Open Tabs for QR Code Ordering with Square Online
Note: Enable QR code ordering by upgrading your Square Online subscription.
QR code ordering through Square Online offers a contactless, in-person ordering experience that increases safety and workflow efficiency. As customers order, they can opt to leave their tab open, allowing them to continue ordering items on the same tab throughout their stay. They’ll enter payment information upfront, but won’t need to check out and pay until the end of their visit. With open tabs disabled, customers would otherwise need to pay for each order individually.
Open tabs provide benefits including:
Enhanced guest experience: Customers can continue ordering on the same tab without inputting their payment information multiple times. They'll only see one charge on their statements.
Increase average ticket sizes: Guests are more likely to keep ordering when it’s this easy to do. Some sellers saw up to a 42% increase in average ticket size with this feature.
Preserve your margins: When customers put their entire party on one order and keep their tab open, you'll pay just one transaction fee for their entire stay rather than multiple. This means that open tabs can help make the ordering process much easier for you and your customers alike.
Increase tip sizes: With open tabs, guests close out and tip at the end of the transaction rather than before the order has been fulfilled, increasing their likelihood to tip higher.
Reduce unpaid walkouts: If a customer leaves without paying, the pre-authorized card will be automatically charged two hours after the last order on the tab.
Enable Open Tabs
After setting up QR code ordering, you can enable open tabs by following these steps:
From your Square Online Overview page, go to Fulfillment > QR code ordering.
Select Edit by the location you want to set up open tabs for.
Toggle on Allow open tabs.
Customer Experience
This is how customers will experience open tabs with QR code ordering:
The customer starts by scanning your QR code. Once they select their items and enter their card number, they can choose to keep the tab open.
The customer receives a text confirmation of their order. At this point, their card is pre-authorized, and the order can print in your kitchen or appear on your kitchen display system (KDS).
If the customer still has their browser open or the confirmation text, they can select the link to add items to their order, or close and pay. They can also rescan the QR code to do the same.
After one hour, the customer receives a text reminder to close their tab and pay.
As customers pay, they can enter a tip.
The customer receives a text confirming their order was complete.
The customer’s card is charged for the order total and any pending pre-authorizations will drop off.
Note: If your customer doesn't close and pay two hours after their last order, the tab will automatically close with the default tip amount and your customer will receive a confirmation text.
FAQ
No, there isn’t a way to add or remove items in an open tab from your Square POS at this time. If you need to refund an item, you can do so from Transactions in your POS after closing the tab (which includes any discounts).
Yes. Each time a guest adds to their order, they’ll receive a text confirmation with a link to close the tab and pay.
- One hour after the last order, your guest will receive a text reminding them to pay.
- Two hours after the last order, the tab will automatically close with your default tip amount. The guest will then receive a text confirmation that their card has been charged.
Closing tabs from Square POS isn’t possible at this time. Tabs left open will automatically close two hours after the last order. They can also be manually closed from your Square Order Manager in Dashboard.
Note: Manually closing an open tab will capture the customer’s payment with the default tip amount.
There’s a very small chance an open tab will not automatically close due to insufficient funds. In such cases, the customer will be notified via text message and prompted to re-enter their payment information to close their tab.
The orders for completed open tabs will show in Transactions once the tab has been paid and closed. To view an ongoing open tab and its related orders, go to Orders in your POS.
You can enable tipping from your Square Online checkout settings, and set a default tip amount that’s automatically calculated and added to the order. Customers will see the tip as a separate line item and can edit the tip amount before completing the purchase. These tips can be viewed from your Square Reports page in Dashboard.
By providing their payment card information, your customer authorizes us to collect payment for the open tab. Their card will be pre-authorized as they order, and charged when their tab is closed. Your customer may see multiple pending charges and refunds until their bank finalizes pending charges within a few days.