Center Accounts
Center Accounts
An MFI can optionally configure MIfos to support centers (see System Configuration). If Mifos is configured with centers turned on, then all groups must belong to a center.
When a center is defined, a loan officer, joining date (when the center joined the MFI), and meeting schedule must be specified. A meeting schedule is required even if the MFI has configured Mifos to support the disbursal of loans and collection of repayments on non-meeting days [See Meetings]. If this option is turned off, then all repayment schedules and disbursal dates will be scheduled on meeting days. Note the following about centers:
- Savings accounts. Savings accounts can be opened for centers (centers cannot have loan accounts). If a center has a savings account, all clients belonging to that center can make deposits to and withdrawals from that savings account. A user can specify which client made the deposit or withdrawal. Alternatively, a user has the option to not specify the client who made the transaction.
- Center Charges. Periodic and one-time center fees can be pre-defined from the Admin tab. See Fees. These can be defined to be automatically charged to any newly created center, appearing on the "Center Charges" page. An LO can remove one or more of these fees for a particular center account and edit the fee amount if it is a one-time fee. If a fee is removed from one account, it does not affect other accounts. In addition, an LO can apply pre-defined fees as well as miscellaneous fees or penalties on the account after it's been created. These charges will be added in the next payment.
- Inactive State. Clients and groups associated with a center must be in a closed state for a center to be made inactive. When a center is made Inactive, the associations with groups and clients are retained. Outstanding penalties or amounts due listed in the "Client Charges" section remain attached to the record, although a user can still waive outstanding fees. Users will not be allowed to apply any payments or charge any additional fees to an inactive center.
Attributes for Center Accounts
The attributes for a center account, provided in the following table, are divided into two parts:
- Attributes defined during center creation, which can also be viewed/edited later from the account details page.
- Attributes that can be viewed/edited only after center creation, from the account details page.
| S.No. | Attribute Name | Data Type | Default value, Mandatory for state inactive - active | Editable in state active - inactive | Range | Can be hidden? | Mandatory -Optional -Configurable | Description/Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Attributes During Center Creation | ||||||||
| 1. | Name | Alphanumeric | None - Yes - Yes | Yes - Yes | N/A | No | Mandatory | Name of center should be unique across branch. Name of the center may be modified after center creation. |
| 2. | Loan officer assigned to Center | Drop-down | None- No - Yes | Yes- Yes | LOs in that branch | No | Mandatory | This information percolates down to all groups and clients linked to the center. |
| 3. | MFI joining Date | Date | Current date - Yes - N/a | Yes - Yes | N/A | No | Mandatory | This is the date when the center joins the MFI. The user can enter any past or future date. |
| 4. | External ID | Numeric | None - No - Configurable | Yes - Yes | N/A | Yes | Configurable | If an old system was being used, and now is transferred to the Mifos system, this can serve as a link between old system and the Mifos system. There is no built-in intelligence in Mifos system to handle this data. |
| 5. | Meeting schedule – Frequency of Meetings | Frequency/ Recurrence | None - No - Yes | Yes - Yes | 999 weeks; 999 months | No | Mandatory | This is the number of times meetings are held within a time period (number of weeks, months). For details, refer ''__Meetings''__. |
| 6. | Meeting Schedule - Location of Meeting | Alphanumeric | None - No - Yes | Yes - Yes | N/A | No | Mandatory | This is the text field indicating where meetings are held for the group. This information percolates to all the groups belonging to this center. |
| 7. | Center Address -Address 1 | Alphanumeric | None - No - No | Yes - Yes | N/A | Yes | Optional | The Address fields for centers can be hidden. If hidden, address fields including city, state, country and postal code are not displayed in the UI. |
| 8. | Address 2 | Alphanumeric | None - No - No | Yes - Yes | N/A | Yes | Optional | |
| 9. | Address 3 | Alphanumeric | None - No - No | Yes - Yes | N/A | Yes | Optional | |
| 10. | City | Alphanumeric | None - No - No | Yes - Yes | N/A | Yes | Optional | |
| 11. | State | Alphanumeric | None - No - No | Yes - Yes | N/A | Yes | Optional | |
| 12. | Country | Alphanumeric | None - No - No | Yes - Yes | N/A | Yes | Optional | |
| 13. | Postal Code | Alphanumeric | None - No - No | Yes - Yes | N/A | Yes | Optional | |
| 14. | Telephone | Alphanumeric | None - No - No | Yes - Yes | N/A | Yes | Optional | |
| 15. | Question Groups | None - No - Configurable | Yes - Yes | N/A | Yes | Configurable | See Question Groups. | |
Attributes and Actions Viewable/Editable only After Center Creation | ||||||||
| 16. | Groups assigned to Center | Group names | None - No - No | Yes - Yes | Groups in that branch | No | Mandatory | Groups cannot be assigned to Inactive centers. But a center can be made Active without any group assigned to it. |
| 17. | System ID | Numeric | N/A - N/A - N/A | N/A -N/A | N/A | No | Mandatory | System generated unique center ID to identify the center. |
| 18. | Date created in system | Date | The Date the record is first created - No - No | N/A -N/A | N/A system filled | No | Mandatory | Date when the center record was created and saved in the system. |
| 19. | Assigning clients to center titles (Officer titles/positions) | Drop-down | None - No - No | Yes - Yes | Titles defined by MFI and Names of Clients belonging to the center | Yes | Configurable | See Assign clients to positions |
| 20. | Notes (500) | Alphanumeric | None - No - No | Yes - Yes | N/A | No | Optional | A record can have multiple notes attached to it. |
| 21. | Status | Radio Buttons | Active - N/A - N?A | Yes - Yes | Active; Inactive | No | Mandatory | By default, a new center is saved in Active state |
Center Account Details
The account details screens display the following information:
- Account information: current loan, savings and center accounts; all the closed accounts and cancelled states
- Groups assigned to the center.
- Center information including official titles, meeting details etc.
- Associated notes
- Performance history, as described below.
- Attached Question Groups
Performance History
Mifos tracks the performance of each center and provides the following metrics, which are displayed in the Performance History box on the account details page.
Performance metrics | Formula |
Number of active clients | Total number of active and on-hold clients belonging to the center |
Number of active groups | Total number of active and on-hold groups belonging to the center |
Total outstanding loan portfolio | Total original value of all outstanding loans (including all group loans and client loans) |
Portfolio at risk | The remaining balance of all outstanding loans (of groups and clients together) that have one or more installments of principal past due more than 30 days / Outstanding principal balance of all outstanding loans. These values are principal only; they do not include interest. *Currently not available in Mifos. |
Total Savings | Includes all the savings accounts of the center, group and also of the clients belonging to the group |