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]

So sorry for the confusion here, @Amanda_Bierock @FarmAndBar and others!

Pre-Authorization recently became available to all users of Square for Restaurants (Free, Premium, and Plus), and you should be able to turn in on by following the instructions in this support article, via the Dashboard and device settings.

Enable and Configure Pre-Authorization Bar Tabs

If you are using Square for Restaurants and aren't able to enable Pre-Auth by following these steps, please reach out to our support team for assistance.

For businesses that use Square Point of Sale, there is not currently a way to access Pre-Authorization.  While we did run a Beta test last year for Pre-Authorization on Point of Sale, it has been discontinued and Square for Restaurants is the only application that currently supports this functionality.

The team developing Pre-Authorization decided last summer to focus their efforts on Pre-Auth within Square for Restaurants and discontinued the Beta and development of Pre-Auth for Point of Sale.

Some testers who participated in the Point of Sale Beta we ran last year may still have access via their open tickets settings on individual devices (like @ryanwanner) but accounts that were not enrolled in that Beta feature last summer can no longer be added.

@nika I hope this context is helpful when these questions come up - it can be confusing because at times we had a POS Beta on the way.  It's understandable when it's been a request for so long 🙂

Andy
Beta Specialist

[#3]

Hello all! We are so excited to let the community know that this feature is now available for Square for Restaurants! For more information on enabling and configuring preauthorization for bar tabs, check out this help article. Respond here if you have any questions, and thanks for your patience while our team built this out. We appreciate you!

️ Kristen
Square Community Manager
Product Engagement

[#4]

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!

[Joel72]

Refund a customer a deposit will become a nightmare in our business, we have a rental business as well with a high turn over. Pre-authorization would be key to customers not returning items.  Please please implement this feature. How do bars use Square with open tabs, or they don't?

[AZCorpGames]

Regarding the open tab with bars and Square, Square has an open ticket function.  I can not recall where it is at the moment but it is in the settings.  When you use the open ticket feature, there is no preauthorization.  It allows you to start a running tally of purchases.  When you close tghe ticket you then chard the card the full amount.   I used this for a construction site for guranateed food sales where I would be paid at the end of the each week.  The workers would come and order their food, I would add it to the open ticket each day.  On pay day they would pay by card or cash and the ticket would be closed.  Do it all over again the next week. 

[1stclassaventur]

Joel. I opened a Quickbooks merchant account as they do allow "authorizing funds". Unfortunately, their mobile app does not, so I have my customers call in the day before their rental and I take that info through the QB online portal. They can do it the same day as well, but it extends their check out time. I've found this is very well received over the charge and refund we're forced to do with Square. Our buddy below is onto something though. I just launched my mobile app and enabled "Open Tickets". I'll experiment with this and see how it goes.

[1stclassaventur]

AZCorps, thanks for this tip. I appreciate the effort to reply and help!

[Beauty]

I also have needed to take security deposits and it’s extremely frustrating we do not (still) have that ability.  I also think being charged to refund is terrible - I accidentally over charged a customer (miscommunication over a tip amount) and I got charged to refund her a portion of the tip back!  It makes it very hard for some of us to do business when simple things like deposit acceptance have been requested for over a year and are still not available (and you are still not giving us a timeline....) Please look into this and let us know if this IS a feature that is coming or not?  Thank you! 

[Creative1]

Have Vacation rental cottage to rent out what do I need? Take credit cards, security deposits and refund, sales discounts apply tax also add to my webpage HELP

[Helen]

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Renting my cottage (vacation) need what?? Also have web page need to add tax make security deposits

Hello and welcome to Square @Creative1! 

It's currently not possible to collect security deposits with Square. I moved your post into this thread so you could read Sean's workaround with Square Appointments to collect percentage pre-payment for online bookings.

It sounds like you have a lot of other questions about Square and the following these articles should help you get started! 

• How to process refunds
• Create and manage discounts
• Manage sales tax settings
• Set up an Online Store

[Vongai]

Hi all. Does square offer the functionality of verifying the validity of credit card information provided by a customer for a future transaction. Am i also able place a hold on a visa and charge a payment at a later date?

[EJ_]

Hi @Vongai

Welcome to the Seller Community 🙌🏼

I've moved your post over to this existing thread, as our Payments Team has been tracking interest for this feature request for a long while. Hopefully with more seller interest, we can reprioritize this in the near future and get something out to help everyone that is looking for this solution. 

Check out the Best Answer in this thread and feel free to chime back in with any questions or feedback you might have 👍🏼

[alberio]

we also despirately need this feature. We would completely convert our business to square if you provide this feature. also giving us some idea of a roll out time frame wouls help our planning greatly