Gold Admin Guide

Getting Started

Raffle Ticket Generator turns WooCommerce products into raffle entries. Each raffle is a WooCommerce product category; the products inside it are your ticket packages (for example 1 ticket, 5 tickets, 20 tickets). When an order is paid, the plugin issues unique ticket numbers, shows them on the order confirmation page and in the customer’s email, and lets you draw winners later.

Before you start you need:

• WordPress with WooCommerce installed and active.
• PHP 8.0 or newer (your host can tell you which version you have).
• Your license key from your wpraffle.com account.
• At least one payment method enabled in WooCommerce.

Install the plugin

1. In WordPress go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
2. Choose the plugin zip file and click Install Now. If an older version is installed, choose Replace current with uploaded.
3. Click Activate Plugin.
4. Open WPRaffle → License, paste your key and save (see License).

Upgrading from Version 6

Version 7 stores tickets on the WooCommerce orders themselves and settings on each raffle, instead of in the plugin’s own tables. Your existing raffles move across in one step after you update.

1. Take a backup of your site (most hosts and backup plugins do this in one click).
2. Update the plugin: Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the 7.0 zip and click Replace current with uploaded.
3. A notice appears: “Your raffle data needs to be upgraded to the new format”. Click Run upgrade.
4. On the Upgrade page click Run upgrade now. It works in small batches, so it is safe on a large store. Wait for Upgrade complete.
5. Open a few orders and a raffle or two and check the ticket numbers and settings look right.
6. When you are happy, click Remove backup tables on the Upgrade page. Until then your old tables are kept as a backup.

What moves across

• Every ticket number, on the order it was sold with.
• Each raffle’s settings: dates, ticket numbering, prefixes, display options, limits and caps.
• Recorded winners.
• New tickets continue after the highest number already used in each raffle, so no number is ever issued twice.

The WPRaffle Menu

Everything lives under the WPRaffle menu in your WordPress admin. The sidebar is grouped into the main raffle pages, configuration pages and tools.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is your overview: active raffles, tickets sold today, revenue for the last 7 days, winners drawn, unique buyers and pending orders. Below that you see the latest ticket orders, raffles ending soon and the most recent winners.

Checkout ticket delay. At the bottom of the Dashboard you can set a short pause (in seconds, maximum 30) during ticket generation. Leave it at 0. Only raise it if your host shows duplicate tickets under very heavy, simultaneous checkouts.

Create a Raffle (New Raffle Wizard)

The quickest way to start is WPRaffle → New Raffle. The wizard creates the raffle and its ticket packages in two steps.

Step 1 – Raffle details

1. Enter the raffle name, for example Win a 2026 Jeep Wrangler.
2. Set the starting ticket number (for example 1 or 1000).
3. Choose whether tickets include the order ID, a custom prefix (up to 6 characters, for example JEEP) and a promo word.
4. Optionally set the start and end date and time.
5. Click Create raffle.

Step 2 – Products (ticket packages)

1. Add one row per package: name, price and number of tickets in that package.
2. Click Create products. You will see “Raffle Made”.

You can change every option later in the raffle’s settings, add a product image in Products, and add more packages by creating products in the raffle category.

My Raffles

My Raffles lists every raffle with its status (running, scheduled, ended), tickets sold and dates. Click a raffle to open its settings.

Raffle Settings

Each raffle has its own settings, split into tabs. Change what you need and click Save raffle settings; you will see “Settings saved”. Settings are kept per raffle.

Schedule

Ticket numbers

Email (ticket display and ticket images)

50/50

Stock & advanced

Ticket Packages (Products)

Every product in a raffle category is a ticket package. You can edit them in Products like any WooCommerce product: title, price, image and description.

Quiz (Skill Question)

A quiz asks buyers a question before they can enter a raffle. Many regions require a skill question for prize competitions.

1. Open Quiz and pick the raffle.
2. Click Add question. Enter the question and three answer options.
3. Type the correct answer exactly as one of the options.
4. Optionally allow wrong answers: the order still goes through, but no tickets are issued, and the text you enter is shown in the email.
5. Save.

On the product page the buyer must choose an answer before adding to cart. A wrong answer shows “Your answer is incorrect” (unless wrong answers are allowed).

Countdown & Progress

Controls the countdown timer and progress information on product pages: headings, colours, and which elements show (such as tickets sold and tickets remaining). Settings are saved per tab.

Custom CSS

Add your own CSS to restyle the raffle elements on your shop (ticket box, quiz, countdown). It loads on the front end after the plugin’s own styles.

Raffle Extras (Store-Wide Options)

WPRaffle → Raffle Extras holds the options that apply to every raffle in your shop. Each box starts with a short explanation of what it does. Change what you need and click Save settings.

My Tickets page for customers

Switch on Show “My Tickets” to add a My Tickets tab to your customers’ My Account area. It lists every raffle they have entered, the ticket numbers from each order, the draw date and a Winner badge on any winning ticket. Customers stop emailing to ask “where are my tickets?”, because they can always look them up. Buyers who checked out as guests still find their numbers in their order email.

