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Actor: Loan Officer in charge of maintaining a relationship with the given client, or the Branch Manager in charge of the given area.
Purpose: This module should allow for the entry and editing of individual client information.
Functions:
- Adding a Client (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Editing Client Information (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- De-activating a Client (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Re-activating a Client (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Opening a Client Savings Account (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Submitting Client Loan Application (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Viewing Client Loan Applications (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Viewing Client Savings Accounts (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Viewing Client Loan History (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Viewing Client Group Membership and Attendance (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
Data Fields - Client:
- Client Name
- Client Spouse Name
- Client Address
- Client Demographics (Age, Gender, Ethnicity, etc.)
- Client Income Level
- Client Assets
- Client Group Membership=
Actor: Loan Officer in charge of maintaining a relationship with the given group, or the Branch Manager in charge of the given area.
Purpose: This module should allow for the creation, maintenance and dissolution of solidarity groups, one of the core features of both grameen-style and SHG-style microfinance operations.
Functions:
- Creating a Group (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Edit a Group (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- De-activate a Group (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Re-activate a Group (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Adding and Removing Members (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Opening a Group Savings Account (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Viewing Group Savings Accounts (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Submitting Group Loan Applications (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Viewing Group Loan Applications (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Viewing Group Loan History (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Set a Meeting Schedule for the Group (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Create list of Financial Instruments transacted in Group Meetings (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
Data Fields - Group:
- Group Name
- Group Representative(s)
- Group Location
- Date Started
- Date Ended
- Group Demographics
- Group Maturity Level
- Group Meeting Schedule
- Group Financial Instruments
- Group Accounts
Actor: Loan Officer in charge of maintaining a relationship with the given group, or the Branch Manager in charge of the given area.
Purpose: This module should support the scheduling of regular group meetings, and be able to record the particulars of each conducted meeting, including transactions, meeting attendance, resolutions and notes.
Functions:
- Scheduling a periodic meeting for the group (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Scheduling a custom meeting calendar for the group (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Recording transaction and other particulars for a conducted meeting (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
Data Fields - Meeting:
- Meeting Date
- Meeting Location
- Meeting Supervising Officer
- Meeting Leader
- Meeting Attendance
- Meeting Resolutions
- Meeting Notes
- Meeting Transactions
Actor: Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Central Management - The application would typically be input by the loan / branch officer in charge of maintaining a relationship with the given group or client. It would be then reviewed by various management staff, from the branch manager to the central manager, until a final decision is taken.
Purpose: This module should allow the tracking of any loan (or other financial product) application by clients and groups. It should be able to track the entire application process, from initial submission, to review, to final approval or rejection. All actions on the application should be audited, to keep track of who has made what decision in the process.
Functions:
- Client / Group Loan Application Submission (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Addition of Supplementary Materials (Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Central Manager)
- View list of Pending Applications (Branch Manager / Central Manager)
- Loan Application Review (Branch Manager / Central Manager)
- Loan Application Amendment (Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Central Manager)
- Loan Application Approval (Branch Manager / Central Manager)
- Loan Application Rejection (Branch Manager / Central Manager)
- Loan Application Deferral (Branch Manager / Central Manager)
- Loan Application Disbursement in Cash / Check / Voucher and Loan Account Creation (Branch Manager / Central Manager)
- Loan Account Creation
Data Fields - Loan Application:
- Loan Applicant
- Loan Type (Financial Product)
- Loan Amount Requested
- Loan Purpose
- Loan Recipients
- Loan Particulars / Notes
- Reviewer Notes / Recommendations
Actor: Loan Officer in charge of maintaining a relationship with the given client, or the Branch Manager in charge of the given area.
Purpose: This module should support the creation of client loan accounts. It will probably be accessed first from the loan application screen after a loan has been approved and a corresponding loan account is created.
Functions:
- Open an Account (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Edit an Account (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Close an Account (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Re-open an Account (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- See Loan Repayment Schedule (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- See Loan Repayment History (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
Data Fields - Account:
- Account Number
- Account Holder
- Date Opened
- Date Closed
- Financial Product
- Interest Schema
- Payment Schedule (for loans or mandatory savings)
- Transaction History
- Link to Loan Application
Actor: Loan Officer in charge of maintaining a relationship with the given client, or the Branch Manager in charge of the given area. This could also be done by a Teller if the institution maintains teller-style branches. This screen could be combined with the Loan Repayment Tracking screen, below.
