Getting started
Installation
Expiration Dates for WooCommerce is available from the WordPress plugin directory. To install it:
- In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New.
- Search for Sellinor Expiration Dates to find the right plugin.
- Click Install Now, then Activate.
Alternatively, download the plugin from the WordPress plugin directory and upload it via Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
Once activated, the plugin adds a new Products → Expirations menu in your WordPress admin. This is your main hub, with tabs for Overview, Activity Log, Import/Export, and Settings. On free installs you will also see a Pro Features tab in the plugin’s navigation — it previews the paid features (batch tracking, automatic discounts, email notifications, and more) and disappears once the Pro add-on is active.
Setting your first expiration date
Simple products
- Open any product in Products → Edit Product.
- In the Product data panel, click the Expiration tab.
- Enter an expiration date using the date picker.
- Click Update to save the product.
The expiration date will now appear on the product page according to your display settings.
Variable products
For variable products, each variation can have its own expiration date:
- Open the variable product and go to the Variations tab.
- Expand the variation you want to edit.
- Find the Expiration Date field and set your date.
- Repeat for other variations as needed.
- Click Save changes, then Update the product.
This is useful when different sizes or packages of the same product have different shelf lives.
Quick configuration
After setting your first expiration date, review the key settings under Products → Expirations → Settings:
- General — Display settings, the expiring-soon threshold, expiry actions (hide from catalog, set to out-of-stock, or both), and the “Delete all data on uninstall” option.
- Notifications — Configure the email digest for expiring products (Pro).
- Discounts — Set up automatic discount tiers (Pro).
- License — Activate or deactivate your Pro license (Pro).
- System Info — A diagnostic summary of your site and configuration to copy when contacting support.
The Notifications, Discounts, and License settings tabs appear once the Pro add-on is installed and active — on a free-only install you will see General and System Info, plus locked Notifications and Discounts previews (each describes what the section does and links to the upgrade page) and the Pro Features tab previewing what Pro adds.
The Overview tab at Products → Expirations is your main dashboard, showing stats, an expiration calendar, and filtered views of all products with expiration dates. See Reports & calendar for details.
Quick edit and bulk edit
You do not need to open each product individually. From the Products list:
- Quick Edit — Click Quick Edit on any product row to set or change its expiration date inline.
- Bulk Edit — Select multiple products, choose Edit from the Bulk Actions dropdown, and set a shared expiration date for all selected products at once.
Uninstalling and your data
By default, the plugin keeps your data if you deactivate or delete it, so nothing is lost if you reinstall later:
- Deactivating the plugin stops the expiry checks and hides the menus but leaves all expiration dates, settings, and the activity log in place.
- Deleting the plugin removes its files. Your expiration dates, settings, and activity log are still preserved unless you opt in to a full cleanup.
To remove everything on deletion, enable Delete all data on uninstall under Products → Expirations → Settings → General before you delete the plugin. With it enabled, uninstalling clears the plugin’s settings, the activity log, stored expiration dates, and (with Pro) batch-tracking data. Expiration dates are stored as standard product metadata, so this option is the way to clean them up in bulk.
If both the free plugin and the Pro add-on are installed, the option is shared — whichever you remove last performs the cleanup, and removing only one tier never deletes the other’s data.
What’s next
With your first expiration dates set, explore the rest of the documentation to learn about expiry actions, reports & calendar, and import/export tools. For Pro, see Licensing for how to install the add-on and activate your key, then enable batch tracking, automatic discounts, and email notifications.