Getting Started with the Admin Console

The admin console is where you and your team run your marketplace: listings, auctions, orders, payouts, your audience and all of your account settings. This guide covers signing in, how the sidebar is organised, the screens you will use most in your first days (Home, Launch Center, Create first auction and the Settings Overview), and what it means when a screen tells you it is blocked.

Babylon and Hammerd. Babylon is the auction platform you are using; Hammerd is the company that builds and runs it. You will see "Babylon" throughout the admin console and these guides, and "Hammerd" when you deal with us directly, for example when you contact Hammerd support.

Before you start

You need a staff account on your Babylon account. Buyer and seller accounts that people create for themselves on your storefront cannot sign in to the admin console, even with the right password. If you do not have a staff account yet, ask a colleague who manages users to create one for you (see Team members and roles), or contact Hammerd support if you are the first person on the account.

What you see in the sidebar depends on two things: the role you hold, and the features included in your plan. Two people on the same account can see quite different sidebars, and that is expected.

Signing in

The admin console lives at /admin on your account's admin address. Babylon gives you this address when your account is set up; bookmark it.

1. Go to your admin address, for example https://admin.example.com/admin. You are taken to the sign-in page.
2. Enter your email address and password.
3. Tick Remember me if you are on a device you trust and want to stay signed in.
4. Select Sign in.
5. If you have turned on two-factor authentication, an Authenticator code field appears. Enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app (or one of your recovery codes) and sign in again.

After signing in you land on Home.

Your admin address and your storefront address

Your admin console and your public storefront run on separate addresses. If you open /admin on your storefront address, you are redirected to your admin address automatically.

Custom domains you connect under Settings → Domain Settings apply to your storefront only. The admin console stays on your Babylon platform address, whatever storefront domain you use. See Custom domains for how storefront domains work. If you need the admin console on an address of your own, contact Hammerd support.

Forgotten password

On the sign-in page, select Forgot password?, enter your email address and submit. You will see "If an account with that email exists, we have emailed a password reset link." whether or not the address matches an account, so check the spelling if nothing arrives. The link in the email lets you choose a new password.

To change your own password while you know the current one, sign out and use the same Forgot password? link. A colleague who manages users can also send you a reset email; see Team members and roles.

Resetting your password does not turn off two-factor authentication. See Two-factor authentication.

Finding your way around

The sidebar on the left is split into groups. Each group starts collapsed and opens when you select it, and the group that contains the page you are on opens automatically. On a desktop you can collapse the whole sidebar to a narrow strip of group icons.

To jump straight to a record or screen, use the search at the top of the console, or press Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows and Linux).

Your avatar in the top corner of the console opens the user menu. This is where you find Two-Factor Authentication and sign out.

The sidebar groups

The groups always appear in this order. Only the items your role and plan allow are listed, and a group with nothing you can open does not appear at all.

• Home: your daily starting point (Home), plus Launch Center and Create first auction while your marketplace is getting ready to go live.
• Audience: the people on your marketplace and how you reach them. Users (every buyer, seller and staff account) lives here, along with mailing Lists, Segments, Campaigns, Email Templates, Email Categories, Buyer Profiles, Engagement Triggers, Articles, contact imports and contact attributes, and creator campaigns and links.
• Supply: consignment intake, from leads to items ready to list, including Supply Workstack, Supply Leads, Supply Items, Items Pipeline, Supply Scorecard, Seller Agreements, Agreement Templates and Legal Documents. Most of this group depends on your plan.
• Sell: what you are selling. Listings, Collections, Listing Categories, Custom Fields and Documents Pending Redaction.
• Auction Ops: running sales day to day. Auctions, Offers, Deal Rooms, Conversations, Questions, Moderation Queue, live Events and Hammer Events, and live show tools (Create show, Live Show Console) where your plan includes them.
• Post-Sale: everything after the hammer falls. Orders, Settlements, Payments Overview, Payouts, Order Issues, Disputes, Insurance Claims, Escrow Activity, KYC Verifications, Fraud Alerts, AML Cases, Consignor Statements and Financial Exceptions.
• Insights: reporting, including Product and Web Analytics, Deal Room Analytics and Show Analytics.
• Trade Programme: dealer accounts, tiers, statements, promotion placements and programme settings. This group only appears if your plan includes the Trade Programme.
• Advanced / Developer: API Keys and the Audit Trail.
• Settings: how your account is configured. Overview, Business Settings, Auction Settings, Bid Increment Rules, White Label and Branding, SEO & Discovery, Domain Settings, Marketplace Tiers, Authentication Schemes, notification screens, Gmail Connection, Live Commerce Settings, and your Babylon Invoices and Subscriptions.

