Fees

Your organisation decides which fees it charges clients and what happens when a client owes fees. All of this is on one screen.

Who can change it: Admin, Proprietor, Branch Manager. Other roles can open the tab and see the settings, but cannot save changes.

Opening the fee settings

1. Select Settings in the User part of the left-hand menu (or select your initials in the top right, then Settings).
2. Select the Account Creation tab.

Change the fields you need, then select Save Changes at the bottom. Until you save, the screen shows "You have unsaved changes." A message confirms "Fee configuration updated."

Amounts are entered with up to two decimal places, for example 500.00. Set any fee to 0 to switch it off.

Client Registration Fee

Field	What it does
Registration fee	Charged when a new client account is created. It becomes an amount the client owes until it is paid (or is taken from savings - see Take fees from below).

Unpaid fees

What happens when a client owes fees. Every option is off by default and applies only to your organisation.

Field	What it does
Take fees from	Where a fee is taken from at the moment it is charged. Leave it owing (the default): the fee is recorded as owed. The client's savings: the fee is taken from the client's savings; if their savings do not cover it, the charge is refused, which can stop a client being registered. Savings, otherwise leave it owing: taken from savings when they cover it, otherwise recorded as owed.
Take unpaid fees out of a collection first	When on, any fees the client owes are settled from a loan collection before penalties, interest and principal.
Take unpaid fees out of a savings deposit first	When on, any fees the client owes are settled from a savings deposit before the rest goes to savings.
Refuse new loans to clients who owe fees	When on, a client who owes registration or enrollment fees cannot get a new loan.
Refuse at	The step at which such a loan is refused: Application, Approval or Disbursement. The loan is blocked at that step and every step after it. Available only when the option above is on.
Ignore amounts up to	A small amount of unpaid fees that is ignored, so a rounding remainder cannot stop a loan. Available only when refusing loans is on.

caution

Think about these options before switching them on:

• Savings back how much a client can borrow, so a fee taken from savings also lowers the amount they can borrow.
• With Take unpaid fees out of a collection first, a client who owes a fee and pays their full instalment still falls behind on the loan by the amount of the fee, because less of the payment reaches the loan.
• Refuse new loans to clients who owe fees applies to every client who owes a blocking fee, which may be a large part of your book. A client who is refused needs an officer to record their fee payment before they can borrow.

Product Enrollment Fees

Field	What it does
Small Loans enrollment fee	Charged when a client first enrols in Small Loans, at disbursement of the loan.
Savings Club enrollment fee	Charged when a client first enrols in the Savings Club, when the savings goal is created.

Recurring Fees

Field	What it does
Account maintenance fee	Charged automatically to every client holding at least one active account, once per interval. A client is charged once per interval however many accounts they hold.
Charged	The interval for the maintenance fee: Monthly, Quarterly or Annually. Available once a maintenance fee is set.
Per-transaction fee	Charged on each daily collection.

If someone else saved at the same time

If another person saved the fee settings while you had the screen open, your save is refused with "These settings were changed by someone else. Reload the page and reapply your edit." Reload the page, check their changes, and make your change again.

Changes and existing charges

A fee change applies to charges made after you save. Fees already charged are not changed. None of these settings lock: they can be changed at any time.

For how fees and the payment order affect loans, see Small Loans.