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!

[Chad]

Hello @Bar2, I'm sorry to hear this is causing issues for your bar. 

We're still tracking this request, but I don't have a timeline on when this feature might be available. Just know that we hear you on this feature request. 🙂

[scooterjoes]

Sorry Square, but you have been "tracking" this impotant and necessary feature request for years.  You have many many customers asking for this.

It's great you have implemented payroll, and gift cards, and appointments, meal delivery, and all the other new things you've provided the last several years, but this fundamental aspect of credit card processing remains on your "tracking list".

Do us all a favor ... PLEASE ... march over to your Development team, or @Jack Dorsey or whoever can answer the question: ask them, IS CREDIT CARD PRE-AUTHORIZATION ON THE SOFTWARE ROADMAP AND IF IT ISN'T, WHY IT ISN'T.  I have been in software development and e-commerce for a long time, and you could hire twp college sophomore sofware development interns to implment it.  It's neither hard or complex and would be a great project.  

And if it is on the roadmap, TELL US WHEN WE CAN EXPECT IT.

We do not want the same old response that all of us have received, that you're tracking it and you appreciate our feedback.

#CREDITPREAUTHORIZATION

I will have to leave Square (after being a loyal customer for many years) because this feature is so important, and know that others have done the same thing.

Thank you.

[birdhouseinn]

Please spare us the smiley face here - it should be a sweating, red, embarassed face.

I wrote about this years ago and still this is where we are at.  Please be aware that the largest processors who pay you the largest fees are sure to be the ones most likely to need this feature and most likely to switch to another processor so you never hear about it from them again.  If you are OK just playing in the minor leagues, that's your choice.  But for those of us who run charges for hundreds or even thousands of dollars on one card, we need to know that card is good beforehand - not after the service has been rendered and the customer is heading out the door.  What do we do then, tackle them?  Call the police?  No, we do our best to solve the problem right there, but ultimately we make an arrangement for them to pay as soon as they get things sorted out - and then when they never do, we are screwed.  There are vanishingly few of us who stick around and argue for this rather than just leave.  I'm probably a strange mix of stubborn, change-averse and maybe lazy to still be here arguing for this and not just leaving like 99% of the rest of the people who see this lack of an extremely basic feature to be a problem for them.

Please reconsider your decision to "track" this and "hear" us, and just do something - PLEASE!

[berobi]

I left a long time ago and really am loving Stripe.  I use Stripe, Authorize.net, and QuickBooks as processors. They all fill different roles / requirements.  Square seems like it's targeting small merchants that are doing small transactions.  I'd skip the frustration and go try Stripe as an alternative.  They are only doing 1 day delay on payouts too.  

[Bar2]

So I am wasting my time thinking they will add this feature and should be looking for a new provider asap. It seems people have been asking for this for years. I have only started using Credit cards at our Bar for past 9 months but this is going to be a big problem as sales on credit cards are soaring and this feature is a must going forward. 

[berobi]

You are absolutely wasting your time with this vendor.  Go to Stripe if you want easy and pre-authorizations.  They also pay out in 1 day instead of a more typical 3 days.  

[Bar2]

What are there fees? Do they have the small chip readers that work with cell phonea nd tablets?

[Picca-Cycles]

Pre-authorization is critical for any business that either rents items out, or places special orders for items, as we do. I have to say I really enjoyed the simplicity of using pre-auth with Clover. We are still in our trial period with Square. Do I need to go back, or does Square have a good workaround? We've already had to do a workaround on taking deposits for special order items (using gift cards, which is sort of weird to explain to customers). Or, how about instaed of a workaround, a real solution?

[Bar2]

I see clover is 2.70% as well. Can you do pre authorization with a small chip reader? This would be great and take care of our problem thanks for any help. 

[berobi]

https://www.google.com/search?q=stripe&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS773US773&oq=stripe&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l3j...