MAATA-N-TUDU ASSOCIATION (MTA)
ISFUND CONSULTING SERVICES FOR
IMPLEMENTATION OF INFORMATION SYSTEM (IS)
DRAFT REPORT ON INFORMATION NEEDS ASSESSMENT
Prepared by Norman G. Williams
C/O Asamoah & Williams Consulting (AWC)
P.O. Box 10005
Kumasi, Ghana
May, 2006
ABBREVIATIONS
FNGO
Financial Non-Governmental Organization
GHAMFIN
Ghana Microfinance Institutions Network
IS
Information System
IT
Information Technology
MFI
Microfinance Institution
MIS
Management Information System
MTA
Maata-N-Tudu Association
PDA
Personal Digital Assistant (Handheld computer)
UPS
Uninterrupted Power Supply
Table of Contents
Page
Section 1
Introduction......................................................................................... 1
1.1
Background ................................................................................................ 1
Institutional Background .................................................................................... 1
Ownership, Governance, and Management ......................................................... 1
Products and Services ........................................................................................ 1
Strategic Alliances ............................................................................................. 2
Current State of Information System .................................................................. 2
Previous attempts at restructuring the Information System .................................. 3
Strategies to Re-structure the Information System: ............................................. 4
1.2
Terms of Reference of the Assignment ......................................................... 4
Assignment component: .................................................................................... 4
Deliverables ...................................................................................................... 4
1.3
Structure of Report ..................................................................................... 5
Section 2
Executive Summary.............................................................................. 6
2.1
Key Findings............................................................................................... 6
2.2
Major Conclusions and Recommendations .................................................... 7
Section 3
Information Needs Analysis FRAMEWORK .............................................. 8
3.1
Consultant’s Approach to the Assignment ..................................................... 8
SECTION 4:
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE......................................................... 9
4.1
Corporate Organizational Structure .............................................................. 9
Functional Structure of the Credits Department ................................................. 10
Functional Structure of the Finance and Accounting Department ........................ 11
4.2
Key Operational Areas............................................................................... 13
SECTION 5:
Clients Information MAINTENANCE .................................................. 14
5.1
Introduction ............................................................................................. 14
5.2
Data Elements to maintain in the Clients Record ......................................... 14
5.3
Source Input documents ........................................................................... 15
5.4
Evaluation, Comments and Recommendations:........................................... 16
SECTION 6:
Information Needs FOR THE Savings FUNCTION .............................. 17
6.1
The importance of Savings ........................................................................ 17
6.2
Existing Policies and Practices –Group Savings Products .............................. 17
6.3
Savings-related Reports Prepared in the Existing System. ........................... 18
6.4
Comments on Existing Savings Procedures ................................................. 18
6.5
Major Features of new Information System to Support Savings ................... 18
System Integration .......................................................................................... 18
Savings Product Types ..................................................................................... 18
Interest Calculation ......................................................................................... 19
Data to be Managed ........................................................................................ 19
Savings Reports .............................................................................................. 20
SECTION 7:
Information Needs FOR THE Loans FUNCTION ................................. 22
7.1
Loan Products .......................................................................................... 22
7.2
Product Terms .......................................................................................... 22
Page i
7.3
Operational Procedures ............................................................................. 25
7.4
Evaluation, Conclusions and Recommendations .......................................... 27
7.5
Major Features of new Information System to Support Loans ...................... 28
System Integration .......................................................................................... 28
Loan Product Types, Terms and Methodologies ................................................. 29
Interest Calculation and Application .................................................................. 29
Penalty Calculation and Application................................................................... 29
Data to be Captured and Managed ................................................................... 29
Loans Reports ................................................................................................. 32
SECTION 8:
INFORMATION NEEDS, FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING ........................ 35
8.1
Existing Accounting Policies and Practices .................................................. 35
8.2
Capabilities Required from the new General Ledger ................................... 35
