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!

[Rp3]

I need this feature as well. We can save cards on file so I figure we would be able to have open tabs. Can this become a thing soon, square? It is especially needed with new social distancing requirements. With this feature we could deliver a much safer/better customer experience.

[APK4L]

Just to pile on a bit here: I just installed square in a new restaurant and I loved it so much that I want to convert my (much larger) bar over. That was, until I found out that pre-auth isn't available. In a busy bar setting you simply can't run tabs without having a card on file and as was stated in the previous post keeping cards in a roladex is now a health concern and not just an inconvenience. I will have to stick with my outdated POS (that allows pre-authorization) for now. I doubt it makes a difference in the grand scheme of things to a company like square but they are missing out on processing a nice large chunk of money in my case. I truly hope that their promises of pre-auth arriving this year can come true.

As an aside: I think they already have the technology. If you close a tab and then re-open it you have the option to use the same payment method.. so it is "saved" somewhere in the POS. If you don't immediately close the tab, the POS deletes the cars information. This tells me that this may be more of a compliance or security issue to them. If not, I couldn't see it taking programmers more than a day or two to add a button to swipe card and attach it to a tab. Oh well, here's hoping they come through.

[RemoteEscapeVac]

Is there a way to take a temporary deposit, most or all of which will be quickly refunded? If I go through the normal charge process, then later refund, it takes about 10 days to reappear on the client's credit card. This is unacceptable. When I buy gas, for example, and I have to give a maximum amount to be approved for, the refund appears as soon as the actual amount is known. Can something like this be done for damage deposits through square, or must it go through the whole delayed process described above?

[JW4624]

As we all navigate the new world we are in with COVID, has Square resolved the issue of not being able to swipe a credit card to store customer charging information when we start a tab? We do not want to store customer credit cards in a box with other customer's cards and do not have time to enter customer information into the system every time. We are in a tourist area and many will not be returning customers. Please advise. 

[Joe]

Hi there, @RemoteEscapeVac 👋 Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Seller Community! Welcome!

As of now, the ability to be able to pre-authorize a card transaction is considered a Feature Request. Take a look at this Best Answer from Sean - it will provide some clarity here. In lieu of this feature, you will need to refund the customer directly as you s

For record keeping purposes, I've gone ahead and moved your post to this same thread. This way, we can update everyone when new changes come into production. Thanks for your patience!

[Joe]

Hi there, @JW4624 - thanks for reaching out to us here on the Seller Community! Good to hear from you again.

Pre-authorization for card purchases is still considered a Feature Request from a production stand-point. I've gone ahead and merged your post into an existing thread of Sellers also asking for this feature - this way we can easily update everyone as new updates come to light.

Until then, we appreciate you hanging tough. Thanks, again!

[APK4L]

Why delete posts? Someone made a reply in here going into great detail on their correspondence with Square over the past 2 years on this subject. It was pretty enlightening even if it was overtly negative. I can say that if square doesn't have this settled by the end of this year I will most certainly be moving on as it doesn't make sense to have my establishments on different platforms.

[LTDBrewing]

Square, why are we not getting anywhere on this?  It's been 4 years since this thread was opened.  It's super important to so many businesses, most of which are your high volume clients.  If you want to cater to small businesses selling crafts on the weekends, sure this is great.  If you're in any sort of a fast paced environment that requires tabs, this is completely unacceptable.  If there are legal roadblocks or the credit card companies won't let you that is a valid excuse- so tell us that.  Having it sit out here as requested for four years really is not alright.  As we get deeper into COVID requirements it continues to get harder to make exceptions and use workarounds that there are no reason for.    

[Rp3]

We really need this feature badly. Covid-19 has made this a must have. Having this feature would allow us to provide excellent service while maintaining a safe social distance and not having it makes it really hard to adapt to new situations. Could we get an explanation for why Square is lagging behind on this? I really like square but this hurts my business in the end.

[AshleyK]

@LTDBrewing thank you for taking the time to give us feedback over this experience. I know that four years is a long time and I'm sorry for the frustration caused by waiting for this feature. Unfortunately I do not have a timeline for when this will be released, but I will make sure to have the community updated when it happens.