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.

It has a comprehensive compliment of features.

The interface is difficult to follow and the functionality is extremely difficult, especially for volunteers who are not real computer savvy. The user interface is outdated and does not rise to the current standards of user-friendly design. Help descriptions often do not match terminology or are not clear.

We use Auction Maestro for our benefit's silent auction and have found it to be a very good program for keeping the auction items and the auction itself organized and running smoothly from start to finish.

The way it keeps all our auction items organized and being easily to assign winners

So many built-in reports sometimes makes it difficult and time-consuming to find the report you want

We have used Maestro Pro for the past 10 years. The value is excellent for the price. In comparing this to other options, Maestro offered excellent features for a reasonable price.

User friendly. Volunteers can easily assist with data entry.

Expansion packets are too expensive. Our budget does not allow us to try these benefits.

If you use Raiser's Edge as you fundraising CRM and you're in need of event management software, then Auction Maestro is the way to go. The two companies have a partnership and so the two systems work very well together. Aside from nice integration features, AM has a really cool online auction and mobile bidding features, as well as a ton of other things.

Integration with Raiser's Edge!

A little pricey for add-ons.

Our event went much easier with this software. If only our IT department didn't have so much protection on the computers, it would have worked better with our wireless printer.

It was easy to install and use. I didn't have any trouble logging in and using.

I needed more experience for it to work for me, rather than against me.

I was on the phone constantly getting assistance with things that went wrong. My time would have been better spent doing this in excel. HORRIBLE!

Nothing. Maybe just keep record of who is coming. This software is so annoying, I recommended multiple functions to make entering information easier. Thanks to me on the 5.4 update the software now will allow you to enter Merchandise under one screen and not 7 screens like on the 5.0 addition. I have used so many other software programs, not one makes you download the information, save on a hard driver and transfer all of that information to check guests out. STAY AWAY FROM THIS SOFTWARE!!!

EVERYTHING! Nothing works like it should. At the end of the night of our Gala, not one receipt printed out on time. No one knew if they won an item. This is the second day after the event and we are still unable to do anything because the software is down. We have to save it on a local drive, not a cloud base like most products out there .

Love the software - it’s very proper full for any sized organization. Just payment processing that isn’t optimal.

Very powerful. Has reports upon reports, for just about anything and everything you can think of. Tax receipts for donations and sponsors. Tracking of where all your money came from. Who has paid and who hasn’t. Things that normally would take ages if you were tracking via a spreadsheet- is done in this program. Just choose your report.

The iATS processing. Very convoluted, many steps, and takes too long. Needs to be instant night off, and processed as each transaction transpires. That was what our customers were used to. They asked and starting calling right away about where their charges were. We will be going back to square. The cost is pretty close to the same. No monthly charges with square either. Only when a transaction goes through.

I never found the software very user friendly.

It was built on an old version of Microsoft Access. The website didn't provide great examples or explanations of use. The interface, layout and menu system was clunky and tough to follow.

The software helped us to manage our event, track all our donated items, bidders, and sponsors.

The software is so easy to use and once you get some training, you’re able to set up your auction site. The support is top notch, the MaestroSoft team really helped us before, during and after our auction.

None that I can think of! We used MaestroSoft’s MaestroAuction Online and Text2Bid for our 2021 BVCS Auction & Take Home-Dinner and it was a huge success. We had more sponsors than last year, and we raised over $60,000 for our Impact Fund.

Having their support when needed. Especially the night of the event when I am not the one using the product. Our volunteers can easily get any support they need

It is a easy program to use. It does all the work for you.

There is nothing I don’t like about this product