Description
Returnable Assets Ledger (RAL) is a WooCommerce plugin for tracking returnable pallets, crates, kegs, cylinders, delivery boxes and other reusable packaging held by customers. Record physical transfers and returns, review customer-held balances, and keep a movement history with explicit corrections.
Common use cases
- Pallet tracking for Euro pallets and other returnable transport assets.
- Reusable crate and container tracking for wholesale deliveries, food distribution and logistics.
- Keg and cylinder tracking when assets leave the business and are later returned.
- Returnable packaging tracking for bakery trays, delivery bins and reusable totes.
RAL is a physical custody ledger for customer-held assets, not an automatic WooCommerce product-stock management system.
The Free plugin includes:
- Returnable asset types and business accounts.
- Manual outgoing and incoming asset movements.
- Explicit corrections without rewriting confirmed history.
- Customer balances and transaction history by asset type.
- WooCommerce order references for operational traceability.
- Import of business accounts from WooCommerce customers.
- CSV balance and history exports.
- Manual Opening Balance entry for assets already held when tracking starts.
- Read-only Integrity and Diagnostics, balance recalculation, and backup download.
- Interface language preference and light/dark appearance for the RAL admin interface.
Multilingual interface
The RAL admin interface includes built-in translations for 10 languages:
- English
- German
- Spanish
- French
- Italian
- Dutch
- Polish
- Portuguese (Brazil)
- Ukrainian
- Russian
The preferred interface language can be selected in the RAL Interface language setting.
Confirmed movements form an append-only history. Corrections are recorded explicitly instead of rewriting confirmed movements.
WooCommerce order status changes do not automatically record physical returns. A return must be recorded when the asset is actually received back.
Business accounts are separate from WordPress user accounts, so ledger history can be preserved even if a website login is removed.
The Free version has no license requirement, usage quota, or time limit.
An optional Returnable Assets Ledger Pro plugin is distributed separately, is not included in this WordPress.org package, and requires the Free plugin to remain active.
RAL Pro provides Customer Portal access and operational user linking, bulk/resumable opening-balance CSV import, reconciliation, expected-balance comparison, advanced Dashboard and Needs Attention views, JSON recovery/restore, product mappings and order planning, Photo Evidence, and automated return reminders. Manual Opening Balance, backup download and CSV export remain Free.
External Services
Optional external purchase
RAL Free works without a paid license. Buy RAL Pro is an explicit external navigation to Freemius Hosted Checkout in a new tab. Freemius handles purchase, payment and license issuance for the separately distributed RAL Pro outside WordPress.org.
Before this explicit navigation, RAL Free does not programmatically transmit administrator, customer or site data to Freemius. The Free plugin does not automatically download, install or update RAL Pro. The separate premium-only Pro plugin provides its own commercial services and disclosure.
Service: Freemius. Terms of Service. Privacy Policy.
Privacy
Returnable Assets Ledger stores its ledger, business-account, asset, and related operational data in the WordPress site’s database. Business accounts can contain contact information entered by a site administrator.
Customer Portal access in the separate RAL Pro add-on is available only to explicitly linked WordPress users and is read-only.
Returnable Assets Ledger deliberately preserves ledger business history, account links, and schema when the plugin is deactivated or uninstalled.
Site owners are responsible for informing their users about personal data they choose to store in business accounts and for handling that data in accordance with the privacy requirements applicable to their site.
See the External Services section for the optional external purchase link.
Screenshots
Installation
- Install and activate WooCommerce 11.0 or later.
- Install and activate Returnable Assets Ledger.
- Open Returnable Assets in the WordPress administration menu.
- Create the returnable asset types your business tracks.
- Create business accounts or import them from WooCommerce customers.
- Record outgoing and incoming physical asset movements as they occur.
- Optionally install the separate RAL Pro plugin for Customer Portal access and advanced operational workflows.
Returnable Assets Ledger requires WordPress 7.0 or later, WooCommerce 11.0 or later, PHP 8.2 or later on a 64-bit PHP environment, and InnoDB for its ledger tables.
FAQ
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Is WooCommerce required?
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Yes. Returnable Assets Ledger requires WooCommerce 11.0 or later.
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Can I change the interface language?
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Yes. The RAL admin interface includes built-in translations for English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Ukrainian, and Russian.
Choose the preferred language from the RAL Interface language setting.
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Does cancelling or refunding a WooCommerce order automatically return assets?
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No. Order status and physical custody are different things. A physical return must be recorded explicitly as an incoming movement or an appropriate correction.
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Can customers edit ledger movements from the customer portal?
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No. Customer Portal in the separate RAL Pro plugin is read-only. Customers can view the business account explicitly linked to their WordPress user but cannot create, edit, or delete ledger movements.
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Does deactivating or uninstalling the plugin remove the ledger data?
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No. Returnable Assets Ledger deliberately preserves its business history, account links, and schema on deactivation and uninstall so the ledger can be recovered after reinstalling or reactivating the plugin.
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Does the Free version require a license or Freemius account?
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No. Free functionality does not require a license, subscription, usage quota, or Freemius account.
The Free plugin has no commercial SDK, account requirement or external software updater, and does not contain the premium implementation. Buy RAL Pro opens an external Freemius Hosted Checkout page in a new tab.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“Returnable Assets Ledger” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Returnable Assets Ledger” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
0.1.3
- Separate premium workflows from the Free plugin.
- Remove the Free plugin’s commercial SDK and licensing runtime.
- Improve request validation and compatibility of prefixed identifiers and translations.
0.1.2
- Initial public release.
- Returnable asset types and business accounts.
- Outgoing and incoming movements with explicit corrections.
- Customer balances, history, and CSV exports.
- WooCommerce customer integration.
- Manual Opening Balance entry.
- Read-only Integrity and Diagnostics, balance recalculation, and backup download.