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!

[eastendbrewing]

It's not coming Kassi. It's a fundamental change to the way their system would need to work, so it would be an almost complete rewrite of the app. 

We switched to Arryved for our brewery in September. It's really been great - and a LOT faster to use! Good luck with the unentrenchment. 

[teahaus]

PLEASE Square! I can keep a ticket open but without being able to keep it open with a credit card, I can't control who walks out without paying. Most people don't do it to be jerks, they just assume that their tab will be closed out at the end of the night if they forget. COME ON! This request goes back to 2018. As a small cafe/bar/lounge, I need this feature.

[Amanda_Bierock]

Yeah, unfortunately I have given up on this ever coming. I also have heard it is impossible for them to do (well not impossible, but cost prohibitive from their perspective). I don't have the mental energy or time right now to move to a whole new POS, but definitely won't be staying with Square long term because of this. I don't know, maybe if they lost enough revenue because of businesses leaving for this reason they would eventually do the work necessary to implement it, but if my business has made the switch by then, I wouldn't come back...so I doubt even that would force them to put this feature in place. Oh well, live and learn.

[FarmAndBar]

Going to be looking into Arryved with the idea that we will be switching over in January while we are closed for the season.

[hqlock22]

I am a locksmith, and we often need this kind of pre-authorization functionality. We need to be able to "lock in" a minimum amount of funds in case a customer calls requesting service, and is gone by the time a technician arrives at their location.  

To add to the dilemma: we operate in a "college town," where kids locked out of their cars will call every locksmith that exists; the first one to arrive gets paid. On high-risk jobs like this, we want to "lock in" those funds via a telephone transaction.  Actually I suppose we could just require pre-payment as just described........

[APK4L]

I commented on this forever ago so I get notifications still. One point I have to contest: you guys have said that Square isn't doing this because the technology would have to be overhauled. That isn't true. When I first used Square, I found a workaround where if I started a tab, closed it out and then reopened it the POS would retain the card information. So that alone is proof that the system has the capability to begin with. I suspect it's more of an issue of liability, i.e. they don't want to deal with people constantly contesting charges related to pre authorization etc. 

[HDA]

@hqlock22why not just manually process a minimum payment when they call and letting them know you are doing that at the time?

[madgefest]

Is Pre-Authorization coming to SQUARE?? 
Clover looking better and better...

[Reneesbars]

I don’t know but I’m trying to find ways around it, with two business the idea of having. To switch everything over really sucks. But I’ve been stiffed on too many bills now, even when we hold cards sometimes they won’t go through, there isn’t a way to know this unless we preauth them, I’m thinking about pre charging and refunding 😞 

Square needs to add a pre auth ASAP!!

[payntake]

Getting a demo from Arryved set up as we speak because of Square's inability to get this going.