Most groups also have an Overview page at the top: a working dashboard for that area with key numbers, a Needs attention list and links into the detailed tables.

Home

Home → Home is where you land after signing in, and every staff member can open it. It gives you:

• Launch readiness: how many launch tasks are complete, with a link to each outstanding one. This is read directly from Launch Center, so the two always agree. There is no way to tick a task off by hand; a task completes when the setting behind it is saved.
• Performance snapshot: listings ended, sell-through, orders paid and platform revenue over the last 24 hours, plus seven-day trends. If your role does not include financial access, the revenue tile shows "Not permitted" instead of a figure.
• Needs attention: your daily inbox of disputes, failed payouts, listings waiting for approval and pending payments. Use the All, 24h and 7d buttons to narrow it to recent items; the console remembers your choice. On accounts with only one staff member, this is replaced by Your worklist, a single list of everything waiting on you, most urgent and oldest first.
• Quick actions (called Quick links on wider screens): shortcuts such as Open Launch Center, Create listing, Import listings, Monitor live auctions, Invite user and Configure domain. Shortcuts you cannot use are greyed out rather than hidden.

Launch Center

Home → Launch Center is where you track whether your marketplace is ready to take money, and where you open it to the public. You need permission to manage business settings to open it. Once your marketplace has gone live it drops out of the sidebar, but you can still reach it from Settings → Overview.

Launch tasks

The Required before launch section lists each task with a Ready or Needs action badge and a button that takes you to the right screen:

• Complete business profile: your legal business details, used on invoices and buyer communications. See Business profile and localisation.
• Choose a sales operating model: who is seller of record, who fulfils orders, and how buyer and seller identity works on orders. See Fees, commission and sales models.
• Set fees and taxes: buyer's premium, seller commission and how tax applies. See Fees, commission and sales models.
• Set default sale format (optional): the default auction style for new listings. If you skip it, new listings use English auctions. See Auction settings and bid increments.
• Configure payments: choose how buyers pay and, if needed, connect Stripe. See Payments and checkout.

You can hide the Launch your first auction guidance panel with Hide guidance. This only affects your own view.

Launch states

Your marketplace is always in one of three states, shown under Storefront launch state:

• Pre-launch: the public sees only your pre-launch front. Only internal testers can reach the marketplace.
• Soft open: confirmed pre-launch sign-ups and internal testers can reach the marketplace. The public still sees the pre-launch front.
• Live: the marketplace is public. Anyone can browse and bid.

To change it, select Change launch state at the top of the page, choose a state and confirm.

You cannot choose Live until Configure payments and Set fees and taxes are both complete, because going live without them would take real money on unconfigured settings. While they are outstanding, the Live option is shown as blocked and lists what is missing. Complete business profile and Choose a sales operating model are shown as Recommended: they will not stop you going live, but you should finish them first.

Setting the state to Live opens the marketplace to the public immediately.

Create first auction

Home → Create first auction is a short guided start for your first sale. You need permission to create listings. Choose the kind of sale you want to run:

• Timed auction: an online auction with a start time, end time, bidding rules and buyer checkout. Select Create timed auction.
• Live auction: lots prepared for a live event, with an auctioneer and room or livestream bidding. Select Create live auction. This option only appears if your plan includes live auctions.
• Fixed price with offers: an item at a fixed price, optionally accepting offers. Select Create fixed-price listing.

