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!

[TaproomOwner]

Have there been any updates on this issue?  Being a brewery taproom, we keep lots of tabs and it is prohibitive to keep so many cards hehind the bar.  Having to flip through 40-50 cards on a busy night slows us down and it incredibly inefficient.  We've been told for over a year that a fix was coming.

[HCAdvRentals]

We run a power sports equipment rental business as well and desparately need this. People damage our equipment and then cancle the cards by the time our mechanic looks at it and gets them the estimate and we never hear form them again. If it's substantial enough damages we can go to small claims, but often enough it would cost more to do so, but those few hundreds of dollars add up very quickly. 

@RoswellEscapes What reservation software do you use? We are currently trying to find a square integrated solution for reserving our rental items. 

[puka]

Hey @TaproomOwner - Unfortunately, we don't have any updates to share on this. We will share your interest in this feature to our Point of Sale team in the meantime.

[NAEvents]

If I am renting equipment out to someone, I should be able to authorize "X" as a security deposit until equipment is returned in satisfactory condition.

Why doesn't Square offer this ?

[EJ_]

Hi @NAEvents

I've moved your post over to this existing thread that our Product Team is actively tracking. 

It's not available at the moment, but that can change in the future. Check out the Best Answer and a few of your fellow seller posts in this thread for some workarounds that might help. 

We'll do our best to advocate for this on your behalf, so keep an eye out for updates in the future. 

[Glameventrental]

EJ- are there any talks about adding that feature? I have an event rental business and love square and would love this option especially as inventory grows. 

[Helen]

@Glameventrental I'm afraid we don't have a timline to share for when pre-authorization might be available, I wish I had better news. 

This is a popular request and our Product teams is closely tracking interest it. Thanks for letting us know you'd like to use it for your rental business! 

[Nukebrewer]

Same issue here. Run a beer taproom and customers want to keep credit card to order food from food trucks. Holding cards while tab is open is a problem. Other POS are able to save number so I wouldn’t think it’s a legal issue vs policy choice. Any updates on this feature request?

[tstewart22]

We are using Square for Restaurant and I'm surprised this functionality isn't present.  It's standard in pretty much every other mobile payment app servicing bars and restaurants.  Any update on when we might see this very much needed capability added?  Thanks.

[katieand]

Hi @tstewart22 - I don't have any updates to share on this at the moment. Thanks for your patience. If you could share your specific use case and how you would envision seeing this in Restaurants, that'd be super helpful!