AES Suite 9.3

Updated by Jack Taylor

Summary

This version is a minor update, released on October 21, 2020.

New Features

Watch List

Guests can now add an item to their "Watch List" without having to place a bid. This will allow them to keep an eye on their items of interest in one consolidated space. When viewing mobile bidding pages they will be met with the following options:

Items can also be added to a guests Watch List after selecting it from the tile view on the mobile bidding app by pressing the heart icon.

After adding an item to their watchlist, they can now view it in the "My Cart" screen with the option to remove the item from watchlist.

"Always Open" Categories

Categories can now be set to remain always open, even after your event has ended. This is especially useful for Donation and Multi-unit packages that have no set open or close times.

Once your always open category is created, you may assign it to any non-auction package (multi-unit, donation, registration extras, sponsorships, tickets and admission, fixed price). Silent and Live auction packages may not be assigned to an always open category.

Anonymous Donors

  • Guests can now choose to make themselves an anonymous donor and will have their name replaced with "Anonymous" on all publicly visible reports such as the cash call, slideshow, and package bidding history.
    • During checkout on the Event Microsite
    • During account setup on the Mobile Bidding App

  • Back-end administrators can also go into previously registered accounts and select the option to make them an anonymous donor in Auction Conductor > Contributors > Detail > Event Tab.
The Anonymous setting is event/campaign specific, meaning the same contributor can be Anonymous for one event/campaign but not for another.

New Options for Slideshow

Auction Conductor > Big Screen Reports > Slideshow

Multiple Independent Slideshow Reports

You can now run separate slideshows completely individual from one another.

They can each be independently launched and will read in your browser window as such:

Auto Refresh When Only One Slide is Displayed

When only a single slide is being displayed in the slideshow, we will automatically refresh it a few seconds after all rows in the grid have been shown. This will eliminate the need to manually refresh the page to get updated information.

New Options for Silent/Live Package Listing

In the Silent/Live package listing slide, you will see two new options that are useful for virtual events or livestreams.

Show Bidder Names will display the bidders full name instead of their bidder number, useful for recognizing donors during a virtual event.

Sum Selected Packages will display the total amount raised for all of the packages shown in the report. Useful if you would like to total up a certain subset of auction items, such as a Virtual Live Auction.

Changes to Cash Call Report

Auction Conductor > Big Screen Reports > Cash Call

New options are especially useful for MC's and Auctioneers during a Virtual Event or Livestream.

Donors Sorted by Amount

You will now see a new display choice for the bottom half section, called Donors Sorted by Amount. This option will enable you to define up to 8 donation levels, which will appear as columns in the report. This report will display donations received in real time, and new donors will be indicated by red text that fades to black after a few seconds.

Settings:
Report:

Dollar Amounts for Scrolling Donor Names

In the option for Scrolling Donor Names, we have added the option to include the donation amount next to the donor name.

Settings:
Report:

Ignore Round-Up and Processing Fees Donations

When a contributor makes a donation at checkout, they may be presented with options to either round-up their total or to cover credit card processing fees on behalf of the organization. Both of these are added to the contributors total as checkout donations. In the past these donations would be included in the cash call big screen reports. Now, those donations will be ignored - both in summation and in individual recognition.

Help Button

In the Mobile Bidding App your users can now request assistance via a dedicated help button in the main menu. When a help request is submitted, it will immediately be forwarded to the AES Event Manager and other support personnel designated for your event.

An extended support plan is required in order for AES to directly respond to your user's help requests. If you have only purchased a DIY service package without additional support, all help requests will be forwarded to a representative in your organization. Please contact us to learn more.

Logo Changes

In order to improve upon site branding we have made some changes to the Organization and Event logos in the Mobile Bidding app.

On mobile devices, The Organization Logo will now appear in the footer of the Mobile Bidding App, above the Organization address, phone, and email address.

On mobile devices, The Event Logo will now appear in the header of the Mobile Bidding App and will be the primary logo for most functions.

Importacular (Raiser's Edge Import Tool) Improvements

Importacular is a free import tool for Raiser’s Edge and Raiser’s Edge NXT*

https://www.zeidman.info/importacular-for-aes/

In this release AES added additional data fields to the import for any given event or campaign.

