Bar Tab Overview

The Bar Tab feature allows the creation of a running tab, while ensuring that funds will be available to cover the purchases by means of a credit card pre-authorization. As the name suggests, the use of Bar Tabs is more common in bars, where customers will typically order many items over the course of their stay, while paying for each item as they go. The Bar Tab has many advantages:

• Purchased items will be paid even if the customer suddenly leaves without notifying the staff.
• The customer's card does not need to be re-swiped for every purchase, streamlining the service.
• If the pre-authorized amount runs out, it can be automatically increased.
• A hard limit can be set to avoid customers over-spending or to limit the risk of declined increments.

Restrictions

Currently, the Bar Tab feature is only available for U.S. merchants using the Retail Terminal Interface for Semi-Integrated Payment Applications (RTI-SIPA) plugin (EFT-RTI v 1.0) for Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) processing.

Requirements

POS System:

• Maitre'D 7.08.000.380 or later, with the Electronic Funds Transfer Interface.
• STPISecure Installer version 1.3.1.
• RTI-SIPA version 1.31.05 or later.

Payment device:

• Android countertop payment terminal, such as the PAX A80 or PAX A35. 
• SecurePay version 4.68 or later.
• BroadPOS version 1.03.14E_20210723

Tokenization:

• Tokenization needs to be enabled in the TSYS Merchant Profile.
• The tokenization config needs to be downloaded to the payment terminal.
• Tokenization needs to be enabled.

Configuration steps

Configuration is required within the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and Point of Sale Control modules in Maitre'D. Here are the generic steps:

• Configure the Electronic Funds Transfer Module.
• Configure the Point of Sale Control module:
  • Setup the Employee Configuration for Bar Tabs.
  • Setup each employee for Bar Tabs.
  • Add a Bar Tab button on the screen Layout.