Software for Live Auctions Without a Marketplace: Registration, Clerking, Invoices, and Settlements

The house that sells from the block

Plenty of auction houses still do what the name says. Bidders register at the door, get a paddle, sit in chairs, and buy from a live auctioneer. Some run online bidding alongside. Some don't, and don't want to, because the marketplace percentage on buyers who drove to the gallery is money for nothing.

Software for that house has a specific shape. It has to register bidders and hand out paddle numbers, record what the clerk hears, turn the clerk's lines into invoices at the cashier window, settle with consignors after, and take payment. It does not need a bidding engine. This is a guide to the tools that fit that shape, and where each one stops.

What the sale day actually needs

Walk through a Saturday. Registration opens at eight. Every bidder gives a name, an address, a phone number, and ideally a card or license, and leaves with a number. At ten the auctioneer starts and the clerk records lot, bidder, and hammer for four hundred lots. At two the first buyers reach the cashier, and each one needs an invoice with the right lots, the premium, and the tax, and a way to pay. On Monday, forty consignors need a settlement statement and a check.

Any tool that handles the middle of that day but not the ends leaves you typing.

ClerkBid

ClerkBid is AuctionMethod's free clerking app, released in 2026. It runs in the browser, installs on a laptop, tablet, or phone, and works offline with the data stored on the device. The clerk records lot, hammer, paddle, quantity, and consignor. It generates per-bidder invoices with buyer's premium and tax as print-ready PDFs, and reports on revenue, lot status, bidder totals, and consignor commission.

What it doesn't do, from its own announcement: produce consignor settlement statements, take payment, or register bidders ahead of time. The price is zero, with no stated limits, so for a house that clerks on paper today and needs invoices at the window, it's the cheapest step up available.

Auction Flex

Auction Flex is the incumbent for the live house. Cataloging, clerking, cashiering, accounting, mailing lists, and wireless clerking with RF modems for a ring on the far side of the barn. It's the most complete live-sale system on the market, and it's also the one with the steepest learning curve and the most mixed reviews. Pricing is per workstation: $85 a month for one, $120 for two, up to $550 for unlimited. If you also sell on HiBid, it's the native back office. The alternatives are covered here.

Wavebid

Wavebid does cataloging, marketing, and clerking, and it's owned by Auction Technology Group, the parent of Proxibid and LiveAuctioneers. It's built to push your catalog to those marketplaces, which is the opposite of what a marketplace-free house wants. Pricing isn't published. If you don't sell on ATG platforms, look elsewhere.

BidWrangler

BidWrangler is white-label bidding for traditional auctioneers, with live simulcast. That means the bidders in the chairs and the bidders online compete in the same sale, on your branded site, with no marketplace in the middle. If you want online bidders without the marketplace, this is the category. If you want no online bidders at all, it's more than you need. Pricing is by demo.

Estimint

Estimint covers the ends of the day and the middle. Bidder registration with paddle numbers, ahead of the sale or at the door. Clerking on a laptop by the block, with keyboard shortcuts, passed and withdrawn lots, sub-lots on the floor, and multi-day sessions. When you close the sale, one invoice per buyer with your premium, tax, and an optional card fee, printable at the window or emailed with a pay link that deposits into your own Stripe account with no fee from Estimint. One settlement per consignor with their commission, printable, emailable, and with check printing. Before any of that, the catalog itself gets written from photos.

Where it stops: Estimint doesn't scan driver's licenses at registration, doesn't drive RF clerking hardware, and doesn't push to an accounting package. If your house runs on those, Auction Flex is still the fuller system. Estimint starts at $29 a month, with clerking, invoicing, settlements, and team seats at $149.

Which one, by house

Keep the paper in the drawer

Whichever you pick, print a stack of clerking sheets before the sale. A laptop battery dies, a barn has no signal, and the auctioneer doesn't stop. The printable sheet is here, and the guide to using it is here. Then start free, register five paddles, and clerk a practice sale before the real one.