Purpose: This module should allow the client / officer to view the current loan status. It should allow the comparison of scheduled loan repayments with actual payments, including interest, principal and fee payments. It should note the repayment performance, all past due payments, total arrears, current outstanding, etc. It should also allow the scheduling and rescheduling of payments.
Functions:
- View Repayment History (Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Teller)
- View Current Balance (Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Teller)
- View Scheduled Payments / Disbursements (Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Teller)
- Re-schedule Payment (Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Teller)
- Generate Account Statement (Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Teller)
External Interfaces: In the future this system could support account information viewing from a variety of interfaces, such as ATM, Internet, Teller, etc. This could be done by using a standard XML format for transaction capture and representation, such as IFX/OFX.
Actor: Loan Officer in charge of maintaining a relationship with the given client, or the Branch Manager in charge of the given area. This could also be done by a Teller if the institution maintains teller-style branches.
Purpose: This module should allow entering a loan repayment for a particular client, typically by the loan officer handling the transaction. One screen can be used to record principal, interest and fee payments.
Functions:
- Enter a Repayment (Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Teller)
Data Fields - Transaction:
- Transaction Date
- Transaction Amount
- Account
- Debit or Credit
- Transaction Type (Deposit, Withdrawal, Principal Repayment, Interest Payment, Loan Disbursement, Fee, etc.)
- Receipt / Voucher ID
- Loan Officer Handling
- Transaction Medium (online, ATM, teller, in*person, meeting, etc.)
External Interfaces: In the future this system could support transaction capture from a variety of interfaces, such as ATM, Internet, Teller, etc. This could be done by using a standard XML format for transaction capture and representation, such as IFX/OFX.
Actor: Loan Officer in charge of maintaining a relationship with the given client, or the Branch Manager in charge of the given area.
Purpose: This module should support the creation of client savings accounts.
Functions:
- Open an Account (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Edit an Account (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Close an Account (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- Re-open an Account (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
- See Account Status (Loan Officer / Branch Manager)
Actor: Loan Officer in charge of maintaining a relationship with the given client, or the Branch Manager in charge of the given area. This could also be done by a Teller if the institution maintains teller-style branches.
Purpose: This module should allow the client / officer to view the current account status.
Functions:
- View Transaction History (Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Teller)
- View Current Balance (Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Teller)
- View Scheduled Payments / Disbursements (Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Teller)
- Generate Account Statement (Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Teller)
Actor: Loan Officer in charge of maintaining a relationship with the given client, or the Branch Manager in charge of the given area. This could also be done by a Teller if the institution maintains teller-style branches.
Purpose: This module should allow entering a transaction for a particular account, typically by the loan officer handling the transaction.
Functions:
- Enter a Deposit / Withdrawal (Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Teller)
Actor: Loan Officer conducting the Group Meeting
Purpose: This module should permit the bulk entry of transactions from a group meeting, such as those conducted in solidarity-group based microfinance institutions. The screen can query for the set of financial instruments transacted in group meetings, and populate the expected payments to generate the screen. Then the loan officer should then correct any transactions which were not conducted as expected.
Functions:
- Enter a set of Transactions from a Group Meeting (Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Teller)
Actor: Central / Branch Management
Purpose: This module should be able to track the different loan officers, managers and their account portfolios. This will aid in monitoring officer performance and workload. For each officer, the following actions should be possible:
Functions:
- Enter / Edit Personnel Information (Branch / Central Manager)
- Add / Remove Clients and Accounts (Branch / Central Manager)
- Do Performance Review (Branch / Central Manager)
- Add Performance Comment (Branch / Central Manager)
- Generate Performance Report (Branch / Central Manager)
Data Fields - Officer:
The common personnel information should be stored for each officer, such as Name, Address, Tax ID, Date Hired, etc. (ISSUE: Need some elaboration here from a standard HR system.)
