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Beating a Dead Horse but it needs to be: Preauthorization

Beta Member

Beating a Dead Horse but it needs to be: Preauthorization

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.

1 Verified Answer
Verified Answer

Re: Beating a Dead Horse but it needs to be: Preauthorization

It IS FOR SURE COMING!! 🙂 they’re running beta testing on it now, so hang in there, I almost switched, glad I didn’t because I really do like the company but this definitely has been and issue that’s cost me hundreds of $$. Hopefully testing goes well and it rolls out soon 🙂

698 Comments

Has this been resolved yet? It is the main reason I am considering a new POS. I run a taproom and holding cc is terrible. 

I don’t believe this promised change has been implemented yet. I certainly haven’t seen it. 

Ugh. This may be one of the most important features for a bar/restaurant. 

Beta Member

Hi Tom, it's been over a month since this discussion started, no comments from Square on the topic, and absolutley no sign that Square intends to offer a solution to this problem. Thoughts?

Alumni

Hi @TheLoftWineBar - Unfortunately, we don't have any updates to share on this feature. We'll make sure to share any news as we hear of it. In the meantime, you can learn more about how a feature request comes to life in Feature Requests & the Seller Community.

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Can I put a hold on funds like car rental agencies does?

 

My daughter and I are starting a small business for event rentals. We will have each renter sign a damage agreement allowing us to bill their card for the amount needed to repair any damage to the equipment.  Is there a way to place a hold on the card as security until they return the equipment, and then release it?  If not what other suggestions would you have?

I assume that if they have signed a rental agreement, and a signed credit card auth form specifying that we will charge their card for damages, we would be legally allowed to charge them if they broke items, or did not return them...

Super Seller

Square does not currently have a way to place funds on hold on a credit card.  you could use deposits to take a partial payment that is applied to their final purchase.  but it is not advisable to take a payment for a security deposit and then refund it every time as that will cause issues in the long rung for your account.

Actually, this is very possible and fairly simple to do.  Square offers what is called delayed_capture in their Development Guide.  You should consider integrating their payment form into your website and this way you can DELAY_CAPTURE for 6 days any amount you specify. see below from their documentation

 

Eugene / www.tapjets.com

 

Delayed-capture transactions

Online payments are authorized by the issuing bank at the moment of purchase. An authorized transaction means that the bank has put a hold on the funds but the merchant has not received payment. Customers see this as a "pending" transaction on their credit card statement. At some later point, transactions are reconciled by capturing the transaction. A captured transaction means that the merchant receives the funds previously put on hold by the issuing bank.

The default behavior for Charge is immediate capture, but this behavior can be overwritten using the delay_capture field in the Transaction request object.

 

I think most of us are not using the Square API on our websites, but instead using the Square app on our phones.  I don't see any way to do delayed capture there.

Beta Member

This is an incredibly important feature to have, and is rapidly becoming a standard for restaurant POS systems. Please hurry with this feature!