CC Pre-Authorization for bar tabs

[coffee4]

Where is this at in the beta process? Its one of my restaurant's priorities and is frequently brought up by both staff and customers.

[#2]

Hi @sadmonkeytx I can see why Pre-Auth would help out a lot in that situation!

Since you're using Square for Restaurants, you'll want to request access to the Square for Restaurants Next Gen Beta Community Group - The Beta folks overseeing that program will review your account and enable in a few batches every week.  That Beta Community is also a great place to share feedback or ask questions with fellow testers!

Pre-Auth with Square for Restaurants is still a closed Beta with a few limitations and requirements to participate, so you won't see the option to enable it until your account has been enrolled.

Once you're enrolled in the Beta test, you'll see the option for Pre-Authorization on the Dashboard under your Service Settings, and can create a new device profile where you'll be able to toggle on Pre-Authorization for that individual device.

Andy
Beta Specialist

[AndySQ · Accepted solution]

Andy from the Beta Team here!

Currently the only ongoing Beta Test that allows for access to Pre-Authorizations is for Square for Restaurants:

Square for Restaurants Next Generation - An ongoing closed beta for Square for Restaurants that includes Pre-Authorization and several other features.  This will go into Open Beta by the end of April, but if you're interested in using Pre-Authorization with Square for Restaurants, you can request to join here in the Beta Community:
https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Next-Generation-Square-for/cmp-p/grouphub%3ABarTabs

Earlier this year, we were also testing Pre-Authorizations on Square Point of Sale, but that Beta and access to the feature have been discontinued at this time.

Updated 7/1/2024 to reflect changes in Beta feature availability.

[JW4624]

Thanks, but I don't want an unproved and tested aspect of your software handling my customers credit cards. I'll continue to look elsewhere but use Square until we find something better.

[mythmaker]

Hi Andy,

So it is available on my account to use? Is there anything in particular I need to do to have loyalty work with this? Thanks.

[AndySQ]

@mythmaker Yep, I've got it enabled manually on your account while it's still available!  Until earlier this summer, the updated order management flow that Pre-Auth used couldn't interact with loyalty points and customer profiles, but we've updated it so that they can function together now.

You'll utilize loyalty the same way you do now without Pre-Authorization.  When you link a customer profile to the sale/order ticket, you can review their eligible rewards/points and apply them to the sale.  And if they're not quite at a reward yet or are new to Square Loyalty, they can accrue points based on their purchase.

Andy

[ZoeyEllen]

Hey Andy,

My Square POS account also had access to the pre-authorization while it was in Beta, but we barely used it while Loyalty wasn't an option because Loyalty is such a big deal for our customers. Is there any world where this preauthorization feature could be added back while coinciding with Loyalty? We are a quick service bar and holding physical credit cards is SUCH A PAIN! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Zoey

[AndySQ]

Hi @ZoeyEllen The Pre-Auth for Square Point of Sale Beta has been discontinued, and this functionality is only available on Square for Restaurants for accounts that haven't previously tested on Point of Sale.

I'll follow up via DM to see if we have other options to help here 🙂

[AndySQ · Accepted solution]

@JW4624 I hear where you're coming from, and don't blame you for being frustrated.  These options have been a long-time request and a real need for many businesses.  While I'm not the one ultimately making the call on this, I AM sharing every comment and response to this decision with the product team that has.

At this time, we are not planning on releasing bar tabs with pre-authorization on Square POS. We’re exploring other ways for you to access this feature in the future and we’ll post an announcement in the Seller Community as soon as we have updates we can share.

For businesses already participating in the Beta (including your account), we have kept the feature active, but are not currently enrolling any new accounts in the Beta program or rolling out additional features.

For accounts that need to access Pre-Authorization going forward, the best recommendation I can make right now is to request to join the Square for Restaurants Next Gen Beta, where it is accessible on the Square for Restaurants application.  I know a lot of folks really prefer Square Point of Sale, but it may be worth giving Restaurants a try if Pre-Authorization is something truly critical to your operations.

I'm sorry, again, that this hasn't rolled out the way so many of you hoped that it would - and the Beta team is still here to listen and pass along your comments to the team overseeing Pre-Auth development at Square.

Andy

[limberlost]

I know you guys are trying things but you are letting us all down by not having a "pre-auth" or "hold a card tab" in 2024. Every other system has it and to take it away and not have a clear stream of communication is something I would expect from a second tier processor. Square has been good to most of us, but this is absolutely unprofessional and a slap in the face for all of your long-term users.

We signed up for Beta before it was announced they were closing it down and it's another bad look to your customers. If you are really trying to enhance the customer service experience and you want us to come back and by more stuff, maybe it'd be good to listen to your service industry customers on this.

Why would we or anyone want to upgrade to Square for Restaraunts when you're just going to pull the rug out from under us again? Dumb.