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!

[DP22]

Anyone found a processor without monthly subscription fee (flat per transaction rate only) that works with invoicing? (and obviously does holds/preauth)

[Dkosoris]

Not that there aren't enough comments already asking for the feature to do pre-authorization with open tabs, but this is why we left square for another POS.  Don't really love the other one but it does do the pre-authorization.  After being gone from square for a few years, I thought I'd check back to see if maybe this had been FINALLY added.  I see it is not even marked on the roadmap.  This is an essential feature for most bars (or tasting rooms in our case).  How can you keep ignoring this cry?

[Reneesbars]

It IS FOR SURE COMING!! 🙂 they’re running beta testing on it now, so hang in there, I almost switched, glad I didn’t because I really do like the company but this definitely has been and issue that’s cost me hundreds of $$. Hopefully testing goes well and it rolls out soon 🙂

[Amanda_Bierock]

I did get signed up for the beta of Square Restaurants to get the new pre-auth feature (currently not using Square Restaurants but was willing to make the switch) but haven't implemented as we have a Square Register and the beta version can't run on Square Register and tickets opened on the beta version won't sync with the non-beta version. And since we have multiple devices not having tickets sync meant we decided to hold off. Hoping this comes out of beta soon!

[DP22]

Update:

If you are a Costco Executive member ($120 per year?, gives you 2% cashback on Costco purchases and they will refund the difference to regular $60 per year membership if you don't earn enough, which comes down to spending $3,000+ per year), their credit card processing partner, Elavon has the service called Converge. $149 application fee and $20 per month (both are discounted prices for Costco Executive members) gives you access to 1.90%+$0.25 processing fees (Amex is 1.99%) and you can do preauthorization holds using both their POS terminals and online invoicing. No contracts.

With the economy going to s**t, I am not going to sign up for that service right away and will do my due diligence first and make sure I can save enough in transaction fees to justify the monthly fee, but mind you, I am in lodging business and credit card transactions happen only now and then. 

For those that have storefronts and have decent daily volume of sales, above solution should be checked right away. Let me know if you need a contact info with the sales rep that sent me that info. When I originally called them, that rep was clueless but after a week or so, another rep reached out to me by email and then by phone call.

[bkhf38]

It looks like the most recent comment on this topic was in April 2023.  Four months later, now in August, does anyone know of any progress?  I'm absolutely baffled by this.

[HRBrewing]

There is a beta test going on right now but it is slow and go. Having been part of it, I can't see the pre-auth features being completed this year. I had to step away from beta test because the errors and issues to overcome were to disruptive to my business. 

[LukeNieuw]

@Reneesbars Are you in the Beta? Is there an ETA?

[Hadley]

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!