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]

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 🙂

[Tom]

Hello @BarMngr, thanks for posting and welcome to the seller community! 🍻

At this time, we don't offer a pay-ahead or positive balance tab with Square Register as you've described. With Open Tickets, you can open up a tab and then your customers will need to pay with their card or cash at the end of their visit.

I'll be sharing your suggestion with our Product Liaison team, who makes improvements based on seller feedback. If I'm missing the mark here or if you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to reply and I'll have another look! 🙂

[Creeksideinn1]

I understand the security issues with saving credit cards. My husband and I own a bar/restaurant. Many times on busy nights customers run a tab and pay at the end of the night. We do swipe their card and it adds their name but at the end of the night a few have skipped out without paying. That is a huge loss to us. There are systems out there that keep the cards on file while the ticket is open. If you could find a way to do that and delete the info after the tickets are closed that would great.

[Tom]

Hi @Creeksideinn1, thanks for surfacing this and sorry to hear about the issue with some customers taking off without paying. We definitly want to do all we can to prevent any loss to our sellers. 😕

While we aren't able to implement a feature to automatically save the card information once an open tab is created, I know many bars/restaurants will keep the customer's card in a secure place nearby the register until the customer closes out. Is this something you might be able to consider at your restaurant? If any other sellers have best practices, feel free to chime in!

Either way, I'll be sharing your experience with our Product Liaison team, who is always tracking issues like this and making improvements.

[carlosexpress]

I am new to square and thought something basic like this must just be my failure to find via the square interface, but now very disappointed to see that it's not even a feature offered by Square.  C'mon, this is basic functionality for a business!

[scooterjoes]

Pre-authorization is not very common, certainly for most businesses.  But it's an easy feature to implement, so Square should do it.  Many businesses like mine who rent equipment to the public need to be able to do a security deposit without actually charging their card for that deposit.

[Sean]

@bradengw @carlosexpress @scooterjoes - Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback. I can definitely understand how this would be a great feature addition. I'll be sure to pass along your thoughts! 

[mjseidenberg]

I am a printer whose customers are not physically close to me and our dealings are mainly online. Given the size of the transactions, I require advance deposits from clients prior to commencing a print job. I did my first transaction with a new client and used Square to collect the advance payment. Basically I created an invoice for the amount of the deposit and didn't include sales tax or other ancillary fees that may be encountered in the course of a job. Now I am to the point of creating the final invoice that shows the total price of the print jobs less the deposit for a balance due.

I have entered the printed items and their prices into the invoice but could not find any accommodation for deposits. Thus, I used the "discount" lines to show the deposit which gives me the correct pre sales tax amount. However, the sales tax amount is incorrect as it is being calculated only for the subtotal amount instead of the full amount before the deposit.

For example, the total amount of purchase is $4000. The client gave me a $2000 deposit which leaves $2000 to invoice and collect. The invoice is showing sales tax of $140.00 which is 7% of the $2000 balance when it should be $280.00 which is 7% of the $4000 total.

Also, if I need to ship finished product to the customer, I have to charge the shipping fees AFTER sales tax as shipping is not taxable. I see no accommodation for shipping or any other after tax charge on the invoice either. Can these things be done and if so, how? I didn't see anything in your support articles.

Update: I have now zeroed out the sales tax on each item and put the tax in the invoice as a line item. From there I show the deposit as a discount in dollars and get to the proper amounts. It works, but is far from elegant. Anybody have a better solution?

Thanks...

[EJ_]

Hi there. 

Thanks for the in-depth post! 

You're on the right track with the workaround you mentioned in your update. 

Unfortunately there isn't a good way to accept security deposits, nor is there a way for the customer to pay a portion of an invoice. 

The two ways you can accomplish this would be to add Tax as a line item as you've mentioned, or you could tax both the deposit and the final invoice. 

In regards to shipping, you'll want to use the same workaround that you used to get the proper tax amount. 

Creating a "Shipping" item to be applied to the sales that you need to ship out to customers allows you to remove the sales tax from this specific item so that it's tax free. 

These are all features that other sellers have mentioned they would like to see as well. Hopefully we can get this implemented for you all in the near future. 

[OFFICE]

Our company is interested in this option as well. We have many customers we go to that aren't home or out of state, and would like to be able to get their credit card information ahead of time. Please let us know when this option is made available! Thank you 🙂 

[Sean]

@OFFICE - Thanks for taking the time to share. We'll be sure to update this thread if anything changes in the future!