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]

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 both Square Point of Sale as well as Square for Restaurants POS. 

➡️ If you use Square POS, here are instructions on how to get started beta testing. 

➡️ If you use RST 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 betafeedback@squareup.com so we can learn how it is working for you and your staff.  

Thank you!

[cantrellr]

Arryved does not offer many important features and they show up in this thread all the time. Yes this missing feature is a jaw dropper, but be careful to run out of the frying pan and into a fire.

I am considering other POS platforms, but the servicable integration of shifts, teams, payroll, auto tip calcs, has kept me from the jump.

Weaknesses are this credit card dilemma and poor reporting and low support for custom data. 

[payntake]

@cantrellr Can you elaborate on "important features" Arryved does not have so that I can ask about those on the call?  I have searched through this forum and could not find anything jarring.  Thanks in advance for your help.

[cantrellr]

Teams

Shift Management

Payroll (with the Teams integrated into Payroll. I have staff that play a variety of roles, some of which do not qualify for tip pooling)

Automatic Tip tracking and pooling support with Tips included in payroll runs

These are premium features but as a small business having these related activities incorporated in one system is convenience and simplicity I need as a small business owner.  There are other ways to get to Shift management and Payroll, but the fact my employees can log into the POS, clock in, and all the above just happens is hard to pass up under one roof. If Arryved has that, I'd be seriously looking at jumping as holding on to a customer's CC is not acceptable and is, otherwise, a deal killer for us.

[IntermissionBee]

@payntake - make sure you double check Arryved's fees. My understanding from multiple Brewery Forums is that they are implementing a new $99/month fee starting this year so a lot of users are jumping ship. Just wanted to point it out as this was recently implemented.

[Creeksideinn1]

I have been with Square for years. Last year I went with Clover. Worst mistake ever!!!  I'm going back to Square. Here is what you can do to have a Pre-authorization on Square. Go to the customer tab-enter name- scroll down and enter customer CC# exp and cvq code. Enter their email and zip code. Customer gets an email saying card is on file. You can start a tab from there and when you close it out it will have the option to charge card on file.

Having a bar/restaurant needing pre auth, this works and the only way around it

[IntermissionBee]

@Creeksideinn1 yes but 1. This way charges you more to process the CC. 2. This only holds the CC number, it doesn't do a pre-auth so if there aren't enough funds or it's an expired card, the card gets declined and you are SOL 3. The process takes a lot of time if you are busy. (Moreso than just grabbing the card to pre-auth)

I 100% agree with you that this is a temporary work around but pre-auth is still needed and then Square would be the #1 POS system.

[ChesterGapWines]

I've been with Square for 5 years. But, I run a winery tasting room and we can no longer deal with the lack of pre-authorization.  In addition, I find Square's reporting extremely limited (inventory reporting, etc). I see folks have looked at Clover, Toast and Arryved.  Any others I should be considering? I've got demos lined up with them. I'd be really interested in your quick thoughts/ pros/ cons of the others. Making the change is a huge headache and step, but I think it is worthwhile at this point.

[Merchy]

I've chatted with both Arryved and Rezku and they both seem solid...

[Gravity1140]

I LOVE Toast and use it for our main bar. Once a month, we use Square for a remote pop up bar that we do, and unfortunately Toast just isn't as portable. With Square I can just plug in the iPad POSs and go. But that's where the convenience ends! Toast is head and shoulders above Square in the interface, reporting, inventory tracking, and *preauths*!! You'd be happy with the switch. 

[buyersremorse]

I came back here today to get an update on whether Square supports pre-auth of credit cards. My brewery started out with Square and we mostly loved it. Holding onto credit cards was a pain that we dealt with. We added a restaurant and found that Square for Restaurants was fine at low volumes, but we had to migrate off to a more food/service-oriented platform, because the Restaurants edition didn't meet our needs once we started to see significant volume. And payroll for tipped employees was a bi*ch. At this point, we're doing ~$5M annually and there's no going back to Square. I'm checking in today because I'm opening another brewery concept and would like to use Square, but the lack of pre-auth is a deal breaker. We've already been down this road and we can't walk it again. Our enterprise uses Toast and we're fairly happy insofar as we have requirements that are a hybrid of restaurants, brewery taproom and those of outside events. I like Square enough to kick the tires again, but will likely opt for Arryved for the new venue, because it won't have a food concept and it will support our pre-auth requirements for the busy taproom we're expecting. Clearly pre-auth isn't a priority for Square because it's a relatively easy functionality to implement from what they have. It's gotta be a larger issue that precludes them from launching this as it's been a customer demand for almost a decade and they continue to defer.