Silent Auction Pro Software

So easy from the admin standpoint and the user experience.

Pros

This software eliminates the endless paper trail around the silent auction process!

Cons

No complaints- easy to use and saves time

Once you play around with the program, it seems to be pretty user friendly. And what you do not know how to do or are having trouble with, there are lots of tutorials to lead you through the process. Plus the support staff is excellent and amazingly helpful.

Pros

A good way to track all donations and purchases. There are many features which make this very easy. The check-out system is pretty user friendly and works well. The support staff at SAP are great to answer questions and lead you through the process.

Cons

The first ticket purchase by a buyer only allows for the purchasers name, and does not let you reassign the name to someone else right away – you have to go back in and readjust. It worked but is a little bit clunky.
A lot of data entry. As we were using this for the second time, some bits were easier as we could pull from past donors info.
The bid sheets selected the donations that were entered first, which were not always the biggest selling points when bundling
Setting up the bar tickets was a bit messy.
Would be nice to be able to pull more specified reports from the program. Customize the report formats.

Pros

Great ease of use and set up was a breeze.

Cons

Running reports can be a bit troublesome.

I would recommend this product to others, but would suggest that they not rush through the process of setting up auction packages. In order to encourage sales, take the time to make everything look and sounds good for maximum profit.

Pros

This software allows auctions and bids to go off without a hitch. This is a very simple to use product and allows a seamless process from beginning to end. I like that participants can pay with their credit card straight through the site to alleviate time from my staff.

Cons

The setup of my account and event took some time, but after that I didn't experience any issues.

Absolutely wonderful!! Our sincerest thanks to the whole Silent Auction Pro team! They made this venture for painless for us. And they were quick to assist and also give helpful suggestions and tips that would make the whole process even easier and better for those bidding on our items! Will definitely be utilizing them again for all our future silent auction needs.

Pros

I found this system to be very user-friendly. The few times that I had questions or needed assistance, the Silent Auction Pro team was quick to respond and made things much more simple than I was trying to make it. This was our first time doing an online silent auction and I feel that this was PERFECT for us! I was also very pleased with the ability to post pictures and lengthy descriptions with the items we were auctioning off. The payment process for the auction winners was wonderful! They were able to quickly pay and the reports that the system provided to us truly made delivery and follow up easy for us.

Cons

The only issue that I had was that this system seems to be set up for those who are having "an event" along with the silent auction. Sometimes, that made things a little confusing for me as we were only doing the online auction. A couple of little changes could be made for those who do not have events so that there are options for both types.

Silent Auction Pro organizes your whole event from start to finish.

Pros

Software is easy to use and intuitive. When you do hit a snag or need more information, the Silent Auction Pro Team is there to help - never had to wait on hold very long. Also, the developer took a look at our data a couple of weeks before the event to suggest minor changes in how we entered the data to make the software even more functional. That is top level service!

Cons

As with any new program, there is a learning curve. If you have people on your board that don’t like change, you will have to spend a lot of time getting buy in and training them how to use the program. However, that would be true with any software.

Super excellent. Customer service was fantastic and always so professional. When I had a question that I could not find the answer to on line - I would send an email to rep and she would respond so quickly and always answered my questions and always so helpful and professional. She was truly a GEM because this was my first time using this software and was a little overwhelmed and she really guided me thru everything I needed to know to set up my First Silent Auction for our organization

Pros

The ease of use and the final product. Print out of items look great. Support from the staff was excellent and very professional. Always responded to my emails promptly and so helpful with my questions

Cons

I really can't say anything. This was the first time that I used it and was fortunate to have the assistance of rep to guide me thru some of the issues I had on MY end - not the software. I will say that it is easy to follow

Pros

I initially selected this software because it was affordable. I've used the software now to run a first, smaller event and received great reviews both from guests and from staff using it. What I love best above all is the incredible customer service that Silent Auction Pro offers. They really want to make sure you succeed. In the days and weeks leading up to the event, Silent Auction Pro staff contacted me regularly to make sure that my planning was on track and I was comfortable using the software.

Cons

The only feature I am missing is the ability to import data from spreadsheets. Instead, I have to enter each donation and donor one-by-one, which is very time-consuming.