Actor: Branch Manager for a branch office closing, Central Manager for a central office closing
Purpose: The system should provide a function to perform the daily transaction postings and system updates. All scheduled payments not yet conducted (interest / principal / fee payments) should be treated as delinquent and necessary fees charged to the respective account. All interest accruals should be posted to the accounts according to the interest payment schedule. All of the transactions for the day should be posted to the respective accounts in the general ledger, by exporting data to the accounting system (see MoapDataToolkit below). The day's account positions should be reconciled with the actual balances, and the day's cash position should be reconciled with the cash actually collected. These actions should be audited so that the system is accountable for daily cash receipts. If this is a branch office, data should be exported for transfer to the central office (see MoapDataToolkit below).
Function:
- Perform Daily Closing (Branch / Central Manager)
See ReportGenerator, below.
Actor: Central Manager - who set the general policies and strategies for the institution.
Purpose: This module will allow for the definition of new financial products offered by the institution, both savings and lending products.
Functions:
- Creating a New Financial Product (Central Manager)
- Editing a Financial Product (Central Manager)
- Activating / De-activating a Financial Product (Central Manager)
- Setting Eligibility Requirements for a Financial Product (Central Manager)
- (ISSUE
- What would be typical eligibility requirement parameters?)
- Viewing a Sample Payment Schedule (Loan Officer / Branch / Central Manager)
- Setting a Custom Payment Schedule (Central Manager)
Data Fields - Lending Product:
- Name of the Product
- Maximum / Minimum Amount of the Loan
- Disbursement Installments
- Disbursement Frequency (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Every Meeting, One Time Payment, Variable, Custom, etc.)
- Disbursement Start Date
- Principal Repayment Frequency (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Every Meeting, One Time Payment, Variable, Custom, etc.)
- Interest Rate (Fixed / Variable)
- Interest Rate Amount
- Interest Rate Index
- Interest Compounding Frequency (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Every Meeting, Continuously, One Time Payment, etc.)
- Interest Repayment Frequency (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Every Meeting, One Time Payment, Variable, Custom, etc.)
- Fee Amount
- Fee Payment Frequency (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Every Meeting, One Time Payment, Variable, Custom, etc.)
- Principal Repayment Start Date (as an offset to loan issue date)
- Interest Repayment Start Date (as an offset to loan issue date)
- Fee Payment Start Date (as an offset to loan issue date)
- Principal Late Payment Penalty Type (Fixed Fee, Percentage, etc.)
- Principal Late Payment Penalty Amount
- Interest Late Payment Penalty Type (Fixed Fee, Percentage, etc.)
- Interest Late Payment Penalty Amount
- Fee Late Payment Penalty Type (Fixed Fee, Percentage, etc.)
- Fee Late Payment Penalty Amount
- Early Repayments Allowed?
- Balloon Repayments Allowed?
- Is this linked to a Savings Product? Which one?
Data Fields - Savings Product:
- Name of the Product
- Maximum / Minimum Amount Balance
- Interest Rate (Fixed / Variable)
- Interest Rate Amount
- Interest Rate Index
- Interest Calculation Method (Reducing Balance, Flat, EMI, etc.)
- Interest Compounding Frequency (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Every Meeting, Continuously, One Time Payment, etc.)
- Interest Payment Frequency (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Every Meeting, One Time Payment, Variable, Custom, etc.)
- Dividend Amount
- Dividend Type (ISSUE: What types of dividends are there?)
- Dividend Payment Frequency (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Every Meeting, One Time Payment, Variable, Custom, etc.)
- Fee Amount
- Fee Payment Frequency (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Every Meeting, One Time Payment, Variable, Custom, etc.)
- Fee Payment Start Date (as an offset to account creation date)
- Deposit Frequency (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Every Meeting, One Time Payment, Variable, Custom, etc.)
- Deposit Fee Type (Fixed, Percentage)
- Deposit Fee Amount
- Max / Min Deposit Amount
- Withdrawal Frequency (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Every Meeting, One Time Payment, Variable, Custom, etc.)
- Withdrawal Fee Type (Fixed, Percentage)
- Withdrawal Fee Amount
- Max / Min Withdrawal
- Withdrawals Allowed Date (as an offset to account creation, or never)
- Maturity Date (as an offset to account creation)
External Interfaces:
- Import / Export Financial Products between systems using a standard XML file format
Actor: Central MFI Manager - who oversee the overall institutional operations.
Purpose: This module should allow for the addition of an institution's local branches and centers. This can either be a physical or virtual grouping of clients / groups if there is no physical office. This should also support hierarchical branch organizations where sub-branches / centers report to higher-level offices.
