Beating a Dead Horse but it needs to be: Preauthorization

[FarmAndBar]

We need to be able to preauthorize credit cards when running a tab. Period.  We really enjoyed the low buy in and easy menu development and a couple of the other features, but a bar/restaurant needs to be able to run a tab and preauthorize a credit card.  I've gone back and looked at conversations about it and it appears that this has been a CONSTANT request by users that has gone ignored.

I'd like to know why it isn't available.

[#2]

Pre-Authorization for Bar Tabs Update ⭐
Hi everyone - I'm Hadley, from the F&B product team. First of all, thank you SO MUCH for continuing to share all the feedback here over the years, we know how important the Bar Tabs feature is. For anyone who is not aware, this feature is currently in beta in the US for Square for Restaurants POS. 

➡️ You can join the beta community here and our beta team will enable feature to your account. You can find the support article for getting set up on RST POS here. 

As a reminder, when a feature is in beta, there is still some engineering work happening to iron out the smaller bugs and optimizing the experience for our sellers and their customers. If you choose to participate in the beta testing, please share any feedback (good or bad 😄) to our beta team at betafeedback@squareup.com so we can learn how it is working for you and your staff.  

Thank you!

[sanemaat]

So apparently this is a "popular request" but hasn't been added in the 4 years that this original question was asked.

[RB_Brad]

If Square wanted to make a difference for small businesses, Pre-Auth would be a game-changer. Pre-Auth improves the life of the sever and customer both. A true win-win!
Please make this happen ASAP.

[Ora]

Hi Square, I need this too. Where is this request on your priority list?

Cheers

[Joe]

Hi there, @Ora - thanks for reaching out here on the Seller Community and voicing your support on this thread.

We don't offer specific information regarding timelines on Feature Request, but as soon as we have an update to share, we will hit everyone back here on this thread.

Thanks for your patience!

[Ora]

Thanks Joe, however I can see it has been a number of years since this was first requested. Without an idea of timeline I'll need to look at an alternate payment system.

[TheHumanJib]

Hi Ora. Yeah, I’ve been in the same boat for a while. It’s sad and frustrating that Square won’t even acknowledge that this would be a useful feature, and that many other services offer it as a feature. Stripe, for instance, added that feature in 2013. One reason I have left Square and switched to Stripe. Plus Stripe can integrate directly with my website.

[AndrewF5]

Yup. I'm about to open a bar and have budgeted, accounted for, and sold to my partners the idea of going all in on square with POS, payroll, etc. I am now absolutely not going to, as this is a 100% deal breaker. Unfortunate.

[Joe]

Thanks for chiming in here, @AndrewF5 - we know that this feature would be a game changer for a lot of our Sellers, and we are actively looking to bring this info the fold.

Hopefully we will have a positive update to share soon and we can then start to collaborate with your business using our products. Until then, we appreciate your patience! Thanks, again.

[AndrewF5]

Does this imply that it is actually something in progress at this venture? I’d this was something that may exist in the next 6 months I would be willing to commit to square but you could surely imagine the challenges with seeing no updates on this for several years and having any concept of timeline sure would ease a lot of people’s concerns. 

[Joe]

Hi again, @AndrewF5 - I don't have an accurate timeline to share, and I will have to refrain from sharing specific details, but I can confirm that this is something that we are actively reviewing and working toward. 

Should any details come down the pipeline, everyone here on this thread will be the first to know.