The Big Things First

1. Choose and Set Up Your Credit Card Account
Choosing an account is something that needs your attention early. If applying for a new account, you’ll need the help of the person who controls your organization’s bank accounts. We offer choices but to help you make the decision in this unfamiliar territory, we are also including a list of factors to consider:
A. Rates - (Look at them as a package.)
Transaction percentage , transaction fee, application fee, monthly fee, annual fee,
B. "Card present" vs "Card not present"
How many applications and accounts are needed for both "card present" and "card not present" (needed for online ticket sales and online auctions) transactions ?
C. Customer Service
Are they responsive and helpful?

* Returning Customer Reestablishing Credit Card Gateway

* New Customers with an Existing Merchant Account

2. Decide on Hardware to use for the Event
You'll need computers and printers for event night (and internet access for those computers). And although you can supply your own, we generally recommend that you rent equipment, simply because the people that rent them tend to have already made and learned from the mistakes that people who borrow equipment usually make. So, don’t put off arranging for your event-night hardware. We have recommendations on the number of stations you'll need, and all of the common pitfalls you might otherwise have made.

We know you won't make those mistakes. You're awfully smart (and devastatingly attractive to boot). We know we can count on you to go read

(While you're at it, read this, too: We know you probably already have a venue picked out for your event, but even so, it's worth a look, just so you can put your mind at ease that everything is going to go smoothly.)

3. Talk to Us About Importing Data From Events Past
You may have list of donors, items, possible ticket buyers, etc. from previous events. You may be wondering "Can I ask those clever folks at Tofino to import that data into my new Tofino database?" If so, we're here to say yes, sure, of course, no problem, piece of cake. Here's how:

The process starts with you, of course. You need to gather your data, get it into a spreadsheet or csv file, and clean it up. Make sure that all of the columns have the same type of data (donor first name, donor last name, donation item, etc.) in them, all the way down the sheet. Make sure there are clear headers at the top. The cleaner your data is, and the clearer you are about what you want where in your site, the quicker we can get it imported. Send your clean spreadsheet to support@tofinoauctions.com with clear instructions, and let us know if you have a special time requirement. We'll respond within a day to tell you when it should be there.