8.3
Accounting Reports, Financial Statements, and Accounting Ratios ............... 35
SECTION 9:
Information Needs – LIQUIDITY MANAGEMENT ............................... 37
9.1
Existing Policies and Procedures on Liquidity Management .......................... 37
SECTION 10: Information Needs - INTERNAL CONTROLS ...................................... 38
10.1 The Objectives of the Internal Controls and Audit Review ........................... 38
10.2 Internal Controls, Audit and Inspection Policies and Procedures ................... 38
Portfolio Management ...................................................................................... 40
Risk Management ............................................................................................ 41
SECTION 11: IS/IT RESOUCES AND MANAGEMENT .............................................. 43
11.1 Computer Configuration ............................................................................ 43
11.2 Wide Area Network (WAN) ........................................................................ 44
11.3 Management of System Resources............................................................. 46
11.4 Information System Policies and Procedures ............................................... 47
SECTION 12: HUMAN RESOURCES ....................................................................... 48
12.1 Staffing Responsibilities............................................................................. 48
12.2 Staff Skills Development............................................................................ 48
APPENDIX A: Technical Specification – CLIENTS Information ................................. A1
APPENDIX B: Technical Specification SAVINGS...................................................... B1
APPENDIX C: Technical Specification LOANS ......................................................... C1
Appendix C2 Other Loan Functions and Processing Capabilities ........................ C14
Appendix C3 Loans and Portfolio Management Reports ................................... C17
APPENDIX D: Technical Specification ACCOUNTING .............................................. D2
Page ii
CGAP ISFUND Contract
Information System for Maata-N-Tudu Association
Draft Report on Information Needs Assessment
SECTION 1
1.1
INTRODUCTION
Background
Institutional Background
Maata-N-Tudu Association is a non-governmental membership association operating in the
three northern regions of the Republic of Ghana, namely: Northern Region, Upper East
Region, and Upper West Region. Its core business covers a developmental program, and a
Savings and micro-credit program. The institution has been in existence for more than ten
(10) years, and is considered one of the leading microfinance institutions in the country,
from the point of its institutional structures as well as its portfolio size.
Ownership, Governance, and Management
Maata-N-Tudu is a membership organization and the members are the owners of the
association. In addition to being the owners they are also the beneficiaries. However,
majority of the members have either very little education or no education at all.
Consequently the constitution requires executives of the association to serve on the board
and also to appoint highly qualified members of their communities as board members. The
De-facto management therefore lies with the board of directors. The board has therefore
appointed a technically competent sub committee with relevant professional and technical
skills to advice on matters of micro finance. A team of competent staff with several years of
experience will complement their skills in credit delivery and management. See appendix of
staff qualification and experience.
Products and Services
The Association offers two streams of services, namely: a Development program, and a
microfinance financial services program. The Development program has, over the past ten
years, acquired extensive leadership and group management experience, provides training
to the clients at minimum cost. The microfinance department provides financial services in
the form of micro savings and Group loans to its members. In the early years of its
existence, there was not much separation, at least from the financial management angle,
between the two services. Credit was seen as a development intervention. However, this
policy has now changed. Several studies undertaken in 2004 concluded that the credits
Maata-N-Tudu Association IS Implementation - Report on Needs Assessment
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scheme could be separated form the development program and constituted into a separately
resourced and financially self-accounting unit. Implementation of this policy began in 2005.
The Association has now completed studies to refine its original credit products, and also
introduced newer ones. As a result of this exercise, the Association came up with the
following products:
Product
Savings Products
Compulsory Savings
Loan Products
Anfaani Rice Processing
Anfaani Sheabutter
Anfaani Handicraft
Anfaani Petty Trading
Anfaani Grain Banking
Anfaani Pito Brewing
Remarks
Rural
Rural
Rural
Urban
Rural
Rural
A full description of individual products in the subject of Section 7 of this report.
Strategic Alliances
As the demand for financial services increase the association has developed strategic
alliances with other financial institutions like BESSFA rural bank that provide the association
with some leverage over and above the association’s loan fund. The bank therefore has a
stake in the management of the association due to the linkage relationship described above.
BESSFA is therefore a member of the technical committee of the board.
Current State of Information System
Most of the information required for everyday operational and management decision making
is maintained in internally developed Excel spreadsheets. The quality of these spreadsheet
programs is very high and the system is able to provide key management reports. The staff
have demonstrated a keen understanding of the key indicators for portfolio management
and performance monitoring, and actually have programs that calculate all the financial
ratios.
