibid - payment reminder" followed by the name of the auction house.

The first reminder email will be sent 4 calendar days after the invoice was sent, if the invoice is still unpaid. The subject line of the second email will be "Proxibid - payment final reminder" followed by the name of the auction house.

The bidder will not receive payment reminder emails once the invoice is marked as being "paid".

If payment is taken outside atgPay, the invoice will need to be marked as "Paid" manually. The bidder will continue to receive payment reminder emails until their invoice is marked as "Paid". For information on manually marking an invoice as being paid, see Invoicing.

Passing Credit Card Fees to the Bidder

Auction houses have the option to pass atgPay credit card fees on to the bidder. To use this feature, check the Buyer Pays Fees box on the event's Payment & Terms page. The fees will be automatically calculated based on the invoice total and will appear as "Processing Fees" on the bidder's invoice and checkout page. Enabling this feature will disable any other credit card fees that may have been manually added to the auction event.

This selection must be made prior to sending invoices to bidders. Attempting to enable or disable this feature after invoices have been sent to bidders can create issues with invoice calculations.

If the bidder's state requires that processing fees be taxed, that will be automatically calculated and included in the Sales Tax as it appears on the bidder's invoice.

Buyer Payments

Details are available for bidders on how they can pay for their winning invoices on our atgPay: Paying with atgPay article.

For events utilizing atgPay, Bidders will have a Pay Now button within their received invoice. 

If an invoice contains a high-risk item and the auction company does not have a High-Risk Merchant ID, there will not be a Pay Now button on the invoice. The auction company and bidder will need to arrange payment outside of atgPay.

Once an invoice has been paid, the bidder will see a View Receipt button in place of the Pay Now button.

Manually marking an invoice as "Paid" will disable the Pay Now button for the bidder. To re-enable the Pay Now button for the bidder, go back to the invoice and uncheck the Invoice Paid box.

Bidder Payments via Autopay

The winning buyer's credit card on file will be automatically charged 24 or 72 hours, if Autopay is enabled on the event. Note the following when utilizing the current iteration of Autopay (this feature continues to be refined and improved):

• The buyer should have a valid credit card (not available yet for ACH) on file.
• Buyer has previously paid for an item via credit card utilizing atgPay since Feb. 2, 2023.
• Autopay is only compatible with "Local Shipping" and "Arranged by Bidder" options for shipping methods.

For more information, see atgPay: Autopay.

If all criteria is met, the buyer's invoice will indicate which credit card will be automatically charged and when (ex. 24 hours).

Taking Bidder Payments Outside of atgPay

If a bidder needs to pay outside of atgPay (ex. cash, check, wire transfer) on an atgPay enabled event, they can make payment to the auction house and then the invoice will need to be manually marked as "Paid". 

If the bidder needs to pay using APN (Auction Payment Network) on an atgPay enabled event, see atgPay: Using APN and atgPay on the Same Event.

Multiple Invoice Payments

Additional fees can be added to an invoice after the bidder has paid.

1. Navigate to the applicable invoice in AuctionBuilder.
2. Click the Add New Charge to Invoice button. A new section will appear on the invoice.
3. Enter information for the New Charge.
   1. Enter a description of the fee.
   2. Select the Fee Type from the drop-down.
   3. Enter the fee amount.
   4. Click the Add link to the right of the New Charge.
4. If needed, add additional fees. Once all the fees have been added, click the Confirm & Send button to send the new invoice to the bidder.
   • There is no limit to the number of additional fees that can be added.
5. The invoice will update. The added charges will appear under the "Additional Line Items" section of the invoice.
   • Additional taxes will automatically be calculated and added to the new amount being charged to the bidder.
   • The bidder's invoice will no longer appear as "Paid" on the Invoices page or the Winning Bidder report.
6. An additional payment request will be sent to the bidder. The email will come from invoices@proxibid.com with the subject line "(Auction Company Name) has updated your invoice".
   • The bidder's updated invoice will also be available in their Proxibid account.
   • If the bidder should be tax exempt for the additional charges, they will need to send an email to payments@proxibid.com to have the taxes removed.
   • Once the bidder has paid the additional charges via atgPay, the invoice will appear as "Paid" again on the Invoices page and in the Winning Bidder report.
   • If the additional payment is accepted outside of atgPay, the invoice will need to be manually marked as "Paid".                           

Tracking Payments

Payment tracking and activity can be found under the Payments menu within the atgPay Payment Processing Portal. 

Payment Statuses

• Approved: The submitted payment is authorized by the issuing bank, confirming the availability of the funds, in addition to validating the cardholder’s submitted CVV & AVS (address) information. The funds have not been added to your balance at this stage. 
  
• Pending: Immediately after payment is made, the transaction is under an initial review by the processor's Risk Team. Do not ship or release the item(s) at this stage. 
• Captured: The Captured status means an approved payment was sent to the processing bank as part of their daily batch to begin the process of transferring funds from the cardholder to your payment processing account.  
• Settled (SAFE TO SHIP/RELEASE): Settled indicates that the process of transferring funds between the cardholder and your payment processing account is now completed, and the money is now part of your Available Balance. 
• Failed (DO NOT SHIP/RELEASE): This status indicates that the attempted transaction failed authorization by the cardholder’s bank, and thus, the payment is invalid and will not be Captured or Settled. 
• Refunded: After payment has Settled, you can reverse it by issuing a refund back to the cardholder’s bank. The money related to a refunded transaction will then be deducted from the your Available Balance.  

How will I know if a payment has been made?

As Buyers pay their invoices, you'll see them marked as paid on the event's Invoices page in AuctionBuilder.

If payment is taken outside atgPay, the invoice will need to be marked as "Paid" manually. The bidder will continue to receive payment reminder emails until their invoice is marked as "paid".

Payments can also be tracked via the Winning Bidders Report. To access the report, click on the Reporting link located on the left side of the AuctionBuilder Dashboard and select the auction event from the Winning Bidder drop-down. Click the Click here to download information in CSV format link located in the top left corner of the page. Payment status is indicated via the Paid column on the CSV.

Once onboarded, we will enable email notifications for when a transaction has settled, failed, and when a disbursement has been sent out. You can edit these email alerts and the recipient email addresses directly via atgPay Payment Processing Portal. For more information, see atgPay: Processor Email Alerts.

When to Ship/Release Items

The items will be safe to release when the transaction status is “Settled". Settled indicates that the process of transferring funds between the cardholder and your payment processing account is now completed, and the money is now part of your Available Balance.  

Payments made via bank transfer (ACH) will take longer to appear as "Settled" than credit card payments.

For more information on shipping, see atgPay: Shipping Options and Fees.