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!

[Joe]

Thanks for adding your voice here in support of this feature, @JFV! We will continue to update this thread here as we have more shareable updates. We will let you know. Cheers!

[Joe]

Hi there, @adriennel 👋 Thanks for reaching out! Good to hear from you.

I've gone ahead and merged your post into an existing thread of Sellers who were also looking for information regarding authorization of card payments for rentals, etc. Take a look at this Best Answer for more details.

Let us now if you have any remaining questions. 

[cparent]

This is really something that I would also need for cottage rental security deposits. Thanks

[Joe]

Thanks for adding your voice in supoport here, @cparent - we will continue to update this thread as we have updates to share. Thanks, again! 

[ndb_bakery]

@adriennel it is not possible with Square.

Check out JotForm you can do this with their features and best of all.... it is FREE!

Or if you need a POS then PayAnywhere offers this feature too.

[sparkysan]

"Best answer" from 2016 is still no answer.  Bars and restaurants, if you're trying to run a tab having some reasonable belief that when it's time to close it out, the card will be good and will have funds to pay, call your banker and ask them what POS they recommend.  Your banker should have your financial well-being in mind.  Square won't.

[GreySoul]

I'd like to throw my hat in the ring on this as well.

I sell items by weight. My items are low margin, high value, and about 15-20% variability in weight per item. I can only sell by the whole item. I can't afford to round weights up or down, I can't take the 15-20% hit, nor can I afford to give customers that much free material.

The ONLY viable system I can see is the ability to pre-authorize their payment and then charge the weighed total against that pre-auth.

My current workaround involves selling them a $20 "nothing" item then manually refunding them a portion. It takes time, it costs me money, and it ties up their funds for no good reason.

[Jeri]

We use square register at two of our open air brewpubs which are quick serve, but hold tabs. We currently hold onto a CC till the customer is ready to close out. 

[ashc]

Hey @Jeri,

I moved your post to an existing thread for this feature request.

It's currently one we're still tracking and hopefully something we'll be able to offer in future developments!

[Amanda_Bierock]

I can't believe it is now almost October 2020 and still nothing. It is bad enough this has been an ask for over 4 years, but it is now over 6 months into a pandemic that makes physically holding customer credit cards a major health issue...I would have thought this would make development of what seems to be a simple feature a major priority. Can someone put me out of my misery and just tell me flat out this is never going to be possible?