Each button opens the listing form with the right sale type already chosen. See Listings and collections and Auctions, offers and deal rooms for the details. Like Launch Center, this page leaves the sidebar once you go live and stays available from Settings → Overview.

Settings Overview

Settings → Overview is a health check of your configuration. You can open it if you can manage either your business settings or your domains.

Under Configuration health you see your launch readiness percentage, whether your Business profile is complete, whether Payment setup is ready, how many Active domains you have, and whether Live commerce is enabled. Needs attention lists anything that is incomplete, such as an incomplete business profile or a custom domain still being set up. Primary actions and Detailed tables link straight to the relevant screens, including Launch Center and Create first auction after you have gone live.

Business Settings and "Find a setting"

Settings → Business Settings is the main control panel for how your marketplace runs. You need permission to manage business settings to open it. It has four tabs:

• General: branding summary, your domain summary, Business Profile and Localization.
• Commerce: Fees & Taxes, Sales Operating Model, Seller Agreements, Fixed Price, Payments & Checkout, Stripe & Payouts and Commission Exceptions, among others.
• Experience: Marketplace Visibility, Messaging & Q&A, Notification Defaults, AI Listing Copy and Live Commerce.
• Advanced: Provider Preferences, Platform Backend Routing and CORS Configuration.

Some sections only appear when the related feature is part of your plan or turned on. Auction and bidding rules are not here; they live on Settings → Auction Settings.

At the top of the page, Find a setting has a Search settings box. Type a topic such as "fees", "stripe", "domain", "notifications" or "CORS" and the page switches to the most relevant tab and shows only the sections that match. Clear the box to see everything again. Links from Launch Center and the Settings Overview use this search to take you straight to the right section.

Searching only changes what is shown on screen. When you save, every setting on the page is saved as it is, including sections the search has hidden, so filtering never discards a value.

When a screen says it is blocked

The console tells you why a screen is not available instead of silently hiding it. You may see one of three explanations, each with a badge, a What to do: line and a Who can clear this: line.

Not permitted

Heading: "You do not have access to" followed by the screen name. Your account is licensed for the feature, but your role does not include the permission it needs, so the records are hidden from you.

The message names up to three people on your account who can assign roles, so you know exactly who to ask. If nobody on your account can assign roles, the message says so and asks you to contact Hammerd support. See Team members and roles.

Not licensed

Heading: the screen name followed by "is not part of your plan". Nothing is broken; the feature is not switched on for your account. No change to anyone's role will open it. Ask your account owner to add it to your plan, or contact Hammerd support. See Platform billing and subscription.

Setup incomplete

Heading: the screen name followed by "is not set up yet". You are licensed and permitted, but something it depends on has not been configured. The What to do: line names the missing step, and a button (usually Finish setup) takes you to the screen where you fix it.

Why some blocked screens are missing from the sidebar

Screens that are Not permitted or Not licensed are left out of the sidebar, because you cannot fix either yourself. If you follow a bookmark or a link from a colleague to one of them, the screen still opens and shows the explanation above rather than an error. Screens with Setup incomplete stay in the sidebar, because the next step is yours to take.

Common questions

My password is right but I cannot sign in

The sign-in page shows "These credentials do not match our records." both for a wrong password and for an account that does not have admin console access. Check with a colleague who manages users that your account holds a staff role. Buyer and seller accounts cannot use the admin console.

I see "Unable to determine tenant for this login"

You are signing in on an address that is not linked to your account. Use your admin address as given to you by Hammerd, or your storefront address followed by /admin, which redirects you to the right place.

A colleague can see a screen that I cannot

Your role, not your account, decides what you see. See Team members and roles for what each role includes.

Launch Center and Create first auction have disappeared

They leave the sidebar once your marketplace is Live. Open them from Settings → Overview.