Pros

Running an event and having this software comes hand in hand. it makes everything so simple and easy to organize.

Cons

The one time fee seams a little too steep if you are only using this one time. But for regular users this is perfect.

Pros

Silent Auction Pro has features like image uploading and item organizing that make it useful for auctions.

Cons

Silent Auction Pro uses an unreliable payment processor, they do not give an opt out for saving credit card info, and there is no bulk upload for items.

Reduced our cost while helped to only use items on the auction that brings the most money.

Pros

Reduces a committee work of 5 people to 1 person. We do a golf fund raiser every year. This helps with keeping track of donations, auction items and BEST of all automate the thank you notes after the event. We trick the system and use the Table feature in assigning Golf Cart 4some assignments.

Cons

There is no shortcomings at all. When in doubt I simply go to the recordings on YouTube as referenced by the help menu

Pros

The silent auction pro software is easy to navigate, has simple forms, help videos and format of website. The staff are extremely friendly and always sending informative emails at the right time.

Cons

The silent auction pro layout of the auction items on the website can use a little touch up from a graphic designer.

Pros

I liked the software because it kept us organized. It was some-what easy to use and see everything. Having all information in one spot was helpful. Being able to see who had what and who won what in the end was nice. I also really liked being able to print bidder number and bidder sheets ahead of time.

Cons

Having a computer based systems was nice however, we felt there were a few things we didnt like. We found when going from an auction page to auction item the pages didn't talk to each other and wouldn't update. I also didn't like that the bidder sheet wouldn't allow for more than one auction item to be featured. In the past, my group likes to put up every logo that is in the package and show proper representation. We needed to make our own in the end.

Pros

Easy application to utilize, customer support is also good as they have a reasonable response time.

Cons

The platform can be confusing at first, but after you get used to it, it's not bad. Just a learning curve.

Pros

The system is very easy to use and, if you have a question, the software team usually responds within a couple of hours

Cons

It would be helpful to have more flexibility on applying credit but it is also understood that privacy guidelines must be maintained

Pros

Ease of use, and customer support. All of the support team were very knowledgeable and so friendly and helpful. They have thought of everything.

Cons

The thank you letters were a little difficult to edit. The body of the letter came out in different fonts and was difficult to change.

Pros

Made auction management a thousand times easier over paper bidding. Check-out and Post-auction reports were so simple, too!

Cons

I was a little confused where to find specific items I needed to edit, but their excellent tech support was responsive within minutes to solve my issue! I also had problems with our volunteers taking the time to train before the event on how to sign on and to assist with bidding.

Pros

The software was easy to use and helpful in tracking donations to our event. I loved the bundling function that allowed us to create great auction packages for our school fundraising event. We have been hosting this event for several years and finally decided to take our auction online. Silent Auction Pro allowed us to engage a larger audience in our fundraiser. We also were able to raise more money by taking our auction online. Many auction items went for their true value, which helped us raise more money for our schools.
The support staff were extremely helpful and always available to answer questions or review how we were using the tool.

Cons

There wasn't a lot that I didn't like about this software tool. One additional feature that would be nice would be the ability to email those that are attending your event (if you used the ticket purchase function) vs. all bidders.

Pros

We loved the organization that went along with SAP. We could locate items and group them easily. We could record payments very easily. And now we can have all of the information stored for next year, which is huge! We can't say enough positive things about Silent Auction Pro!

Cons

The only hitch we had was that the system seemed to be down when we arrived at the venue the night of the event. HOWEVER, we called the company (at 6pm on Saturday) and someone was able to help us and all was well. So really, we had no cons to list!

Pros

The biggest pro for our organization is the customer support. It's superb. Being a rotating group of volunteers, we don't always have the technical know-how to manage the software right out of the gate each year, but the team at SAP really helps get us there by being available, knowledgeable, and clear with their guidance. Other pros: the functionality is robust, allowing us to do everything we need (set up online, silent, and live components of our auction, plus sell raffle tickets and track a fund-a-need). The platform is well organized and easy to navigate.

Cons

It does take some time up-front to learn the software and all that it can do. Sometimes we worried that we weren't using it at its full capacity or were taking more steps than necessary to complete a task. However, I think this is particular to our situation, because our group changes every year.