Mifos

How to create a new client

The individual client can have savings accounts and borrow money according to the rules of your MFI. If the client is associated with a group, that client inherits the loan officer, the meeting schedule, and the meeting location of the group.

Follow these instructions to create a client account.

  1. Click Clients & Accounts. In the left navigation panel, click Create New Client.

    The following screen appears:

    mifoscreateclient1.png

  2. In the Group Name box, type the name of the group that this client is assigned to, and click Proceed. A list of groups by that name appears; click the correct one. If the correct group name is not on this list (perhaps you mistyped it?), type the group name again and click Search to try again. When you see the correct group name, click it.
  3. If group membership is not required for your client, click that link to proceed.
    A screen for information about the client appears.

    The first section contains personal information. All fields with an asterisk (*) are required.

mifoscreateclient2.png

  1. Enter information using the descriptions in the following table (note that some fields may not appear or may have different choices, depending on how Mifos is configured for your MFI):

    Field name

    Description

    Example

    Salutation

    Mr, Mrs etc.  In Mifos, the system administrator can define more salutations.

    Mr.

    First Name


    Albert

    Middle Name



    Second Last Name


    Smith

    Last Name


    Anderson

    National ID

    Can be Government ID, or National ID, or Social Security Number. This is not editable after a client enters Active state. Some external IDs might have characters associated with them.

    N-001

    Date of Birth


    Nov-11, 2005

    Gender


    Male

    Marital Status


    Married

    Number of Children

    The total number of children the client has.

    4

    Citizenship


    Kenyan

    Ethnicity


    Arab

    Education Level

    Captures the maximum level of education the client has attained, for example, Graduate

    Graduate

    Activities

    The nature of the client's business

    Self-owned business

    Handicapped

    If this field is present, check whether there is a handicap or not.

    No

    Poverty Status

    If this field is present, click the appropriate status for the client, if known.

    Very poor

    Income

    If this field is present, click the appropriate monthly income for the client, if known.

    200

    Photograph

    User can upload a photo, which will be a part of the client details page. The maximum size allowed is 30KB. Click Choose File, browse your computer for the photograph file, and double-click it so that the filename appears next to the box.

    C:\microfin\photos\smith01.gif

    Spouse/Father Name

    Relationship, First Name, Middle Name and Second Last Name and Last Name

    Names of the spouse or father.

    Jane Smith, Spouse

    The next section is for the address of the group.

    address

  2. Enter information using the descriptions in the following table:

    Field name

    Description

    Example

    Address

    Address

    Address 1-3, city, state, country, postal code, Telephone

    P.O Box 2223, Stanford, California, 94305, +1650-271-2450

    The next section is for additional information about the client, if any is required.

    mifoscreateclient3.png

  3. Enter information based on the descriptions in the following table:

    Field name

    Description

    Example

    Additional Information

    Custom Field 1 - 6

    Custom data for the MFI.


    The next section is for MFI-related information.

    mifoscreateclient4.png

  4. Enter information using the descriptions in the following table:

    Field name

    Description

    Example

    MFI related information

    Recruited by

    Select the loan officer to be assigned to the client.  This is applicable if you selected to assign the client directly to a branch; otherwise the value is inherited from the group.

    Loan Officer 1

    Meeting Schedule

    Define the meeting schedule. This field appears only if you assign the client directly to the branch; otherwise, the meeting schedule is inherited from the group.  A client can be created without a meeting schedule if there is no need for one.  Such client's name will not appear in the collection sheets.


    External ID

    The client's unique identifier in another system that shares client details with Mifos.

    E003

    Trained

    Has the client been trained?

    Yes

    Trained On

    The date when the client was trained.

    Dec-12, 2005

    The next section is for client fees.

    mifoscreateclient5.png

  5. Enter information using the descriptions in the following table:

    Field name

    Description

    Example

    Administrative set fees

    Any fees, if applicable

    Any group or branch fees, such as membership application fees

    8.85

    Periodicity

    The frequency the fee is applicable. Periodicity can be Once, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly

    One-time fee

    Check to Remove

    Check to remove the application fee.


    Apply additional fees



    Fee Type; Amount

    Mifos allows the definition of three custom fee types. Click the applicable fee type from the list and type the amount of the fee in the Amount box.

    Processing fee, 3.00

    The next section is for savings accounts.

    mifoscreateclient6.png

  6. If you want to create a savings account for this client now, click the name of the savings product from the Savings Name list. You can create up to three savings accounts.
  7. When you have finished, click Preview to review your work.
  8. If you want to make changes, click Edit MFI-related Information and make the changes.
  9. When you are satisfied with all the changes, click Submit for Approval. If you want to submit this client later, click Save for Later; the account goes into a Partial Application state, and you can build a custom report to find all client records in this state. (If you decide not to create this client at all at this time, click Cancel.)

A screen appears that might look like this:

mifoscreateclient7.png

Note the system ID number for this client, so that you can use it to search for details about that client later.

The client details (dashboard) page might look like this:

Client Dashboard

From the client dashboard, you can do the following:

  • View and change client status
  • Open new savings and loan accounts
  • View closed accounts
  • Edit MFI information
  • Edit or remove group membership
  • Edit personal information
  • View summarized historical data
  • View the change log
  • View performance history
  • View and attach surveys
  • View and add notes

Check the appropriate chapters of this manual for information on each of these.