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!

[danielroe]

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Return of security deposit. How do I return a security deposit?

In my business, I charge a security deposit to thye customer's c/c and when they return the equipment, refund the entire deposit or less depending if there is damage to the equipment. How do I return the security deposit using Square functionality?

[dakotaharvest]

Just do a partial refund on the order if the transaction has taken place in the last 60 days. Here is the support article explaining it: 

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5060-process-refunds

One thing to understand is that if the transaction is older than 60 days, you can't refund to a credit card. After than you'd have to process a cash refund. Just be careful with the register bookkeeping or it could start messing with your reporting making deposit look like sales income.

[kennedy0113]

I want to make it so that a customer reserves an appointment time with a deposit in the amount of a 2 hour minimum plus the trip charge. This way if they just stand me up I haven;t fueled all my trucks and gathered employees for nothing  I don't want to actually withdraw anything until contract is voided or job is done. Can I place a hold on their card up until date of move?

[Lashley]

I incorrectly charged a client $1.00 instead of $100. Can I charge her the other $99 without her having to come in or call in the credit card number again? Is the credit card number stored somehow in the app in a way that I can charge to it again?

[Caty]

By default the app does not store card information, so you'll need to either call your customer for her card information, or ask her to swing by in order to process the rest of her payment. We do offer the ability to save a card on file to use with our Invoices product (details here), but the catch is that the customer needs to opt in to save their card. By law, we can't save card information without the buyer's consent. 😕  Apologies for the trouble!

[VanKalkerFarms]

you can see why they can't store the credit card info.  I don't want someone having my card info and having the ability to just charge it at their lesiure.

[DeniseAck]

Square developers--PLEASE implement this feature!  There are obviously many businesses who need a pre-authorization, but don't want to charge the card unless necessary.  As a vacation rental owner, I need to run cards for a damage deposit.  Charging and refunding isn't a great answer.  

[Sean]

@DeniseAck - Thanks for taking the time to share. I'll be sure to pass along your feedback to our product liaison team! 

[drransen]

We too would benefit greatly from the ability to put a hold on cards to ensure that we are compensated by no-shows in our psychotherapy practice.

[Gemaspen]

Add my name/business to this request list. A credit card authorization feature would be very helpful.

We we are in the business of renting high end real estate in Hawaii.