Laundry Services - is it possible to collect payment information without charging?

[mkunes]

How do I set up square payment where they fill out their information, credit card number but won't know the exact amount until we've completed their laundry and dropped off? Also how do I add a tip to the payment section as well? 

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[ryanwanner]

Hello @mkunes !

Good questions! Let me answer the second one first because it's the easiest to answer.

To enable tipping, on your point of sale app, go to More -> Settings -> Checkout -> Tipping and enable and configure the tip screens as you prefer.

Now, for the payment information part of your question. Square doesn't have a way to have open tabs where you swipe the card up front to save the card info then cash out at the end of the transaction for in person ordering at the moment. There is a way to do this with QR Code self-serve ordering, but that's mostly geared towards restaurants right now.

The quickest and easiest way to do this is to enable Open Tickets on your point of sale app. (More -> Settings -> Open Tickets). You create the ticket (Tickets->New Ticket, give it the customer's name) and add things to it as you complete the order. When it's time to pay out, you bring up the ticket and the customer pays.

Downfall to this is you don't save the CC information, so if you're wanting it as insurance for payment this won't work.

The next way to do this is to use Square's Card on File system. This is where you fill out the customer information on your Point of Sale (Name, email, phone, and card info), then add that customer to your ticket. You can then save that ticket, and when you're ready to cash them out, look for the Card on File option on the tender screen.

A few warnings about doing this:

-For new customers there will be some extra time to get them entered into the system.

-It is recommended that each customer fills out a Card Authorization Form (available on the dashboard at Customers -> Settings -> Card on File) so that you're in a better position regarding chargebacks.

-There is a higher transaction fee for using saved cards.

You may also look into Invoicing for your services. I'm not entirely sure how your business operates so I don't know if this will work for you or not.

Hope this helps you!