Settlement, Reconciliation and Receiving Funds

This article will provide an overview about the Handbid Payment system, settlement process and the options for you, the organization, to receive funds.

The details of our payment system are included in the contract you signed with Handbid.  

Here is an Overview of our Process

Handbid uses STRIPE as our third-party credit card processor. You can set up your own Stripe account and connect your account to Handbid  (THIS IS THE PREFERRED METHOD) or you can have the funds processed by Handbid's Stripe account and then distributed to you once your event is over and has been reconciled (NOTE: It will take a min of 2-3 weeks from when you are done collecting your funds to get your funds with this option!)

How to Setup your own Stripe Account (Recommended)

If you choose to set up your own Stripe account, funds will be transferred directly to your Stripe account.  You can then manage your bank account and payouts within your Stripe account.  You can set up your Stripe account to deposit into your bank account once the transaction has been settled (3-5 business days). The payout options include: daily, weekly, monthly, or manually. Connecting your own Stripe account is the quickest way to get your funds and is recommended by Handbid.  

Using Handbid's Stripe Account

When you process a payment from a winning bidder with the Handbid's Stripe account, the collected funds are transferred directly to Handbid's Stripe account and held in a holding account.  Handbid will ONLY send you 1 payment once all of your transactions have been charged and cleared credit card processing.  Please allow a minimum of 2-3 weeks from when you ask for your event to be reconciled to receive your funds.  Funds will be paid out from BILL in either a paper check format, or ACH payment from BIL.

Once your auction closes, you will need to process all credit card transactions before Handbid will reconcile your auction and release your collected funds. When you are done collecting your funds, you must email us at service@handbid.com to let us know you are ready to settle your auction!  If you are using Handbid to sell tickets, we recommend you set up your own STRIPE account and use STRIPE CONNECT so that you can collect the ticket sales before the event.  

Auction Settlement Process 

When you have determined that you've finished collecting funds through Handbid's credit card system (i.e.: any unpaid invoices will be handled directly by you using an external credit card, cash, or check), you need to notify us by emailing service@handbid.com noting that you are ready to settle your auction. 

Once we receive this notification, we will send you a settlement report to review and sign. The report will contain: 

• Revenue summary, auction fees/payments summary, and collections summary (See example settlement report below).  
• We will deduct any unpaid auction fees and credit card fees from the amount collected and the bottom line is the final payment in most cases to be sent to you. (If your fees exceed the amount collected by Handbid the Payment Due will be negative and this will be the amount you owe Handbid). We will send you an email with a link to electronically sign this report.  

• Once the report has been signed and all funds have cleared our payment processor, we will process your payment.  Your payment can be processed as a paper check or e-payment. Either payment option usually takes between 10-15 business days from when the check was processed until you receive the funds.  If you would like to receive an electronic payment, please let us know and we will send you an invite from bill.com to set up your organization to receive an electronic payment directly to your bank.  

• If your auction closed over 30 DAYS ago and you still have unpaid invoices, we will notify you that the Handbid payment processing functionality will be disabled soon and a settlement report will be sent to you. You will still be able to record payments via external credit card, cash, check, etc., at this time.  

Important Information Regarding Receiving Payments from Handbid

• At the end of your auction, your objective needs to be reconciling (finalizing) all unpaid invoices.  We will not send a settlement report to you until you have notified us that you have no more money to collect through Handbid credit card system. Once your settlement report has been sent, the Handbid Credit Card system will be disabled for your auction.  
• We DO NOT auto-charge credit cards.  The reason for this is that it reduces the number of disputes and issues related to payments.  We need you to confirm with bidders what their winning totals and purchases are prior to charging cards. Or, have bidders pay directly from their phones.  
• If your bidders have simply made a purchase or donation and you have no items to deliver to them, you are welcome to charge their cards directly. Again - this is not automatic so you will need to process their charge in the auction manager or have them process the charge on their phone. 
• It is often wise to wait a week or so after the event and confirm everyone has received an invoice and paid, prior to notifying us that your auction is complete.  I am sure you are eager to get your funds transferred, but we tend to find adjustments to invoices are necessary in the week following an auction.  Reconciliation is much smoother and easier if we get through those adjustments first before we generate final reports and transfer funds.  
• If you need to process a refund after we have sent funds to you, you will either need to refund the bidder directly or we will invoice you and once we receive payment on the invoice we can refund the bidders credit card.