Additional fields included for each individual contributor:

  • #of tickets purchased – sum of the number of admissions purchased by the contributor, via admission ticket and sponsorship packages sold in AES. Example : If I buy 2x a package with 10 admissions each, then this field equals 20.
  • Donations – sum of all donation sales for the contributor
  • Addon Donations - sum of all 'processing fee' and 'round up' donation sales for the contributor
  • Auction - sum of all winning silent and live auction bids for the contributor
  • Multi-Unit - sum of all multi-unit package sales for the contributor, including fixed price, registration extras, multi-unit package types.
  • Admissions - sum of all admission ticket package sales for the contributor
  • Sponsorships - sum of all sponsorship package sales for the contributor

Minor Issues and Bug Fixes

Microsite

  • Added Time zone to the event start time in the Calendar Widget and email confirmations.
  • Fixed an issue where saving rich text fields would yield an error.
  • During the livestream, when a video is shown, the Add Donation button will now open in a new browser tab in order to keep the livestream video playing and audible.
  • Added new validations which prevent limited quantity packages from being oversold.
  • Fixed an issue where the Google Maps button was displayed even when the event was marked as hidden.
  • Updated the wording in the Payment Information description to coincide with whether or not the client has opted to make credit cards mandatory for registration.
  • Fixed an issue where bidders with 5 digit bidder numbers would be automatically registered upon signing in when they would, in fact, not be registered.
  • Updated the Express Check-In Email confirmation content to reflect whether the event location has been hidden.
  • Made an update to allow any contributor to use express check-in, including those that are not attending an event. This is especially useful for virtual events where selling admission tickets may not be an option.
  • Changed the wording in the credit card box in Express Check-In. It is now more generic, to accommodate both in-person and virtual events.

Mobile Bidding

  • Renamed the "Create Account" button to say "Register" for clarity.
  • Added a "Made with AES" logo to the footer on small screen.
  • Made a small change to the text that is displayed when adding an optional donation at checkout. Changed "swipe card" to "enter card".
  • Last Name validation (when enabled) will now appear only when the user chooses to make a bid or purchase.
  • All external hyperlinks added to package descriptions will now open in a new browser tab.
  • Now displaying the text SOLD for auction items purchased via the Buy Now option, and SOLD OUT for multi-unit packages that are no longer available due to being sold out.
  • Added new validations that prevent limited quantity packages from being oversold. This includes selling all remaining packages to the contributor and giving them the option to delete them if the reduced quantity is insufficient for their needs.
  • Featured packages will no longer be hidden after the auction has closed.
  • Fixed multiple issues with preview, closing soon, and closed banners.
  • Fixed an issue with self-registration which would prevent long country names from being saved.
  • Fixed an issue where when the watch list button is added while the buy now button is present, the watch list button was not displaying.
  • Changed the credit card checkout confirmation screen from "you're all checked out" to "you're all set".

Auction Conductor

  • Fixed a bug where the user goes into AC > Setup > Microsite, the "next" button is greyed out and the user cannot proceed.
  • Fixed a bug where the 'hide event location' checkbox is selected, an error would be displayed.
  • Fixed an error in accounting for new contributors when resending scheduled messages.
  • Fixed an issue where saving rich text fields in the microsite builder would yield an error.
  • Fixed an issue which would result in orphaned bids or purchases when the package type is changed after existing bids or purchases are already made.
  • Fixed an issue with field validations on the Item and Package pages.
  • Fixed an issue where users could inadvertently paste images into the item and package rich text fields. This caused issues with very large images taking too long to load. A better solution is to use the image uploader tool or post hyperlinks instead.
  • Fixed an issue with submitting credit card transactions.
  • When a Contributor does not have a Group assigned, we are no longer showing others without groups as well in the "others in this group" section.
  • Added "Text to Act" as a filter option for "Created by" on the Contributors grid.
  • Fixed multiple issues with 504 errors due to extended processing times, such as sending messages to many recipients or running large reports.
  • Fixed an issue where background images could not contain spaces in the file name.
  • Fixed an issue where the bid paddle report filters were not responding.
  • Fixed an issue with donation timestamps showing in UTC time instead of local time.

All Apps

  • "Standard" receipt type is now called "Basic (name only)"
  • "Detailed" receipt type is now called "Detailed (with contact info)"
  • Receipt types "3rd party" and "None" were removed. The default for new events and those with deleted types are now "Basic".

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