As an auction consultant, I have assisted scores of charities in utilizing Maestro since 1995. Its many enhancements make it SO robust. The developers have listened to auction managers and added many features, countless reports, and easy self-generated data extractions for customized merging. Ease of use is correlated with use of webinars, online tutorials and experience. The more you know the easier it is! It is comprehensive, combining all aspects of gift and guest data management and integration. The WebMaestro feature allows access to the product from anywhere. It so easy for volunteers and staff to enter data at any time from home or office or literally any place that they have internet access. The money saved by engaging volunteers to perform what was once the task of overburdened and limited office staff, cannot be overestimated - not least by the staff! Not to mention that volunteers feel valued when given meaningful tasks that they can accomplish. Recent inquiries have received virtually immediate call-backs from technical support, much appreciated!

Comprehensive program addressing all gift and guest data storage and reports. Banquet registration, seating assignments, meals. Bidding and invoicing. WebMaestro for online data entry from anywhere there is internet access, by staff and volunteers. TextToBid.

It isn't the software, it's remembering all its features and how to use them, when under pressure. For example, when someone at the auction says: "What was the item number of the waffle iron," some people will scroll through the likeliest sections to find it, but in the Item Viewer there is a search option that is a shortcut. The more comprehensive a program is, the more the operators need to learn. It is worth it!

Overall, I had a very positive experience with MaestroAuction. As an auction software novice, I found the program to be quite intuitive and accessible. I worried about annoying the Support Team with how much I was calling them, but their insight and advice was invaluable throughout the planning process. The entire MaestroAuction team was always helpful and friendly as well.

I found the training videos on the Maestrohelp website to be excellent introductions to the software, and these tutorials helped to familiarize me with the features of the program before I even began entering data. We had a lot of printed materials for our event, and MaestroAuction's ability to generate reports, bid sheets, and thank you letters saved us a ton of time and energy. Entering data before the event was fairly simple and recording the actual bids during the auction was a piece of cake. I think the feature that I found most helpful was the Maestrosoft Support Team. They were always incredibly responsive, and their assistance enabled us to work through a number of concerns and crises.

The part that caused us the most stress would probably be payment processing through qCheck, however, most of our struggles with that aspect could be attributed to technical difficulties rather than issues with the software. We also went to the Support Team with these technical difficulties, and their quick thinking and expertise allowed us to overcome the problems we were experiencing, so I don't have many cons to list.

It helps us to manage our event, track all of the donated items, sponsorships, attendees and sale of items.

Once you have get the swing of the data entry portion and navigating your way around, it is really nice for keeping your auction running smoothly . I do love that I can import the data and people from the previous year's auction in the new year data. It saves a lot of time.

It is kind of clunky and sometime I find it has too many options. It is also pretty finicky about how you enter and search for things. I also wish I had a little more training or that maestro offered training videos to help new user learn how to most efficiently use the program

MaestroAuction does not complicate the backend of the product by adding overly fancy features or elements that are unlikely to be used. It is a very straightforward product, which I appreciate.

Overall, there is not much to dislike about MaestroAuction. The cost can't be beat, and the customer service is exceptional.

I love working with Jay and the team to use MaestroAuction for our annual fundraising event! They are so QUICK to respond and VERY kind, and EASY to work with. It's so nice to know that when you call with questions/assistance, the people on the other line are not annoyed or inpatient with you :) This is a great software to utilize to ensure our auction goes smoothly! But in my opinion, it's the people behind the software that makes it the best!

allows our event to be organized for the auctioneer and bidders

I'm not sure.. .I think the pages can be a little overwhelming with so many buttons, but I don't know how you fix that.