Checkout confirmations

Tick boxes the buyer must check before they can pay. They only appear when the cart contains raffle tickets, and they work on both the classic checkout and the block checkout.

Free postal entry wording

The instructions shown on the Free entry tab of any raffle that offers free entry by post. Put your own postal address in place of [your address]. A raffle can use its own wording instead (see Per-raffle extras).

Extras per raffle

The table at the bottom lists every raffle and the extras switched on for it, for example “Limit 6 per customer” or “Buy 3 get 1 free”. Click Edit extras to open that raffle’s Extras tab.

Per-Raffle Extras (Extras Tab)

Each raffle’s settings have an Extras tab. Open My Raffles, click the raffle and choose Extras. Every option has a short explanation above it, and everything is saved with the rest of the raffle settings when you click Save raffle settings.

Tickets per customer

The most tickets one person can hold in this raffle, across all of their orders. Buyers are matched by their account and by email address, so checking out as a guest does not get round the limit. Leave it empty for no limit.

• The product page shows the limit, for example “Limit: 6 tickets per person”.
• If a buyer tries to go over it, the cart stops them with a clear message, for example “Las Vegas Weekend Getaway allows 20 tickets per person. You already have 12, so this would bring you to 25.”
• Orders waiting for payment (on hold) count towards the limit too.

Public entry list

Switch on Show on product page to add an Entry list tab to the product page. It lists every ticket number with the holder’s first name and last initial (for example Jane D.), with a search box so buyers can find their own ticket. Everyone can see the draw is fair, and no full names or contact details are shown. The list refreshes every five minutes.

To show the list somewhere else, for example on a results page, copy the shortcode shown next to the setting, such as [rtg_entry_list raffle="12"].

Free postal entry

Switch on Offer free entry to add a Free entry tab to the product page with your instructions for entering by post. Paid prize draws in the UK, and in some other places, must offer a free way to enter like this. Leave the instructions box empty to use the store-wide wording from Raffle Extras, or write wording for this raffle only.

When a postcard arrives, record it in Postal Entries.

Bundle offer

“Buy X, get Y free”. Enter how many tickets the buyer pays for and how many they get free, for example 10 and 2 for 12 tickets at the price of 10. Leave both empty for no offer.

• The product page shows the offer with a button that picks the right quantity, for example Choose 12 tickets.
• The cart takes the free tickets off automatically, as a “Bundle” discount line.
• If the buyer is close to the offer, the cart tells them, for example “Add 2 more to get 2 free”.
• Every ticket, paid or free, is a normal ticket in the draw.

Postal Entries

Record free entries that arrive by post. Each postal entry gets real ticket numbers, the same as a paid order, and is included in the draw.

1. Open WPRaffle → Postal Entries.
2. Choose the raffle product and the number of entries (usually one per postcard).
3. Type the entrant’s name, email, phone and address from the postcard. Add an optional note, for example the postmark date.
4. Leave Email the entrant their ticket numbers ticked to send them the normal ticket email.
5. Click Add entry. The entrant appears under Recent postal entries with their tickets.

View Tickets and Export

View Tickets shows every raffle with tickets sold and, per raffle, each ticket with its buyer and order. Use the date filters to narrow it down.

Export CSV downloads a spreadsheet with one row per ticket: order number, order date, order status, payment method, entry method (online or postal), customer name, address, email, phone, product and ticket number.

Gold and Platinum exports also include the prize choice, special comments and the quiz question, answer and result where used.

The export is built in batches, so it stays quick and does not run out of memory even for a raffle with tens of thousands of orders. The date filters apply to the export.

Print tickets as a PDF

Next to Export CSV, choose the Paper and Print style and click Download PDF. The date filters apply here too, so you can print just one day’s sales.

Reports

WPRaffle → Reports shows what each raffle has taken. Use From and To to look at a date range, and Export CSV to download any table.

Sales by raffle

The boxes at the top show revenue (after refunds, excluding tax), tickets sold, orders and the average order. The table shows each raffle with its end date, orders, tickets, number of different buyers and revenue. Raffles with free postal entries show how many there were.

Customers

Pick a raffle to see every buyer with their orders, tickets, amount spent and last order date. Buyers who hold more tickets than the raffle’s per-customer limit are marked Over limit; this happens when the limit was set after they bought.

Ticket lookup

Type a ticket number to find who holds it, in one raffle or all of them. You see the holder’s name, email and phone and a link to the order. Handy when a winner is drawn offline or a customer phones in.

Select Winners (Draw in the Admin)

Draw winners privately from the admin.

1. Open Select Winners. Each card shows the raffle, eligible tickets and tickets sold.
2. Click Draw → on the raffle.
3. Click Draw random winner. The numbers roll and the winner’s name, ticket and order appear.
4. Or click Enter winner manually if you drew offline.

