Setting Up Express Banking
To run Ultimate Risk-Free auctions, you must set up Express Banking for payouts to be sent to your bank account.
Open Bid Beacon and navigate to the Manage Auction screen
- Navigate to Payment Settings in left side menu
- Under Connect Express Banking select or enter an email address.
- Click Connect Express Account
Fill out a few details so you can start getting paid:
- Mobile Phone number
- Verification Code that is texted to your phone
- Country
- Type of Business:
- Individual or Sole Proprietorship
- Company
- Nonprofit Organization
The process changes slightly depending on what type of business you choose and what country you are in, so the examples that follow may not exactly match your scenario but will give an idea of the types of things you will need to have ready.
Individual:
- Your Legal Name
- Date of Birth
- Home Address
- Phone Number
- Last 4 digits of Social Security Number used to verify identity, no credit checks.
- ID Verification
- Upload an image of government issued ID
- Can skip for now and come back to this later.
- Upload an image of government issued ID
- Select your Industry
- Provide Website *If you have no website, you can share your auction or a social media link instead.
- Select an Account for Payouts
- Routing Number
- Account Number *must be a checking account.
Finally, review your details and Submit.
- Your Legal business name. The combination of your name and Employer Identification Number (EIN) must exactly match the one listed on your IRS documents (e.g., Letter 147C or SS-4 Confirmation letter), including capitalization and punctuation.
- Employer Identification Number (EIN)
- Doing Business As optional
- Registered Business Address
- Business Phone Number
- Select your Industry
- Provide your Business Website Link. If no website, you can share a business social media profile or link your Bid Beacon auction
- Click Continue
Verify you represent the business: This form must be filled out by someone with significant control and management of your business. If that’s not you, make sure to ask the right person to continue.
- Legal name of person
- Email address
- Job Title
- Date of Birth
- Home Address
- Phone Number
- Last 4 digits of Social Security Number: The last 4 digits of your SSN are only used to verify your identity—no credit checks.
- Optional – Upload and ID document instead of SSN
- Check if you own 25% or more of the company
- If yes – check if you are the only person who owns 25% or more of the company (Yes or No)
- If another owner also owns 25% or more of the company, please add them as an additional owner.
- Click Continue
Select an Account for Payouts
- Routing Number
- Account Number must be a checking account.
Finally, review your details and Submit when ready.
- Your Legal business name. The combination of your name and Employer Identification Number (EIN) must exactly match the one listed on your IRS documents (e.g., Letter 147C or SS-4 Confirmation letter), including capitalization and punctuation.
- Employer Identification Number (EIN)
- Doing Business As optional
- Registered Business Address
- Business Phone Number
- Select your Industry
- Provide your Business Website Link. If no website, you can share a business social media profile or link your Bid Beacon auction
- Click Continue
Verify you represent the business: This form must be filled out by someone with significant control and management of your business. If that’s not you, make sure to ask the right person to continue.
- Legal name of person
- Email address
- Job Title
- Date of Birth
- Home Address
- Phone Number
- Last 4 digits of Social Security Number: The last 4 digits of your SSN are only used to verify your identity—no credit checks.
- Optional – Upload and ID document instead of SSN
- Click Continue
Select an Account for Payouts
- Routing Number
- Account Number must be a checking account.
Finally, review your details and Submit when ready.
Payouts and Reconciliation
As guests join your auction, they will be prompted to enter their Credit Card. This is mandatory in order to bid on items in any Ultimate Risk-Free auction.
When they win, the system will automatically charge them for their winnings.
Payments are held in your Stripe Account for 7 days and then paid out directly to your account. After the 7-day holding period, payouts will then be sent daily. You can view the transactions and history of payouts in two places.
Note: Bid Beacon does not collect or store any credit card information. All payment details are handled through Stripe which is a PCI-compliant payment provider.
- From the Auction Overview screen
- Navigate to Payouts in left side menu
- View the Available Soon, Next Payout and Total Paid to date info for a summary
- From the Auction Overview screen
- Navigate to Payment Settings in left side menu
- Click View Account
- Enter the verification code sent to your mobile device.
- The Express dashboard shares more details about each transaction and expected timelines for your payouts.
Statement Descriptor
When setting up your Stripe Connect account, you will have the ability to enter a Statement Descriptor. For guests who win items at your auction, this description will appear on their credit card statement.
To reduce the chance of your guests disputing charges, make sure your Statement Descriptor explains where the charge came from (i.e., use the name of your auction as the Statement Descriptor.
Failed Payments
If a guest’s credit card fails, they will be notified and have an opportunity to update their credit card information to try again. If the guest’s payment still fails, admins have the option to mark them as paid offline in this instance.
In the off chance the guest does not return and pay, an admin can delete their winning bid(s). This will automatically trigger a new winner based on the next highest bid. The new winner will be notified and have the opportunity to go in and pay for the item(s) on their Results screen.
Additional Information
It’s important to note that by accepting payments using Express Banking, you cannot also accept payments offline (i.e. accepting cash, cheque, e-transfer, etc.).
This is because guests provide their credit card information prior to bidding, and guests with winning bids are charged automatically once the auction closes.
If you would prefer to give guests the option to pay either online or offline, you must select the Build Your Auction plan. You will then purchase the Alternate Online Payments add-on and then choose which payment provider(s) you want to use (Stripe, Square, PayPal).
