Time Settings

Advanced Project Settings: Time Settings

These settings become the default time settings for all lots in the project but you can modify them for individual lots when you add or edit a lot group. See Adding a Lot Group for more information.

Auto-Extension Settings

Auto-extensions ensure bidders get adequate time to analyze and submit additional bids when a qualifying bid comes in at or near the end of the live event. With auto-extensions, Iasta SmartSource guarantees that bidders have at least as long as the Auto Extend Length period to respond to a new bid. Iasta SmartSource extends the end time of the event to make sure bidders have the specified amount of time. If the auto-extend length is set to 120 seconds and a qualified bid is submitted 60 seconds before the scheduled end time of an event, Iasta SmartSource extends the end time by 60 seconds. If bidders respond to a bid by submitting additional bids in the extension period, Iasta SmartSource continues extending the live event. Setting auto-extensions can increase competition in your project in the following ways:

Discourages Last Second Bidding: Without auto-extensions, there is no compelling reason to place a bid prior to the last second of the project. The competitiveness of the project is destroyed if all of the bidders wait until the last second and then attempt to place all of their bids simultaneously. With extensions, it makes no sense for the bidders to do this. Actually, bidders should be discouraged from doing so because, due to internet congestion, their bid runs the risk of not reaching the server prior to the closing time. If the bid arrives a millisecond too late, it will be ignored by the server.
Allows Bidders Ample Time to Respond: With auto-extensions, bidders always have a certain amount of time to respond to a new low bid if it is placed at the end of a lot's open time. It is important to give bidders enough time to evaluate and respond to low bidding as it happens. In some projects, it doesn't make sense to have a long auto-extend length as the bidders know their absolute lowest price and can quickly respond to low bids. However, if you have a complicated project that requires bidders to analyze many different factors in real-time, or requires them to refer to spreadsheets during the Live Event, you may want to increase the auto-extend length.

Auto-Extension Settings do not apply to Sealed Bid, No Live Event, or Dutch Auction projects.

Auto Extend Length: Enter the minimum amount of time which you want to allow bidders to respond to bids submitted near the event end time. If necessary Iasta SmartSource will extend the end time of the event to allow bidders the specified amount of time. Iasta SmartSource will continue extending the end time until no bids are submitted for the period specified by the Auto Extend Length.
Winning Bids/All Bids: Choose the types of bids that will cause Iasta SmartSource to automatically extend the time period for the live event.

Winning Bids: Iasta SmartSource only extends the live event if a winning bid is posted near enough to the end time that the Auto Extend length cannot take place before the currently scheduled end time. Generally Iasta recommends choosing Winning Bids to avoid over-extending the Live Event for non-meaningful bidding.
All Bids: Iasta SmartSource extends the live event if any bid is submitted near enough to the end time that the Auto Extend Length cannot take place before the currently scheduled end time. Some situations where you might want to choose to extend for All Bids are:

A single bidder's preliminary bids are so low that you doubt any other bidder will be able to provide a winning bid. Thus, no extensions will occur without using the All Bids setting.
You intend to split the award on a percentage basis between more than one bidder, or you want a competitive quote from a secondary bidder and you want to ensure that there is a heated competition for second place as well as first place.
If you set up the project so that bidders cannot view the low bid during the Live Event, bidders may need extra time to "search" for and place a winning bid because they can only see their rank.

Spotlight Length

The spotlight length is the minimum length of time a lot group is in the "spotlight" (open without any other lot groups open). For example, if lot groups have a spotlight length of 2 minutes, and the first lot group gets extended by 1 minute, the second lot group will also be extended to ensure that it is open for a full 2 minutes after the first lot group closes.
Spotlight lengths are especially useful in cascading lot groups that have auto-extensions because they give bidders an adequate amount of time to focus on the next lot group to close.

Spotlight Length: Enter the minimum amount of time that you want a lot groups in the project to be open without other lot groups being open at the same time. Iasta SmartSource will extend the end time of a lot group's event to ensure that the spotlight length is available for each lot group.

Spotlights are not applicable to Dutch Auctions because only one lot can be open at a time.

Pending Time Length

When a live event for a lot group ends, the lot group goes into a status of "pending" and then moves to a "closed" status. Bidders should be advised to stay logged on until the lot group is closed so that the project sponsor can re-open the lot group if there were technical difficulties.

Pending Time Length: Enter the amount of time that you want lot groups to retain a status of "pending" before moving to a "closed" status.

Live Event Throttle

Live Event throttling controls how often Iasta SmartSource refreshes data in the Live Event window. You can set the refresh rate to be from 1 second to 30 seconds. By default, the Live Event refreshes once every second. For large (100+ lot) auctions, Iasta recommends that you increase the throttle to allow enough time for bidders to place their bids on all lots.

The live event throttle is not available for Dutch Auction projects.

Live Event Throttle: Use the slider to set the refresh rate for the Live Event window.

Save as Default

Save as Default: Place a check mark in the box to make the settings currently on this page the default settings for all new projects.

Use these buttons to navigate:

OK: Saves changes and returns to the Project Settings page.
Cancel: Exits Advanced Settings without saving.
Help: Opens Iasta SmartSource Desktop Online Help.