The Auction House Back Office: Every Lot, Client and Dollar in One System
Cataloging, CRM, consignment, invoicing, settlement, shipping and reporting, built as one system rather than seven.
The first of Circuit's three products, connected to the live bidding app and the Astro Auction Website, so the back office runs the sale instead of reconciling it afterwards.
Why the Back Office Should Be the Same System as the Sale
Most auction houses run cataloging in one tool, clerk the sale on a marketplace, invoice from a spreadsheet and keep clients in a CRM that none of the others talk to. Every sale ends with an export, an import and a week of reconciling. Circuit's back office holds the lot, the consignor, the bidder, the hammer price and the payment on the same records the bidding app and website use.
What the Back Office Includes
From "we would like to consign" to "payment sent", and everything a specialist, clerk and bookkeeper need in between
One of Three Products, Built to Work as One
Circuit is a turnkey A to Z platform. The back office is where the auction house works; the other two products are what bidders see.
How a Sale Flows Through the Back Office
1. Intake
A consignment is opened on the consignor's record, the agreement is generated with its commission structure and charges, and lots are received against it, by barcode for large collections.
2. Cataloging
Specialists photograph and describe, AI drafts the rest, reserves are checked against the agreement, and the catalog is published to your website, the bidding app and any marketplace feed.
3. The Sale
Bidders registered in the CRM bid live, timed or absentee. Approvals, limits and phone bidder cards come from the client record. The clerk console records every hammer.
4. Invoicing, Settlement and Shipping
Invoices go out at the hammer and are paid by card. Each paid lot settles on the consignor's statement. Shipping labels, compliance holds and accounting export follow from the same records, and every client stays in the CRM for the next sale.
Auction Back Office FAQ
The system an auction house runs the business in, as opposed to the screens bidders see. Consignment intake, lot inventory and cataloging, client records for bidders and consignors, invoicing and payment collection, consignor settlement, shipping, accounting export, marketing and reporting. In Circuit the back office is one of three connected products, with the live bidding app and the Astro Auction Website drawing on the same records, so nothing is exported, imported or re-keyed between them.
AI cataloging from photos and notes with estimates and translations, lot numbering, barcode intake and bulk updates, a bidder and consignor CRM with email tracking, consignment agreements and lot-by-lot settlement statements, invoicing with premiums, taxes and shipping, credit card processing, shipping integration, commission and finder fee management, accounting export, mailing lists and automated email, task management, FFL management for firearms houses, revision control, and analytics.
Circuit's back office is built to run with Circuit's own bidding app, and sales can also be published to marketplaces as an additional channel. If you clerk a live sale in Circuit, invoices and settlement statements are produced from the sale itself. Bids from other channels can be imported so that invoicing and settlement still happen in one place.
Yes. Circuit runs in the browser on any phone, tablet or desktop. Staff photograph a lot, add notes or dictate them, and AI cataloging drafts the description, category, keywords and estimate for a specialist to approve. Barcode reader integration and bulk item updates speed up large consignments and estate buyouts.
Buyer invoices with buyer's premium, taxes and shipping are generated as the hammer falls and can be paid by card on the platform. As each buyer pays, the consignor's statement updates lot by lot with hammer, commission, agreed charges and net due, so consignors can be settled in days rather than weeks. Payouts are recorded and everything exports to standard accounting systems.
The back office is where your staff work, so it is not bidder-facing, but everything it produces is: invoices, statements, catalog proofs, emails and reports carry your auction house's branding. The bidder-facing front ends, the Astro Auction Website and the WordPress plugin, are fully white label.
It is included in both plans. The Standard Plan is $250 per month with an annual commitment plus 2% on winning bids placed through the online platform, with AI cataloging, card processing and shipping integration as optional add-ons. The Enterprise Plan is a fixed price with no commission and those add-ons included. See the pricing page.
See the Back Office Run a Real Sale
Book a demo and bring a recent catalog and consignment agreement. We will catalog a lot with AI, run it through a sale and show the invoice and settlement statement it produces.
🏆 Bottom of Page Achievement Unlocked! 🏆
You're officially auction-software curious. Let's turn that curiosity into your success – use the form below and we'll talk details.
Write to Us
