Knowledge Base Article

How to Track Auction Financials

Track how your auction is doing financially on the Budget & Financials tab.

The Budget & Financials tab has a short Show Me How To Use This Page video at the top right; click it to watch, and use its chapters to jump to the part you need.

Open Budget & Financials

Open the auction.
Click Budget & Financials in the workspace navigation.

The auction workspace menu with the Budget and Financials tab selected, with the Show Me How To Use This Page video at the top right

Budget and Financials is one of the tabs in the auction workspace menu.

What the Financial Summary shows

The summary has two columns.

Auction Income: Projected Income, Invoices and Sponsorships. Cash sponsorships still In Discussions or Pending, and in-kind (non-cash) sponsorships, each appear underneath on their own gray line, marked not in totals, and are shown for reference only.
Auction Expenses: Projected Expenses, your Target Budget, and Actual Expenses.

The Financial Summary panel showing auction income with its gray In Discussions or Pending, Sponsorships Received and In-Kind lines, auction expenses, projected versus actual and net income

The Financial Summary adds up income, expenses and your net result.

Where the money from your auction shows up

The Invoices line is the one to know. When your auction closes, each winning bidder gets one invoice covering everything they won, so your winning bids arrive here as invoices rather than as a separate list of sales. Auctions have no ticket sales or donation lines of their own.

That figure is what you billed, not what you have collected. It counts each invoice at its full total whether or not a penny has been paid on it, so check the Invoices list to see what has actually come in. The exception is an invoice closed with nothing kept: Unpaid/Closed, or Refunded/Closed once its refunds cancel out its payments. It stays on the list with a gray CLOSED UNPAID or REFUNDED badge, and is left out of the total.

Projected vs Actual

Below the summary, a small table lines up Projected, Actual and Variance for income and for expenses.

Its projected income figure is usually larger than the one in the summary above, and that is on purpose: this table adds the estimated worth of your auction items on top of the income lines you typed. It says so underneath the number.

Income variance is actual minus projected, so a positive number means you beat the plan. Expense variance is also actual minus projected, so a negative number means you came in under budget.

Your totals

Total Income: invoices plus cash sponsorships, leaving out any still In Discussions or Pending.
Total Expenses: your recorded actual expenses.
Net Income: total income minus total expenses. Only real money counts here, so projections and in-kind sponsorships never touch it.

The four cards, and which ones you type into

Four cards sit above the summary, and they do not all work the same way.

Projected Income and Projected Expenses are yours to plan with. Both use Add New to start a line and Save All to save what you have added.
Actual Expenses lists the expenses recorded against this auction. Add Expense opens the regular expense screen with the auction already attached.
Actual Income is a read-only view. It shows your associated invoices in one section and your sponsorships in the other, with a total across the top and an export button on each. Each export has a Counted As Income column that says whether the row is in the total and, if it is not, why: a refunded or closed unpaid invoice, or an in-kind, in discussions or pending sponsorship. There is nothing to type in, because Argenta builds this from the invoices and sponsorships you already have.

The projected expenses, actual expenses, projected income and actual income cards

The two projected cards take new lines. The two actual cards report what is already there.

Sponsorships

Sponsorships are recorded on their own Sponsorships tab and roll into the summary from there. Cash sponsorships count toward your income, except one whose status is still In Discussions or Pending: it is listed with a gray badge and stays out of the totals until its status moves on. In-kind ones are listed for reference and stay out of the totals.

The Auction Sponsorships tab listing sponsors and their amounts

Sponsorships are entered on their own tab and roll into the summary.

Setting your goals

On the Auction Details tab, set the Target Budget and Fundraising Goal. Then add your projected numbers, let the actuals fill in as invoices and sponsorships come through, and check the summary for your net result.

The Fundraising Goal and Target Budget fields on the Auction Details tab

Goal and budget live on the Auction Details tab.

Three auction reports in the Report Center

The Financial Summary is the auction's own page. For the detail behind it, the Report Center carries three auction reports under Fundraising Reports, and Budget & Financials links straight to all three. Each one exports to CSV and to PDF. A locked auction is not offered in their Auction picker to anyone its lock keeps out, and a link to it is refused.

Auction Results lists every item with its type, its channel, how many bids it drew, the winning bidder and its status.
Auction Bidder Statements gives one line per winning bidder — items won, total owed, invoice, settlement, whether a card is on file, the method, what was collected and the date paid — and expands to show the items. It also prints a letterhead statement for a single bidder listing each line with its amount, the good faith estimate of fair market value and the tax-deductible portion, plus a line of its own for an invoice's discount or full refund, then PAID IN FULL, AMOUNT DUE or REFUNDED worked out from the bidder's invoices, the same as the Settlement column. A paid statement is the receipt a bidder keeps for their records. Until it is paid in full, the columns read Amount and Deductible Once Paid, and the note says the deductible portion applies once it is paid.
Auction Profit and Loss sets projected against actual for both income and expenses, and can compare this auction against another one. Its Collected column counts the payments recorded on invoices and on cash sponsorships, so a sponsorship that has been promised but not yet paid counts toward Gross Revenue and not toward Collected. One still In Discussions or Pending stays out of Gross Revenue, though a payment recorded on it still counts toward Collected. Each payment counts less any refund given back on it, so Collected and Net Collected show the cash you kept, not what was first paid.

The Auction Results item table with columns for item, type, channel, fair market value, starting bid, bids, final sale, percent of value, winning bidder and status

Auction Results: one row per item, with the bids it drew, who won it and whether it sold. Click a winning bidder's name to open their constituent record.

The Auction Bidder Statements list with one row per bidder showing bidder number, bidder, items, total owed, invoice, settlement, card on file, method, collected and date paid

Auction Bidder Statements: one line per winning bidder. Click a row to open the items they won, or click the bidder's name to open their constituent record.

The Auction Profit and Loss income card with a projected column beside actual columns for sold or recorded, invoiced and collected

Auction Profit and Loss sets projected income beside actual. Here the plan is entered, a live lot has sold, Fund-a-Need gifts are recorded and the cash sponsorships are pledged, while nothing has been invoiced or paid yet, so Collected is $0.00.

Taking it away with you

Print to PDF at the top of the page gives you the summary as a document, which is the quick way to hand your numbers to a board or a committee.