Functions:
- Create a Branch (Central Manager)
- Edit a Branch (Central Manager)
- De-activate a Branch (Central Manager)
- Re-activate a Branch (Central Manager)
- Set Reporting Office (Central Manager)
Data Fields - Branch / Center
- Branch / Center Name
- Branch / Center Classification
- Branch Manager
- Branch Accountant
- Physical Office?
- Physical Office Address / Phone
- Territories Covered
- Territorial Exclusivity?
- Reporting Office - office to report to from this one
- List of Loan Officers operating directly from the Branch
- List of Groups handled directly by the Branch
- List of Clients / Accounts handled directly by the Branch
TODO
See PerformanceIndicators document.
See ReportGenerator, below.
Actor: Branch Manager / Central Manager
Purpose: In those cases where the system is used in a branch or center office, the data will have to prepared for export to the central office. Then in the central office, this will have to be imported into the central accounting and portfolio systems. At both import and export steps, one should choose the amount of consolidation of data that should occur. This should be made simple, flexible and extensible, and support a variety of transfer media (internet, CD, bulk transfer, etc.). The following is a list of data that could be exported:
- New / Modified Clients
- New / Modified Groups
- New / Modified Accounts
- New Transactions
Functions:
- Export Data Since Last Export (Branch Manager)
- Export Data Since Specific Date (Branch Manager)
- Import Portfolio / Accounting Data from Source (Central Manager)
External Interfaces:
Once again, the export formats should be in a standard XML format specialized for microfinance financial reports and data (see below).
Actor: Branch Manager / Central Manager
Purpose: Since the systems and data stores for Portfolio Management and Accounting will be somewhat independent, we will have to regularly export data from the Portfolio system data store to the Accounting system. Given a flexible, robust framework, this can be made simple and extensible.
Functions:
- Import Chart of Accounts from Accounting System
- Import List of Financial Products from Portfolio System
- Setting up Export Mapping - define a mapping between portfolio transactions and accounting system entries under particular sub-ledger accounts.
- Export - once this mapping is established, we will regularly transfer data from the portfolio system to the accounting system using this function.
External Interfaces:
The export formats should be in a standard XML format specialized for microfinance financial reports, such as XBRL (see 'XML Data Standards for Micro-finance', by Parikh and Dailey). Standardization of XML data formats will be a parallel activity to the MOAP project. In this case this would eventually allow the portfolio system to be integrated with various accounting systems that supported these same XML formats, and vice versa.
A microfinance institution also needs a ledger accounting system, for producing standard financial reports and statements, such as balance sheets,income statements, etc. This can either be an in-house application, or a third-party accounting system like Quickbooks.
Actor: Central Manager
Purpose: The user should be able to define a hierarchical chart of accounts. This chart of accounts should be organized into types of accounts, and further subdivided according to branch, program and funding agency. Each account should be labeled with an account number according to this classification, and accounts should be able to be consolidated into higher level ledgers.
Function:
- Create Chart of Accounts (Central Manager)
- Edit Chart of Accounts (Central Manager)
External Interfaces:
- Import / Export Chart of Accounts to transfer between systems, using a standard XML file format (Central / Branch Manager)
- Auditing - For auditing purposes, account entries and figures in reports should be made 'drill-down', so that the user can click to see the underlying figures that were used to calculate that value. This will greatly help in identifying inconsistencies and maintaining accountability.
- Financial Reporting - see following section.
Actor: Accountant / Finance Manager
Purpose: User should be able to post general non-portfolio ledger entries, such as those related to expenses, salaries, other programs, etc.
Function:
- Post a ledger entry (Accountant / Finance Manager)
- View current ledger balance (Accountant / Finance Manager)
Actor: Central Manager
Purpose: The day's account positions should be reconciled with the actual balances, and the day's cash position should be reconciled with the cash actually collected. These actions should be audited so that the system is accountable for daily cash receipts. If this is a branch office, data should be exported for transfer to the central office (see MoapDataToolkit below).
TODO
Reporting is one of the most important parts of a micro*finance MIS system. The system should easily be able to generate reports, drawing upon data from both the portfolio and accounting systems. Reporting is the way the MIS system provides concrete documents that help evaluate institutional status, performance and outlook.