However the system suffers from the usual weaknesses typical of spreadsheet-based
information systems. The major ones are discussed below.
a) Lack of integration: The Credits department maintains information relating to savings
and loans on non-networked desktop computers. The accounting department
maintains a general ledger and produces standard financial statements and ratios
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from a separate set of spreadsheet programs on a stand-alone desktop. Information
exchange between the two key Units is usually done at the end of the month and in
summary form. Information exchange between the departments and the Executive
Secretary is mainly through hardcopy reports, and occasionally through data transfer
on removable storage media.
b) Duplication of data processing efforts: Because each department maintains its own
set of information, the same source document is often processed twice, especially
those transactions that affect both credits administration as well as general ledger
accounting.
c) Relatively high transactional unit cost: This is the obvious result of the two defects
mentioned above, i.e. the low level of integration, and incidence of duplication in
transaction processing.
d) Low level of sophistication: It is a common knowledge that bespoke spreadsheetbased systems cannot provide the type of data validation, file management and
database security features provided by standard portfolio management database
systems as standard. It is true that a skillful use of formulas, functions and macros
can automate most arithmetic and statistical computations, but it is also true that the
non-relational structure of spreadsheet programs make the platform unsuitable for
performing even the most basic routines such as on-line data validation to ensure that
a new customer name or account code does not duplicate an old one.
Previous attempts at restructuring the Information System
In the past two years, the management and professional staff have been fully occupied with
number of undertakings aimed at improving the institutional capacity and practices, product
refinement, and introduction of newer ones. The efforts have yielded many positive results,
including the ones mentioned below:
 A thorough review of the existing financial products and streamlining of product
methodologies and delivery terms (product refinement);
 Definition and introduction of new products and services;
 Preparation of a medium term business plan to guide its operations up to the year
2007; and
 Human resource development including various training programs for the core staff.
Serious consideration has also been given to the implementation of an effective information
system to improve information delivery and enhance management capacity to effectively
monitor and direct its operations. A major impediment that prevented Management from
initiating an IS implementation project was funding. This problem has been solved in part
with the kind decision of the ISFUND to finance the consulting services to assist in the
detailed planning and execution of a comprehensive IS project.
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Strategies to Re-structure the Information System:
The Management of Maata-N-Tudu, on the advice of the consultant, has accepted to take a
holistic approach to the IS evolution process. It has accordingly engaged the consultant first
to undertake a detailed operational review to determine its total information needs, and the
institutional structures and resources that must be put in place to implement the
recommended solution. This will include an inventory of the computer hardware and
communication/networking resources, human resources skills, and operational guidelines.
The consultant is also required to undertake a professional search for the optimal software
to implement the IS solution.
1.2
Terms of Reference of the Assignment
Assignment component:
The contract with ISFund covered four components of the traditional Information System
transformation cycle, namely: a) Project Preparation and management; b) Detailed
assessment of the information needs of the institution; and c) Software evaluation to select
the optimal software package(s) for the implementation of the recommended IS solution.
This report covers the Needs Assessment stage. The terms of reference, as specified in the
consultant’s project proposal, are reproduced below.
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
To undertake a detailed assessment of Maata - N - Tudu’s operations in order to
gain a thorough understanding of the business needs that the new IS should
respond to.
To undertake a study of the manual procedures including information flows,
vouchers and other paperwork in use, authorization and verification procedures,
etc., determine any weaknesses in the existing system, and recommend changes
that will remove these weaknesses and also optimise operations in the new
computerized environment.
To undertake, as part of the needs assessment, a thorough analysis of the reporting
requirements, including report formats, frequency of preparation, recipients and
mode of distribution.
To advice the methodology for preparing the key staff to accept and support the
new system.
Deliverables
The contract stipulated the following products to be delivered at the end of the Needs
Assessment stage:
a) A needs Analysis document that will cover the following issues as minimum:
o Summary of current operational policies and procedures, including detailed
description of processes
o Summary of reports used and/or required
o Proposed improvements and future needs
o System requirements and technical environment
Maata-N-Tudu Association IS Implementation - Report on Needs Assessment
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o Institutional impact
b) Technical specification of resources required including hardware, software,
networking, and estimated cost of resources (one-time purchase cost as well as
annual recurrent costs).
1.3
Structure of Report
This report is divided into << >> parts, as follows:
 Section 1 is the introductory part which provides a background to the assignment,
terms of reference, and deliverables.
 Section 2, the Executive Summary, contains a summary of key findings and
recommendations.
 Section 3 describes the consultant’s framework for the execution of the assignment.
 Section 4 reviews the organizational structure of the Association, and recommends
some changes to strengthen the overall management of the microfinanace operations.
 Section 5 reviews the existing Clients information management practices and
procedures, identifies key information needs, recommends the key requirements in
the new re-structured IS.
 Section 6 reviews the existing SAVINGS function, identifies key key features of the
present system, and recommends the key requirements in the new re-structured IS.
 Section 7 reviews the existing LOANS and portfolio management functions, identifies
key features of the present system, and recommends the key requirements in the
new re-structured IS.
