Bar Tabs with Pre-Authorization for Square Point of Sale

Start a bar tab by placing a hold of funds on a customer’s credit card with pre-authorization. Pre-authorizing cards ensures that a customer's card is valid, and you can charge their card later to close out the tab without the card present.

The pre-authorization will not show on a customer’s credit card statement but may show as a pending transaction in their online card portal. Length of the pre-authorization can vary depending on the customer’s card network and card-issuing bank.

Note: This feature is available on iOS and Android devices with the most recent version of Square Point of Sale.

Requirements

Pre-authorization requires the use of Open Tickets. If you use multiple devices with a single Square account, you can access any open ticket from any logged-in device that also has pre-authorizations enabled. Note: Orders using pre-authorization do not sync with Square KDS.

The following actions, features, and payment types are not available with pre-authorization:

• Connected Terminal

• Square Loyalty transactions 

• Offline Mode transactions

• Gift Card redemption

• Kitchen Display System

• Pausing orders

• Sending push notifications for new orders or order updates

• Open tickets as the home screen

• Cash App Pay

• Square Invoices

• Payment links

• Payments via QR code

• Tap to Pay on iPhone

Turn on pre-authorization for Open Tickets

1. Open your Square Point of Sale app. From the navigation menu, tap More.

2. Tap Add-ons.

3. Tap Open Tickets under the Add-Ons menu.

4. Tap Add for Free.

5. Back out of the Add on view and tap More.

6. Tap Settings and Tap Open Tickets.

7. Tap Pre-Authorization.

8. Toggle on Pre-Authorization.

You can enable pre-authorization for open tickets on individual devices as needed. You can also set a minimum pre-authorization amount by going to Open Tickets > Pre-authorization in your Square app.

Minimum pre-authorization amount is the minimum amount that we will hold on the customer’s card when you start a pre-authorization. By default, the minimum is set to $15, but you can adjust this minimum to any amount $1.50 or higher.

Create a Bar Tab

1. From your Square app, add items or custom amounts to the sale and tap Checkout.

2. Tap Add pre-authorization.

3. Swipe, insert, or tap the card for the pre-authorization.

   1. Inserting or swiping the card will automatically populate the customer’s name in the ticket. Tapping the card will require you to enter a name.

4. Once pre-authorization is successful, you will be prompted to create an open ticket and add a ticket name. This open ticket is a new bar tab.

Note: Open tickets created when pre-authorization is turned on are only visible while pre-authorization is turned on. Similarly, Open Tickets created when pre-authorization is turned off are only available when pre-authorization is turned off. If you don’t see the Open Ticket you are looking for, try turning pre-authorization on or off and checking the Tickets tab.

Check Out a Bar Tab

1. To find a bar tab, go to the cart and tap Tickets > Tickets.

2. Select the ticket you want to check out.

3. The pre-authorized card will appear as a form of payment. You can charge the pre-authorized card or use a different payment method.

4. To remove the card, tap Pre-authorized card > Remove pre-authorization. Select the new payment method.

Check out our troubleshooting tips for Bar Tabs and Pre-Authorization.