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!

[kellyj]

@GreySoul 

Thanks for the tag, and I know I speak for the other moderators as well when we say that this thread is not lipservice, but that does not mean that this has fell off the plate. 

I personally conduct beta roundtables bi-weekly where this has came up almost every week as a request. What it does mean though is that Square can prioritize this request as quickly as we'd like. Four years and tons of requests for this is valid, and I can say this gets constant recognition from our teams as a roadmapped feature to solve for, but as always what seems like an easy accommodation on the seller side, does not always means it is with our platform, card agreements, and all the other things that go into launching a feature like pre-authorization.

Square is working hard to give businesses as many advantages as we are able to launch, as quickly as possible during COVID. This has meant the re-prioritization of countless Square Online features, orders applet, and many others to help businesses in this time. 

Sales by weight is super important and something we'll continue to work on and prioritize. I do know there is a lot of talk about how to continue to meet business needs with things like pre-auth for the up-coming roadmaps, but nothing that is set in stone nor a planned timeline at this point. I will absolutely pass this feedback in tandem with our Beta Community feedback around this, and invite you to join us for this and other product feedback session in our Roundtables. 

We only recently were able to launch support of other scales into Point of Sale, and even sale by weight is a newer feature. We'll continue to pass the integration of sales by weight to the Square Online team as well, we know this is a struggle, and I hope we can find some other sellers that have found a solution to this issue for you right now. I'll see if I can find other threads that might provide some ideas to how other businesses are making this work since our functionality doesn't support it at the moment.

I'll let you know if we have any progress shortly.

[ndb_bakery]

JotForm offers pre-auth. I am using it for cake stand rentals for the security deposit. There is an ability to charge or otherwise the pre-auth drops off several days later. There's an entire community discussion about it on the JotForm website. 

[ashc]

Hi @longtab,

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

If it ever becomes available we'll be sure to update the thread. Otherwise Puka's Best Answer still stands as we don't have a timeframe to offer. 

[ashc]

Hi @AFH and welcome to the Community.

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

If any updates become available- we'll be sure to update the thread.

[TheEpicWPB]

There’s customer service, and then there’s lip service.

If Square has no intention of doing this, which, after three years of people asking, it seems pretty clear is the case, SAY SO. Your hardware will be in the bin, and we will go about finding a company that can actually listen to our needs. 

Considering that it only took what, a year to update the boxed terminal products that ran on iPads, because Apple stopped making that size, I guess that I’m not hugely surprised that Square executives don’t get ahead of requests, or problems. 

So, rather than just curate our frustration, how about asking one of those nice decision makers to  tune in, read, and then respond, rather than leave this very valid feature request festering, FOR YEARS.

[Rp3]

Still holding out hope this will become possible this winter. Any update, square?

[AlexK]

We're looking for a security deposit feature as well. Please let us know once this is possible.

[AlexK]

Any updates on this? We are in dire need of an automated system to process refundable security deposits on rental income.

[mandylee123]

This is a constant problem and we regret going with Square, because of the lack of features such as not holding the card info with the open tab. This is a major fail on Square's end. I too would like a timeline when this will be added. 

[Captainship]

Don't hold your breath for a timeline, I've been asking for this for SIX YEARS and still no response.