 Section 8 is devoted to a review of the existing FINANCE and ACCOUTING functions,
identifies key features of the present system, and recommends the key information
needs in the new re-structured IS.
 Section 9 reviews liquidity and cash flow management practices in the existing
operations of the Association, identifies key areas of improvement, and recommends
the key information needs to implement an effective liquidity management policies
and procedures in the new restructured IS.
 Section 10 reviews Internal Controls and Audit practices in the existing operations,
identifies key areas of improvement, and recommends the key information needs to
implement an effective Internal Controls and Audit management policies and
procedures in the new restructured IS.
 Section 11 describes the operational policies and procedures to manage the
Information technology resources that will be employed in the implementation of the
new restructured IS. The Section also considers the need for wide area connectivity to
ensure smooth information communication between the various operational locations,
i.e. districts, regions and head office.
 Section 12 reviews the human resources issues arising from the implementation of the
various operational structures in the new restructured IS.
In addition, there are five (5) Appendices covering technical specifications for the required
modules.
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SECTION 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2.1
Key Findings
A.
In this phase of the assignment, the consultant has carried out a detailed assessment
of the operations of Maata-N-Tudu with a view to determine the products and services
it offers to its clientele and the delivery methodologies. The facts obtained were used
to determine the optimal information system that would support the organization’s
current and future activities.
B.
The organizational structure of Maata-N-Tudu was reviewed so as to obtain a better
understanding of the functional responsibilities of the sub-organizational units and
hence the information they require. A detailed Description of the findings on this topic
is provided in Section 4 of this report.
C.
A detailed analysis of the products and services, and the information requirements for
each functional area was undertaken. The findings are documented in separate
Sections of this report as follows:
 Section 5:
The clients and the information requirements to manage them;
 Section 6:
The Savings products and delivery methodologies, and hence the
IS requirements to support this function;
 Section 7:
Loan products and delivery methodologies, and hence the IS
requirements to support loan administration and portfolio management;
 Section 8:
The accounting function and hence the IS requirements to
support accounting and financial administration;
 Section 9:
Liquidity management;
 Section 10:
Internal Controls;
 Section 11:
IT resources and the institutional structures that manage them;
 Section 12:
The human resources requirements.
D.
A detailed specification of the information and data needs from the above diagnostics
was developed to be used as a guide during software evaluation, the next phase of
this diagnostic study. The specification is shown in Appendices A to E, as follows:
 Appendix A:
Clients Information Management
 Appendix B:
Savings
 Appendix C:
Loans
 Appendix D:
Accounts
E.
An IS/IT profile was developed in Section 11. It suggests a distributed database
environment with IS implemented at three levels, Districts, Regions, and the National
Secretariat (Head office). However, it was decided that the estimates of individual
resource category and costs would be undertaken after the Software evaluation, the
third and last segment of this diagnostic study. The results will be incorporated in the
final Project Completion Report
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2.2
Major Conclusions and Recommendations
F.
Maata-N-Tudu has a very good manual system that requires minimal adaptation to
make it ready for computerization.
G.
The Association has qualified personnel to carry out periodic review of products and
services, and in fact does so at fairly regular intervals.
H.
The institutional structures are satisfactory. The only apparent weakness is in Internal
Controls administration. Internal control policies exist but they have not been
documented. The consultant has recommended that this should be done soon. He has
provided some guidelines on key areas to be covered when reviewing these policies.
I.
The consultant has recommended the appointment of an Internal Audit and
Inspection officer, preferably at the level of a Manager, to be responsible for the
internal control and inspection function.
J.
The consultant has also recommended the appointment of an IT manager or system
administrator preferably at the level of a Manager, to be responsible for the managing
the Information System to be implemented and the technology resources..
K.
The project has suffered considerable delays. This is due mainly to budget
constraints. At the time the project was initiated in November 2005, MaataN-Tudu had naturally completed its recurrent budget for 2005 and 2006. In
the absence of specific budgetary allocation, the organization was
struggling to find money to meet reimbursable expenses of the consultant.
The fact that ISFUND was co-financing the project did not help much
because its contribution would be paid only at the end of the project. The
consultant could not help much because payment of other invoices
submitted to ISFUND for earlier assignments, which could have helped to
pre-finance the reimbursable expenses, were still outstanding for several
months.
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SECTION 3
3.1
INFORMATION NEEDS ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK
Consultant’s Approach to the Assignment
The consultant developed the following framework as the basis of assessing the specific
information needs of the Association and its individual operational units:
a) Analysis of the organizational structure;
b) A description of the key operational functions;
c) Analysis of the information requirements to support each of these functions;
d) Analysis of the resources required to support the individual processes; and
e) Analysis of the key management reports to assist in effective monitoring of the overall
operations.