One prize per person. When a raffle has more than one winner, each person can win only once, however many tickets or orders they have. Buyers are matched by the email address on their order, so a second order with the same email counts as the same person. This applies to admin draws, the live draw page and date-range draws. To let one person win more than once, switch off One prize per person in the Winners section of the raffle’s Extras tab.

Every draw is recorded in the Draw Audit, with the full list of entries it was drawn from.

Raffle Winners

Raffle Winners lists every winner. From each winner card you can email the winner, copy a shortcode that displays that winner on a page, or delete the record.

Email a winner: click Email, write the subject and message (optionally a BCC address) and click Send email. The message goes to the email address on the winning order.

Show a live draw on your website. Copy the [winnerpage] shortcode from the bottom of this page into any page. Visitors see a countdown, then rolling numbers, then the winners. Once drawn, the page keeps showing the same winners. Set the draw time in the Automatic Winner Setting box of the page editor (Start Time); without one, the draw runs once the end date of the raffle has passed (or straight away if the raffle has no end date or is sold out).

Shortcodes

Paste these into any page or post. Replace the numbers with your own: the raffle (category) ID is shown in the address bar when you open a raffle’s settings (cat_id=…); the product ID is shown when you edit a product.

Draw Audit

A permanent record of every winner drawn in the admin, so you can show that a draw was fair. Open WPRaffle → Draw Audit.

Each row shows when the draw ran and who ran it, the raffle, the winning ticket and order, how many entries were in the draw, a fingerprint and the status.

• Entries downloads the exact list of entries the winner was drawn from.
• The fingerprint (SHA-256) is worked out from that list. If even one entry changed, the fingerprint would be different, so anyone can check the downloaded list against it.
• Void marks a draw as not counting, with a reason you type (for example “Winner could not be contacted”). The row stays in the log. Deleting a winner from Raffle Winners voids its draw automatically.
• Export log downloads the whole audit as a spreadsheet.

Activity Log

A timeline of what the plugin did: tickets issued per order, emails sent, winners drawn, settings changes and data clears. Useful when a customer asks “did my tickets get issued?”.

Duplicate Checker

Checks a raffle for any ticket number held by more than one order, and fixes it.

1. Choose the raffle and click Check for duplicates.
2. If duplicates are listed, click Generate new ticket next to the order that should get a new number. It receives the next unused number, the button shows it (for example Fixed: 1042), and the change is recorded in the Generation log below.

Raffle Tools

Back up a raffle before you change or reset it. Pick the raffle from the tabs, then:

• Backup Now saves a snapshot of every ticket (and any winners) in that raffle. Each snapshot is listed with its date, with buttons to Download Ticket Csv, Download Winner Csv, Restore (puts the ticket numbers back on the same orders) or Delete the snapshot.
• Delete Settings resets the settings of that raffle to the defaults.
• Delete Tickets and Winners removes the ticket numbers and winners of that one raffle (orders are kept). Make a backup first.

Repair Tables

Only needed after upgrading from an older version of the plugin. Migrate Legacy Data copies raffle settings and tickets from the old database tables into the current storage (raffle settings and WooCommerce order items). It is safe to run more than once and never deletes data.

Import Tickets

Bring in tickets sold elsewhere (another system, a spreadsheet, paper sales). Each CSV row becomes a completed order with those ticket numbers, and the numbers are marked as used so they are never sold online.

1. Click Download next to Sample CSV to get the template.
2. Fill one row per buyer (see the columns below).
3. Choose the file and click Import.

CSV columns, in this order: prefix, customer name, address, email, phone, product ID, tickets, raffle category ID. The tickets column takes one number (42) or a range (40_to_45).

prefix,name,address,email,phone,product_id,tickets,category_id WIN,Jane Smith,1 Main Street,jane@example.com,5551234,123,40_to_45,12

• The prefix can be written with or without the dash: VEGAS and VEGAS- both give VEGAS-55.
• After the import the page shows what happened, for example “Imported 4 ticket(s) on 2 order(s). Skipped 1 ticket(s) that were already sold: VEGAS-10”.

Clear Data

Removes all issued ticket numbers and recorded winners for every raffle, and resets each raffle’s counter so numbering starts again from its starting number. Your raffle settings, products and orders are kept.

1. Type DELETE in the box.
2. Click Delete all raffle data. A green “All raffle data has been cleared” message appears.

License

Enter your license key to activate the plugin. Without a valid key the raffle features are switched off and raffle products cannot be bought, so no customer pays without receiving tickets. Manage your keys and site URLs in your wpraffle.com account.

The plugin checks your key with the WPRaffle license server regularly. If your site cannot reach the server, for example because of a firewall, the License page shows Not confirmed yet. Everything keeps working for 3 days while the plugin tries again every hour. Once the connection is fixed, click Check again now.

Help

Links to the setup guides, your account and support.

Questions