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 [email protected] so we can learn how it is working for you and your staff.  

Thank you!

[rkotowski]

My company is new to square and we are having a 3rd party company setup the API connection for our ecommerce website.  They were told that they could not capture a dollar amount that was different from the original authorized amount.  For example, a customer orders $60 worth of items, plus $15 of shipping.  After we process the order, that customer is eligible for $10 of discounts.  Our 3rd party company is sending an authorization for $75.  They are saying that they need to void that authorization and then re-issue and a new authorization for $65 and then capture the money after that.

Square told them they could not update the original authorization from $75 to $65...is that true?  What if we have $2,500 order (which is very possible) and we need to charge $2,200 at time of shipping.  The customer has a credit limit of $3,000.  We seemed to be getting the card denied in this scenario because the voiding of the original authorization is not going to be cleared righ away.

I am not an expert so I was looking for help.  My 3rd party company doesn't seem to think they can do anything else about it.

Thanks,

Ryan

[SDPSTL]

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: When will temp holds/deposits on CCs be available? A must have 4 those of us who rent out equipment.

Not sure why this option has not been added to Square. Any merchant who rents or loans out items needs to take a deposit with proof of funds available until the return of item.

Is this in the works?

Anyone know of another credit card processing platform that allows this?

[kellyj]

@rkotowski

Hi Ryan! Welcome to the Community, glad to have you here!

This is a complicated question, so I'm going to try to simplify it a bit.  Square does not do pre-authorizations on cards, which seems to be the issue here. For instance, if you were a bar and wanted to pre-auth a card for $50 in sales to hold their card, that is not something Square will do.

The API you are setting up will need to specially request/authorize the amount you are charging for the sale. You are always welcome to issue a refund of the amount overcharged on the transaction, but that would be the only way around this.

[Helen]

Thanks for your post @SDPSTL I'm sorry for the frustration. I wish I had better news but you're right, it's not possible to use Square Point of Sale to collect a security deposit. I don't have a timeline for when this might be available in future but it's a popular request so we'll certainly announce any updates. 

[OQuaiRichelieu]

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: How do we charge a depot in case the client damage the material?

We are renting motomarines and we need to charge a depot of 1,000$ in case they brake the motomarine. How do we charge the fee and give back the 1000$ after the return of the motomarine in good conditions?

[Allanco]

I have been waiting for this for 3 years...

[Helen]

Thanks for your post @OQuaiRichelieu! It's not currently possible to use Square to collect a security deposit.

We do not recommend that you use refunds as a workaround as they can take up to two weeks to be completed - and your client's card would be charged upfront. 

I'll share your request with the Payments team and we'll let you know if a feature to handle security deposits are available in future.

[EFFILITY]

hey square, just signed up, did 2 invoices.. but cant do security deposits so I'm gone..

looks like this has been requested for years and no movement.  too bad, I kinda like your product..

[Tom]

Hi @EFFILITY, thanks for taking the time to check in with our Seller Community. Really sorry for the frustration—we are keeping track of this request and we will announce any updates as soon as they become available. Please keep in touch!

[chevymonza]

This thread started 3 years ago, latest response from 3 weeks ago is the same from 3 years ago "this is popular request, we're working on it". This is not that hard, this more or less tells me you dont want to do it, and arent going to.