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!

[Helen]

@sixcarcolin There isn't a way to pre-authorize a card using Square for Restaurants, I'm sorry. I understand how this is an important feature for restaurants and I'll share your feedback with the team. 

[streamlinedrone]

Also I need this for my business. Or to be able to apply a discount when creating the final invoice and not have the taxes reduced below what they should be.

[Chad]

Hey @strealinedrone! 

Have you had a chance to check out the thread Test Partial Payments in the Invoices Request Deposit Beta? 

[streamlinedrone]

Thanks so much! I checked it out!

[LittleWagon]

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Recharge a customer for lost or damaged items

I have a rental equipment company and am wondering how I can charge a card a customer used online or that charged on my app for lost or damaged items?  I have no way of seeing the full card number to do a manual charge and do not see an option to do an additional charge on their credit card.  How do I do this? Thanks!

[Helen]

@LittleWagon There isn't a way to charge a customer again for lost or damaged items I'm afraid. I've merged your post into this thread where other we're tracking this request. If there are any updates you'll automatically be notified now that your post is in this thread! 

[Cherylone2one]

I don’t want to enter $1.00 to see if it’s valid?

[EJ_]

Hi @Cherylone2one

I've moved your post over to this existing thread that touches on this feature request. It's not something that's available, and there hasn't been any movement on this recently. 

Check out the Best Answer in this thread and hopefully we can get an update for everyone soon. 

[AVara]

Pre-authorizing sales when opening a ticket with a card is definitely most convenient for bars and restaurants. When businesses lack the pre-authorization option, it's common to retain credit/debit cards for the duration of the open ticket. You would only return the card to the customer when they choose to close the tab. That way you don't have to ask the customer for the card a 2nd time, and you're able to finalize the sale yourself should a customer forget to close the tab before leaving. An index/business card box/organizer is handy to keep customer cards quickly accessible.

[KoraKora]

Yes, that is how I have to run my business. But people don't want to leave their credit card either. Sometimes, they'll gorget that as well which can be a nightmare of trying to find it everywhere and cancelling cards. But these are things I have to do because, like you said, running tabs on my system is not available. But that's my point, why isn't it?