Can you purchase items, but charge the amount later depending on the actual price?

[HeathaWarbs]

Hi, we are considering using Square for our business; we rent vacation houses. We can provision the houses with groceries in advance, so when they arrive they have a stocked fridge. We ask clients to fill out their grocery order (currently on a PDF), but we do not list prices, because often times we have to go to multiple grocery stores to fulfill the entire request, and pricing also fluctuates.

I am wondering if we could use Square to set up an online shop where clients could add grocery items to their basket, and enter their credit card #, but they wouldn't be charged until the groceries have been shopped, and then we know the total amount.

I am new to Square, so if there is any thread to direct me to that covers this, I'd be grateful!

Thanks so much, 

Heather 

ps. @Dan1 I saw you might have some intel on this!

[PreOrder_Apps]

Hi. Great idea, business model and strategy (pre-stocking the fridge). When you do finally charge them, would you want to show the itemized correct amounts for each item? Or just the total?

Note: We're an official Square Partner Company and help businesses create affordable, custom, Square-powered solutions. We have a Mobile App service for Square Businesses that could do this. It's called Pre-Order (for Square). 

Ken 

[HeathaWarbs]

Thanks Ken, I appreciate your answer. Currently we are not even giving them a receipt! We are just charging their card. 

So, in a perfect world, we'd give them an itemized receipt. 

But, even just being able to charge them a total amount (non-itemized) would certainly suffice. 

The main thing is that we want to be able to take their orders, so the "shopper" can go shop it from the various cheese and grocery stores, we have their credit card number, and can "swipe it" once it's all been shopped. 

Right now, using the PDF to take the order is totally antiquated and creates a ton of work later for accounting etc...

Many thanks!

[Joe]

Thanks again for stepping in here to help. @PreOrder_Apps 👋 You are everywhere!