What to do if someone leaves without paying their check...

[scalame]

When someone comes to our bar and opens a tab, we hit the "Check Name and Notes" button and swipe their credit card to get a  good name for the tab. However, the Square for Restaurants system does not hold credit card numbers so the customer must provide a card again to close out their tab. 

So what recourse do we have if someone walks out on an open tab?  We cannot run Close of Day until all checks are closed but that check cannot be closed because there is no method of payment.

What should be done?

[Donnie-M · Accepted solution]

@scalame I would comp the check and put reason as dine/dash etc.  You can then have a record and close out the day.

Best practice for an open tab at a bar is to keep the credit card or keep an id and they get it back when they pay.  Square is still working on doing the pre-auth/hold thing, but for now I would do that.

It could be a case where the customer thought you already swiped their card and just left.  At least that is what I would say if the police came after me!

Hope this helps,

DonnieM

[scalame]

Thank you, Donnie. This makes sense and it's what I've been forced to do with recompense a couple of times. Skipped checks don't happen to us a lot but it is a pain that the customer has to dig out their card again when it's time to close. Maybe it would be easier for us just to hold the card until close time.  I actually don't believe Square is working on the hold issue. I don't think they have plans to address it.  If they do, they need to announce that intention and set a time frame.  Thanks again!

[Donnie-M]

@scalame I don't know a time frame, but we recently had an AMA.  This is as close to getting info that I know about:

Ask a Payments Product Manager