As we continue to grow, we are hosting larger and larger parties, with that comes the need to collect deposits. Other than using gift cards, is there a way for us to collect deposits and redeem them on a future date? Gift Cards amy work, but I feel that there should be a more elegant solution. Please advise, thanks!
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Hello Carmine,
Would a standard pay-in work? You can execute a pay-in with cash, credit card (over phone, etc.) As a deposit. You can add a Reason / Note to it to indicate it was a deposit. The only catch is you wouldn't be able to void the deposit once the batch settled on credit cards the next day. You can execute a credit to a card to reverse, however.
Another option might be to create a new scheduled order, and attach a credit card to the order. With EMV, this would tokenize the card, so it can be used later without them having to give you the card number again. It's *kind of* like a deposit, but it isn't actually charging them. The tokenization will fail if their card is invalid, though.
Another option might be to do a Pre-Authorization. With EMV this will actually execute a Pre-Auth which reserves a specified amount from their credit limit, but it will not settle unless you explicitly Close the order with a Post-Auth (where you give it the final amount to settle for). I don't think we've ever tried using a Pre-Auth with a scheduled order - so I will need to see if that is possible. The downside is if your credit batch settles the next day, the Pre-Auth will go away, so it would only be good for collecting a deposit for an order *that day*.
Note that not all processors support tokenization and pre-auth. We'd need to find out if yours does and if it is possible. Also if you're using the legacy card swipers (i.e. not EMV), then the rules are slightly different for this stuff.
I would think the Pay-In would be the simplest solution right now. You can add the order# in the notes.
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