How to set up a preorder for a specific date cutoff and specific date/time pickup for Thanksgiving?

[PongosEatery]

Hey all - I own a bbq stand and with Thanksgiving coming up - I want to offer a way to preorder through our website for items such as turkey's, briskets, etc. 

Has anyone had luck with a ordering method that allows customers to preorder and pay a deposit up to x amount of days before an event?

I want preorders to cut off 4 days before thanksgiving, and I want pickup hours to be between 10-2PM on thanksgiving itself. I'd also like a way to take a deposit and have the customer select a pickup or delivery window (I will not be handling delivery just the 3rd party square driver option.

I've been messing around on the square portal but it seems some options are limited - I wanted to see if anyone here had any luck.

[Stacelyn24]

Hey there! 👋
That sounds like such a great idea — and perfect timing with the holidays coming up! 🦃

Square Online has some preorder and scheduled pickup options, but it doesn’t fully cover deposits or cutoff windows the way you’re describing (at least not yet). A possible workaround is to use a third-party form tool like Jotform or Cognito Forms, where you can:

• Let customers choose a pickup window,

• Collect a deposit upfront through Square, and

• Set an automatic cutoff date for submissions.

You can embed that form right on your Square site so it feels seamless.

It’s not the most “built-in” solution, but it can get the job done for holiday preorders without too much tech headache.

[PongosEatery]

Hi thanks for this response!

First of all I appreciate you taking the time to type this up. Secondly I would like to clarify a bit on that our main website in on square up not square online (the square standard site). I thought they were the same thing and now I'm thinking what I "want" to do is just do a preorder and pickup but I can delete it after the cutoff date if those options don't exist. 

an example of what I'm looking to do is this bbq spot

https://www.crackersnacksbbq.com/s/order?location=L5BJWGJ2NQKJ5&item=62#S6QEMYBOFOHSCA4MKL3XUEYL

When you add the turkey to your cart you pay on squares backend and it gives you info on the pickup. Is it possible to get a checkout like this on my square up website? pongoseatery.com

thanks!