Tabs - The Guest Experience

Tabs allow guests to order multiple times throughout their visit, with those orders appearing as one cumulative charge on their bank statement rather than each order being listed separately. 

The ability to start a tab is configurable for each location code. To turn Tabs on for a given location code, go to the 'Checkout' section of the location code editor and toggle on the 'Allow Tabs' option.

Once the Tabs feature is enabled, your guests can open tabs when ordering. If you would also like to use the Tabs Sync feature in which servers can add to guests' tabs or start a tab for a guest, please contact bb-support@doordash.com. In your message, please include the location code(s) for which you'd like to enable the Tabs Sync feature. 

Opening a Tab - Checkout View

Once a guest has placed items in their cart and proceeds to the checkout screen, they will see an option to start a tab. If the guest is not logged into a Bbot account with saved payment information, they will also need to enter their card information at this time to authorize payments and open the tab. Gift cards can be used to start a tab with the "Fixed" authorization strategy as long as it has at least enough to cover the authorization amount.

The card will be authorized for the initial amount ordered or the amount specified by the merchant, whichever is higher. After doing so, the guest will click the 'Open Tab' button at the bottom of the checkout screen to finalize the order.Once a tab is opened, the guest can add to the tab easily by selecting 'Order Again' from the post-checkout screen.

* Alternative Payment Methods: As noted on the checkout page, orders submitted with Google Pay, Apple Pay, or Samsung Pay cannot be added to a tab, as they authorize a single-use token that will automatically separate checkouts into unique charges.

* Gratuity: The guest will select a tip amount for each order on the tab when the order is being submitted. This ensures staff is still tipped, even if the guest forgets to close the tab.

Post-Checkout View

The post-checkout page will show all of the orders on the tab, including their respective order numbers, and statuses, and a dropdown menu that, if selected, will expand to show all the items in the order. 

If the guest has any recently closed tabs or completed orders not associated with the current tab, they will show below the current tab.

Manage a Tab / Close a Tab

When a guest is ready to close their tab, they can click the 'Manage Tab' button to close their tab and adjust the final tip amount.

When the guest taps 'Manage Tab', a pop-up with the tab total and the option 'Close Tab' will appear. When the guest closes their tab, and the authorization is finalized, it will show a single charge for the total of the tab.

On this same pop-up, the guest will also be able to edit the tip amount before closing their tab by selecting the '+ Edit Tip' option. Doing so will display default tip percentages, as well as a custom tip option by clicking 'Other'. 

If the guest selects a tip amount below the existing total across all orders, they will be prompted with the following message: 

If the guest increases the tip by more than 60% of the total tips from the tab, they’ll be prompted with the following message:

All tabs are automatically set to close 3 hours from when they are started, in case a guest forgets to close their tab.

Card Authorization

To begin a tab, guests will need to input a card number which will then be authorized to ensure the inputted card information is valid. Bbot has two different ways to determine how the authorization is executed.

• Fixed Authorization: When a guest starts a tab, it will initially authorize the credit card for $5 + tax and will not authorize again until the tab is closed, which will authorize the final amount.
• Incremental Fallback Fixed Authorization: When a guest starts a tab it will automatically authorize the credit card for the full amount each time another checkout is processed. 
  • Incremental Authorization allows for additional authorizations after the tab is started and prevents additional holds on a guest's card. Incremental authorizations help reduce and eliminate the financial institution marking repeated orders as fraudulent and concurrent authorizations totaling more than the total tab amount. 
  • Incremental Authorization is only available when starting a tab with Visa or Mastercard. If trying to pay using another method, the card will be authorized using Fixed Authorization.

Please note that for each additional authorization, there is a .15 charge in addition to the Stripe processing rate. For example, if a guest places three orders on a single tab, there would be a charge of .30 plus the Stripe processing rate. Since there were two additional orders on incremental authorization, there would be two charges of .15 for each authorization. Fixed authorization would have a Stripe fee of .15 plus processing rates for the authorization, and then one more for the final amount.

Multiple authorized charges may appear on the guest's bank statement, but the total charge will still amount to the final amount of the tab.

For questions about tabs or assistance with configuration, don't hesitate to get in touch with our Support Team at bb-support@doordash.com.

Auto Close Delay (in minutes)

The 'Auto Close Delay' is a feature that provides an automated set time for closing tabs created by customers. The purpose of this feature is to facilitate the management of tabs by automatically closing them after a certain duration.

By default, the global setting for the 'Auto Close Delay' feature is set to 180 minutes (equivalent to 3 hours), which is the recommended configuration for most scenarios. This means that if a customer creates a tab and there is no activity within that tab for a continuous period of 180 minutes, the tab will be automatically closed.

However, it's important to note that the 'Auto Close Delay' feature can be customized according to specific requirements. In cases where a customer's service model requires tabs to be closed at a designated time upon completion of service, the number of minutes for the auto close delay can be adjusted accordingly. This customization allows the feature to align with diverse service models and ensure a seamless user experience.