The methodologies used included:
 Facts gathering:
 Detailed discussions with the Executive Secretary and other members of the Task
Force
 Review of policy documents
 Examination of operational documents in everyday use, such as inputs forms and
accounting vouchers
 Analysis of reports prepared by various functional units
 Review of the human resources and staff skills
 Analysis of the information technology (IT) tools employed.
The findings, conclusions and recommendations on each of these areas are contained in the
Sections that follow.
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SECTION 4:
4.1
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Corporate Organizational Structure
The organizational structure of the Association is shown as Figure 4.1 on the next page. The
highlights of this chart are the following:
1. Corporate Governance: The overall responsibility for the governance and policy
direction of the Association is exercised by a Board of Trustees, comprising selected
representatives of the member associations. The Board is assisted by a Technical sub
committee comprising a team of technically competent people with relevant
professional and technical skills to advice on matters of micro finance.
2. Management: The day-to-day management of the Association’s operations and
implementation of policies approved by the Board rests with the Executive Secretary
(as the chief executive officer). The Executive Secretary works closely with a team of
competent senior staff with several years of experience in microfinance and social
development programs. These are the Development Coordinator, the Finance
Manager, and the Credit Coordinator.
3. Operational Divisions: There are two operational departments, namely Development
Programs department, and the Microfinance department.
4. Regional Spread: The Association operates in all three regions in the north of Ghana,
namely: Northern Region, Upper East Region, and Upper West Region. Regional
operations are headed by Regional Credit Coordinators and Regional Development
Coordinators respectively.
Being a membership organization, there are a number of key decisions that are considered
the prerogative of the members, as owners of the institution. These powers are exercised by
the national executive committee assisted by regional and district sub-committees.
Membership of the executive committees comprises executives of the various Groups???
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Figure 4.1: Organizational Chart of Maata-N-Tudu
Functional Structure of the Credits Department
Currently, there are two organizational Units that make up the microfinance department.
These are the Credits Unit and the Finance & Accounts Unit. The Credits Unit is the main
organizational unit responsible for clients management, savings mobilization and loans. The
Unit works under close the supervision and direction of the Executive Secretary. As MTA
works under a decentralized organizational structure, the Credits Unit also has a Head office
unit, Regional Credit desks in each of the three regions, and a number of district offices in
each region. The highlights of the structure for Credits department are the following:



Executive responsibility for administration and management of Credits and Savings
portfolios rests with the Executive Secretary as the CEO.
Overall responsibility for day-to-day administration and management of Credits and
Savings portfolios rest with the Credit Coordinator at the Head Office, who works
under the direction of the Executive Secretary.
The day-to-day administration and management of Credits and Savings portfolios at
the regions is handled by the Regional Credit Coordinator in the region.
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



A Loans Approval committee (Loan Review committee)???
Each regional Credit Coordinator has under him a number of Credit Officers and the
Credit officers also have under them a number of loan officers (field officers).
The officers at the districts are usually Credit officers or senior loan officers.
The Secretary to the Executive Secretary also acts as cashier.
Figure 4.2 illustrates the organizational structure of the Credits administration.
Figure 4.2: Functional Structure Credits Unit
Executive Secretary
(CEO)
Secretary /Cashier
Corporate Credit
Coordinator
Credit Coordinator
Northern Region
Credit Officers
Loan Officers
District Officer
Credit Coordinator
Upper East Region
Credit Officers
District Officer
Loan Officers
Credit Coordinator
Upper West Region
Credit Officers
District Officer
Loan Officers
Functional Structure of the Finance and Accounting Department
The finance and accounting department also has a decentralized structure, consisting of an
Accounts/Administrative Officer at the Head Office (who currently acts additionally as the
Regional Accounts officer for the Northern Region), and two regional accounts officers at the
remaining two regions. The Accounts/Admin. Officer at the Head Office has overall
responsibility for maintaining the accounting records, preparing financial statements and
ratios, and assisting the Executive Secretary to set financial procedures and monitor
compliance with laid down procedures. He consolidates the accounting returns from the
regional offices before he prepares corporate reports. He exercises oversight responsibilities
over the regional accounts officers.
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Figure 4.3 illustrates the functional structure of the Accounts department.
Figure 4.3: Functional Structure of the
Finance and Accounting Unit
Executive Secretary
(CEO)
Accounts/Admin.
