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!

[blueduckstl]

I'll just add to the list of customers that need this feature added.  As we're having to shift our business model around this is a must have for us - we're actually evaluating other POS options now purely based on this issue.  We're looking at needing this in a month as we look to reopen our dining room. 

[isabelle]

Hey @1chuck2chuck-

Thanks for posting in the Seller Community!

While we do have an open tickets feature that will allow you to create a sort of "tab" for your customers, if you use a customer’s credit card to create a new open ticket, the card will not be charged at that time and their payment information will not be stored within the app. Right now Square does not offer the ability to keep card information stored on an open ticket. This is a feature we may make available in the future, however we do not have a timeline to share at the moment. Thanks for resurfacing this feature request. 

One of our Super Sellers, @ryanwanner provided a workaround suggestion in this thread that may be useful. 

[Ocfc]

Yea I need to do the same with my boat rental business and the percentage upfront just doesn’t work so we end up charging the amount and then refunding it when they complete the rental. 

[WirlNet]

What I have done as a work around is to create an "item" on my web store that is the deposit.

I don't use the POS aspect of square - only the web store.  It is kind of painful but usually I can force it to do things that are needed.

All of our sales are on line so the POS isn't of any value to us - just a side feature.

[rmpc]

We would also like to charge a deposit for rental equipment.  It can't be that hard to implement.  Please add this.

Thanks,

[LuchadorMac]

Yes, I was sucked in by my rep, Neal (Business Development Representative -nelb@squareup.com) about this feature of pre-authorization of credit cards or holding cards on tabs being implemented by the Feb/March of 2020 and still hasn't happened. This is something that we are losing $30-$100 a day of double tabs being opened and then not having the card on file so we can charge them if they walk out on there tab. Of course now my rep pawned me off and now he's in a different department. **bleep** sales men, tell me one thing just to get the sale.

So after my rant, what is the timeline for for having pre-authorization of credit cards or holding cards on tabs? This is such a common feature in any POS system, so thats why I am confused why this hasn't been implemented yet. Thanks!

[AshleyK]

@rmpc thanks for sharing. I will continue to bubble the feedback up to our development team for you guys. A feature like this can be hard to implement from a transaction history standpoint, but it is a request we are aware of and actively tracking. Thank you!

[CarlooHeartsBee]

With COVID-19, this is now not just a nice to have. Holding everyone’s cards behind the bar is now not just an inconvenience, it is now a sanitation risk. 

What is the status? 

I was told in Jan 2019 that this feature would be ready in Q4 2020. 

New features keep getting rolled out. All of your direct competitors have it.

How does a 32 billion dollar tech company not have the resources to answer their customer needs. This is 3+ years now from the first post?

[CarlooHeartsBee]

With COVID-19, this is now not just a nice to have. Holding everyone’s cards behind the bar is now not just an inconvenience, it is now a sanitation risk. 

What is the status on this feature?

I was told in Jan 2019 that this feature would be ready in Q4 2020 - while deciding to go to Clover or invest in more Square stands for a second location. I unfortunately stayed.

New features keep getting rolled out. Teams?! That was just a fun way to charge us more for what features other POS systems give for free. I shouldn’t have to pay $35 extra a month to hide sales data from staff. 

I digress...  Pre-Auth!! All of your direct competitors have it.

How does a 32 billion dollar tech company not have the resources to answer their customer needs. This is 3+ years now from the first post?

[Joe]

Hi @CarlooHeartsBee - thanks for adding your voice here in support of pre-authorization. We would need to refrain from sharing a specififc timeline for launch, and I can provide a bit more context as to why.

We field thousands of feature requests each week here on the Seller Community, and bringing these features to fruition often takes an ample amount of time and effort from our engineers. We want to ensure that our releases are not just surface level products, but the best all-around resources to help you grow your business.

These requests also span an array of different aspects of our products; some are more major, while some are periphery features. Our Product Teams do have a road-map for future additions to our offering, but the nature of our work includes trial, error, and set-backs. So sharing a timeline would be far from accurate and more than likely cause more confusion and angst. 

We understand that it might be difficult waiting for something to be built out, but our engineers are working on various different requests brought up by our sellers, and working with Apple, Google, and our other partners in order to approve these changes and be able to push them out in future updates.

We appreciate your continued patience!