statiegeld

RevBank plugin for return deposits

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Synopsis

$REVBANK_DATADIR/products:

    clubmate     1.40                   "Club-Mate bottle" +sb
    cola         0.90                   "Cola can" +sc
    +sb          0.15@+statiegeld       "Bottle deposit"
    +sc          0.25@+statiegeld       "Can deposit"
    matecrate    1.50@+statiegeld       "Mate crate (empty)"

Description

This plugin allows users to get refunds for empty container deposits. In a typical setup, there would be a separate terminal where RevBank runs in statiegeld mode. In statiegeld mode, you scan products to get your deposit money back in the same way you would normally buy them.

Alternatively, on a regular RevBank terminal, the deposit command (which is provided by the deposit plugin) is extended to support product id's where you would normally enter an amount.

Usage

If RevBank was run with the environment variable REVBANK_STATIEGELD set to 1, the user just scans the products.

Alternatively, a product can be scanned after entering the deposit command.

The product_id (barcode) is used to look up the stategield addon. In case of a non-hidden addon (does not begin with +), the name of the addon can also be used.

Configuration

The statiegeld plugin recognises products from the file products by matching the contra accounts (the +statiegeld in 0.15@+statiegeld) of the product's addons against a list of known accounts.

That list is hard coded in the plugin, but could be changed if you want to use a different account than the default +statiegeld. The contra account can be a hidden account or a regular account.

Don't remove statiegeld addons because that means customers can no longer get their deposits back. Also, consider the consequences of changing the price before doing so.

"statiegeld"?!

"Statiegeld" is the Dutch word for container deposits. Because the English word "deposit" is also the verb for adding money to your account, and used extensively in RevBank, it was useful to distinguish between the two features.

In the user interface, the terms "deposit" and "deposit return" are used.

Limits

By itself, the statiegeld plugin only supports refunding deposits for known products that are configured as such. There is no limit to how many containers the user can return to get refunds. There's another plugin, statiegeld_tokens, that can be used to limit the refunds to what the same user has actually purchased.