If you are familiar with Windows 95 and or Windows 98 you will need very little instructions on this Auction Organizer program. Everything looks and feels like Windows application because it was written with Microsoft Access. If you are not familiar with Windows 95 or Windows 98 I suggest you buy a book on Windows to become familiar with the Windows applications.
Place your Auction Organizer CD in your CD-Rom drive and the Auction Organizer program will automatically start the setup process. If you have turned off the auto start feature you will have to manually install Auction Organizer program. To do this simply click on START, RUN, and type in D:\Setup (D = CD-Rom Drive Letter) this will start the setup program.
After setup is complete you will have a new Program called Auction Organizer. Go to START, PROGRAMS and find Auction Organizer. Now place your mouse pointer on Auction Organizer and you will see 2 Programs for Auction Organizer:
Auction Organizer: is for your Auction Organizer program.
Repair and Compact Database: this is for repairing and compacting database. You must close Auction Organizer program before you Repair and Compact it. Do this once a month or so to keep your database defragged.
After you install Auction Organizer you will first see the Startup Personal Information screen shown above.
Step #1 is to enter your Personal Information and Payment Method that you will accept.
This will be a one time entry and this information will be imported into your Invoices and Reports. Enter your Information then check box with a mouse click and click on OK and this will not come up on startup anymore. You will be able to edit your Personal Information from the Main Menu at anytime you need to. You will see where this is very time saving later in these instructions. Below is a screen shot of what the form looks like with example information entered in.
Main Menu is where it all begins. Below I will show you a screen shot of the program as you would click on each button from the Main Menu of the program and a description of what each screen shot shows.
Step #2 is Enter New Item. The screen shot above shows the blank form for a new item. This is where you enter your information from a new auction listing. Item Number, Title, URL Of Listed Item, Start Date, and End Date. (See screen shot below with this information entered) That's all you need to enter at this time. All of this information can be a copy and paste function right from your Auction, except for Start Date and End Date. You have now entered a New Record and ready to sit back and fill in all the other information when the auction ends. Very simple and you will see as we go I have made this program very user friendly.
Now we will say the auction has ended. When you click on Auctions Ending Today from the Main Menu you get a list of all your auctions ending that day. (The form will look just like the form above.) Just click on the URL Of Listed Item and this will take you to your auction and you can see who the winning bidder is, their email address and the price the item sold for. Go back to the Auction Organizers Main Menu and click on Enter Item Number To Edit Record and copy and paste the information in or manually enter the information. Below is what pops up after you click on Enter Item Number To Edit Record. Ready for you to enter or paste Item Number to edit. For example let's say you enter Item Number 436119373 in the pop up box.
Below shows an example of the record for Item Number 436119373. Now you enter your Winning Bidders Email Address, Price, Quantity, Shipping, Total, Insurance and Total Due. Now your ready to email buyer. Click on the down arrow under the Emailed Buyer on the form and change it to Yes.
Click on E-Mail Invoice To Buyer. (see screen shot above) See below the pop up box pops up for your Item Number. Enter Item Number.
Below is your Invoice that will be sent to your Buyer. The letter was been generated
from the information of your auction and it also automatically puts your personal information
and payment method you accept from the form you filled out on Step #1.
Now you have completed your first auction from start to finish. Except you need payment for your item sold!!! The Auction Organizer program has various ways of keeping track of your auctions. No need to keep emails or papers you have wrote your auctions information down to keep track of them anymore. You can keep track of your auctions by a click of a button.
From the Main Menu click on Search By E-Mail Address. You will have a pop up box to enter your buyers email address into. (see below)
By entering anyone@anywhere.com in the pop up box the next form will show all records you have for that persons email address.
From the Main Menu click on Enter Item Number To Edit Record. You will have a pop up box to enter your Item Number.
All your records come up in front of you. You can have multible records with the same Item Number. You will have to keep them unique by entering buyers email address as the auctions end to keep records distinguished. This will work great for your dutch auctions.
From the Main Menu click on View All Records. You will be able to view all your records entered into the Auction Organizer and go from record to record.
As you follow along notice the answers change from No to Yes and Dates get entered when the actions took place on: Emailed Buyer, Received Response, Received Payment, Mailed Package and Left Feedback. From the Main Menu click on Have I E-mailed Buyer. When you click on this button it finds all auctions that have already ended that you have not Emailed Buyer.
From the Main Menu click on Have I Received Response From Buyer. When you click on this button it finds all auctions that have already ended that you have not Received Response from buyer.
From the Main Menu click on Response 3 Days Past End Of Auction Date. When you click on this button it finds all auctions that have already ended that you have not Received Response from buyer 3 days past auction end date.
From the Main Menu click on Have I Received Payment From Buyer. When you click on this button it finds all auctions that have already ended that you have not Received Payment from the buyer.
From the Main Menu click on Payment 14 Days Past End Of Auction Date. When you click on this button it finds all auctions that have already ended that you have not Received Payment from the buyer 14 days past auction end date.
From the Main Menu click on Have I Mailed Package. When you click on this button it finds all auctions that have already ended that you have not Mailed Package to buyer.
From the Main Menu click on Have I Left Buyer Feedback. When you click on this button it finds all auctions that have already ended that you have not Left Feedback for buyer.
The record below shows that all actions were completed. And this all happens with a click of a button. I don't think you will find anything more user friendly. That took a lot of work but it's the only way I develop application programs.
