Ending a Maxanet auction and collecting payment from winning bidders is a sequence of six steps in the Admin panel: End Auction, Generate Invoices, optionally add Invoice Content (header/footer), apply Fees (Buyer Premium, Sales Tax, custom fees), Approve the invoices to make them visible to bidders, and finally Charge Credit Cards (if using MaxanetPay) or Email Invoices to the winners. This article walks through every step, what each action does, and which steps are optional vs required.

Before you can End an auction in Maxanet, every item in the auction must be fully closed — no active items, no countdown timers still running. If the auction is still in its closing sequence with staggered item endings, you must wait until every item has ended. Only after all items are over can the auction be ended and invoices generated.

From your Maxanet Admin panel's Current Auctions page (the default page when you log in), find the auction and click its Title to enter the auction dashboard. In the auction dashboard, click the black circle near the upper-right area of the screen. A dropdown menu appears — click End Auction. Confirm when prompted.

After ending the auction, click the same black circle dropdown again and choose Generate Invoices. Maxanet creates a bidder invoice for every winning bidder in the auction, with one line per item they won. The Invoices tab now appears in the auction dashboard's top navigation — click it to see your generated invoices.

Before charging bidders, you can add optional Invoice Content (header and footer text) that will print on every invoice in this auction. Click the blue Invoice Content button on the Invoices tab to open a text input box for the invoice header and footer. Note: this is different from the overall invoice logo/header — the Invoice Content header is a text block that appears directly above the list of won items, and the footer appears below the last line item but above the actual invoice footer. Common uses: pickup date and time, pickup address, pickup instructions, condition of items sold, refund policy, auction terms, and signature lines for in-person pickup.

Before approving and sending invoices, apply any Global Fees (Buyer Premium, Sales Tax, custom fees) to the invoices. Prerequisite: your Global Fees must already be set up under Admin → Configurations → Global Fees. To apply fees: on the Invoices tab, select the invoices you want to apply fees to by clicking the checkbox on each row (or click the checkbox above the list to select every invoice at once). Click the orange Group Actions button and choose Add Fee. Select your fee from the dropdown — you can stack multiple fees by clicking +Add More. Click the green Update button. Maxanet applies the selected fees to every checked invoice.

Approving the invoices makes them visible in each bidder's own profile on your public site. While invoices are Not Approved, you can still edit them, change fees, or adjust content — bidders cannot see them yet. Once you Approve, they become visible to bidders in their bidder profile under the Invoices tab. Note: approving also triggers an automated email to bidders letting them know their invoice is ready to view. You can disable this automated email under Configurations → Email Templates → Invoice Approve Email — mark it inactive if you don't want the auto-email to go out. To approve, select all invoices, click Group Actions, and choose Approve. Confirm in the pop-up. All invoice Status values change from Not Approved to New.

If you use MaxanetPay as your card processor, you can batch-charge every winning bidder's stored credit card from the Invoices tab. Select all invoices, click Group Actions, and choose Charge Credit Card. Confirm on the pop-up. Maxanet charges each bidder's card on file and auto-updates the Status to Paid on every successful charge. If a card declines, that invoice remains unpaid and you can follow up with the bidder individually.

To email invoices to bidders, select the invoices you want to send (or use select-all), click Group Actions, and choose Email Invoices. A pop-up window opens with options: at the top, choose the Email Template (the default is Invoice Email, or you can select your own custom template). You can edit the From address, add an optional CC email, edit the subject line, and edit the body of the email. When you click the green Send button, every selected bidder receives an email with their invoice attached as a PDF document.

No. Every item in the auction must be fully closed with no countdown timers before Maxanet lets you end the auction. Wait for the closing sequence to complete.

Generate Invoices creates the invoices internally so you can work on them. Approve makes them visible to bidders in their public-facing bidder profile and triggers the auto-email (unless disabled). Generate first, then Approve after fees and content are finalized.

Yes. Under Admin → Configurations → Email Templates, find the 'Invoice Approve Email' template and mark it inactive. Invoices will still be approved, but no auto-email will be sent.

Both options exist. Group Actions → Charge Credit Card does all selected invoices at once. For individual charges, use the 3-dot Actions menu on a single invoice row and choose Make Payment → Credit Card.

Successful charges update their invoices to Paid status. Failed charges leave their invoices in the previous status — you can follow up individually with those bidders, retry, or collect payment another way.

Yes. Use the 3-dot Actions menu → Edit on an approved invoice to add/remove items, change fees, or adjust amounts. Changes are reflected immediately in the bidder's public invoice view.