Actors: Loan Officer / Branch Manager / Central Manager
Purpose: The system should come stock with a set of sample reports that can quickly and easily be generated. For best results the reports should be interactive, allowing for 'drill-down' functionality that allows one to see the source values for underlying calculations and figures. Reports can also be dynamically linked to other reports for related information and values. The following is the minimal set of reports that a small credit-only microfinance institution will require, drawn from 'Management and Information Systems for Microfinance', by Waterfield and Ramsing. There are may others also that should be included for a comprehensive solution. See Waterfield and Ramsing for a full treatment.
- Loan Repayment Schedule (Loan Officer / Branch / Central Manager)
- Loan Account Activity (Loan Officer / Branch / Central Manager)
- Active Loans by Loan Officer (Loan Officer / Branch / Central Manager)
- Delinquent Loans by Loan Officer (Loan Officer / Branch / Central Manager)
- Summarized Aging of Portfolio At Risk by Loan Officer (Loan Officer / Branch / Central Manager)
- Loan Write-off and Recuperations Report (Branch / Central Manager)
- Aging of Loans and Calculation of Reserve (Branch / Central Manager)
- Summary of Income Statement (Central Manager)
- Detailed Income Statement (Central Manager)
- Detailed Actual-to-Budget Income Statement (Central Manager)
- Adjusted Income Statement (Central Manager)
- Summary Balance Sheet (Central Manager)
- Detailed Balance Sheet (Central Manager)
- Cash Flow Review (Central Manager)
- Projected Cash Flow (Central Manager)
- Summary Operations Report (Central Manager)
Functions:
- Generate Report
- 'Drill-down'
- See Related Reports
External Interfaces: Reports should be exportable as XML files according to standard formats that will be defined for microfinance (see above), so that They can be shared between the institution and outside agencies in a flexible way. There should also be a provision for export to PDF or HTML using the ReportFormatter so that a report can be printed or electronically sent to outside observers who don't want to process raw XML.
- Export Report to XML
- Export Report to PDF
Actor: Central Manager
Purpose: There should also be a facility for creating customized reports, for specialized analyses or to meet the reporting requirements of new donors or regulatory agencies with different focus areas and report formats. It should allow customized rows, columns and hierarchical organization, possibly following some internal XML format for representation to make it easy to load, save and export report formats between different systems. The following functions should thus be possible:
Functions:
- Create a Custom Report Format
- Generate a Report According to a Custom Format
External Interfaces:
- Export a Custom Report Format to XML
- Import a Custom Report Format from XML
TODO
Actor: Branch / Central Manager
Purpose: There should be a provision to create users with passwords to allow secure access to the system. Only authenticated users would be able to use the system.
These users should be given access rights according to their privilege class, and should be able to create new users with less privileges than themselves. Access rights should generally follow the guidelines described above, with the provision to create custom privilege classes as described below.
In most cases, the following five privilege classes should be sufficient. In the cases of Tellers, Loan Officers and Branch Managers, these users should generally have the ability to view / change data only for clients and areas delegated to them. Optimally users, passwords and privileges should operate across the portfolio, accounting and reporting systems.
- Teller
- Loan Officer
- Branch Manager
- Central Manager
- Accountant / Auditor
Data Fields - User:
- Full Name
- Login
- Password
- Privilege Class
- Personnel ID
- Active?
Functions:
- Add a User / Password
- Edit User Information
- Change Password
- Change Privilege Class for a User
- Deactivate / Delete User
Actor: Central Manager
Purpose: There could also be a provision for creating custom privilege classes, by dynamically adding and removing privileges, selected from the various functions detailed in this document. This may be useful where organizations follow different organizational and operational structures than the one assumed here.
Functions:
- Create Custom Privilege Class
- Add Privilege from Class
- Remove Privilege from Class
TODO
TODO
#XMLStandardization
XML Standardization
XML standards will have to be developed for the representation of microfinance financial reports and ledger accounts. This can be done as an extension of XBRL, a XML standard for financial reporting being developed and adopted by the mainstream financial services industry. In all cases we should rely on 'open' standards, standards open to use and review by the entire community. For more information see 'XML Data Standards for Micro*finance', by Parikh and Dailey.
** TapanParikh - 31 March 2004
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