Officer
Head Office / NR
Regional Accounts
Officer – UE/R
Regional Accounts
Officer – UW/R
The Association, as at presently structured, does not have a separate organizational unit for
Internal Controls and Audit, although the basic responsibilities of ensuring safety of the
Association’s assets enforcing compliance with laid down operational policies and procedures,
are handled by the Executive Secretary, Credit Coordinator, and the Accounts/Administrative
Officer.
Owing to the extreme importance of internal controls in microfinance operations, the
consultant advises management to consider, as a matter of urgency, setting up a separate
unit to perform these functions. Initially, one person may be enough. Generally, the internal
control and audit inspection officer reports to the Board. This is to ensure his independence.
The basic responsibilities of the Internal Control officer is described in Section ??? later in
this report.
Another functional unit that does not exist in the present organizational structure is an
Information Technology (IT) unit. In the new restructured Information System environment,
an IT Unit will become necessary to manage the IT resources, be responsible for maintaining
the corporate databases, and provide technical support to the user departments. Initially,
one person may be enough. The basic responsibilities of the IT officer is described in Section
??? later in this report.
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4.2
Key Operational Areas
The key operational area that were analyzed in order to determine the information
needs of the Association are the following:
a) Product development and marketing
b) Pricing
c) Client Outreach
d) Credits
e) Basic Training Needs for various categories i.e. Clients, Credit Officers, Audit staff etc.
f) Savings
g) Finance and Accounting
h) Internal Controls
i)
Liquidity Management
j) Delinquency Management
k) Human Resources management
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SECTION 5:
5.1
CLIENTS INFORMATION MAINTENANCE
Introduction
One area not often given sufficient focus in the design of IS for most microfinance
institutions is clients information management. In many institutions, information on clients is
maintained as part of the data on loans or savings. However, a properly organized and
managed client information can serve many purposes in itself. A few of the uses are
mentioned below.
 Maata-N-Tudu, as a membership association, has an even greater need for
maintaining comprehensive information on its clients, who are, after all, the owners of
the institution.
 The existence of a credible clients database can greatly enhance the institution’s
capacity to conduct surveys to measure the popularity of specific products among the
members, and use the feedback to innovations at more frequent intervals (the clients
database can easily be accessed to obtain clients profile, and thereby plan the target
clientele for the surveys).
 Clients database is perhaps the main source of data in planning and conducting
impact assessment studies.
 A well-organized clients database will facilitate management ability to monitor the
types of training and other developmental services that have been given to individual
groups/members.
 The existence of a well-organized clients database will also facilitate studies aimed at
ascertaining the Association’s current share of the market in its catchment area.
5.2
Data Elements to maintain in the Clients Record
The basic data to store in the Clients database can be grouped into ??? categories as
follows:
a) Basic Identification data:
 Name
 group ID
 membership number within group
 Date of becoming a member
 ID number (e.g. national voter’s card, driving license, etc.)
 Member’s photo and signature/thumbprint may optionally be scanned and stored
 Position held in the Group (e.g. chairperson, secretary, treasurer, organized, etc.
b) Personal data:
 Gender
 date of birth
 marital status
 literacy level
 language(s) spoken
 number of children
 number of dependants, etc.
 Bankers
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c) Physical and mailing address:
 House number
 street/suburb
 city/town/village
 District
 Region
 postal address, etc
d) Next-of-kin:
 Name
 Type of relationship
 address, etc.
e) Urban/Rural: Whether the client is an urban or a rural dweller
f) Economic Sector/Type of business: Examples of the codes that may be used to
describe economic/business sector are:
 Trading
 Agriculture
 agro-processing
 handicraft, etc.
g) Income level: Maata-N-Tudu may use national classification, or it may express income
levels in monetary terms. Initially, this information will cover the income level on
joining the Association. Thereafter, it will be updated periodically through impact
assessment studies or other forms of surveys.
Examples of national income level codes are:
 50% below national poverty line
 On the threshold of the national poverty line
 50% above poverty line, etc.
Examples of income levels expressed in monetary terms are:
 0-300,000 Cedis per annum
 301,000 – 600,000 Cedis per annum
 601,000 – 999,999 Cedis per annum
 1 million Cedis and above
h) Status (e.g. Active, dormant, suspended, expelled, resigned, etc.)
5.3
Source Input documents
The primary source document for building a client database is the membership application
form. This form should provide the basic data on the Group and the group members.
Thereafter the information must be maintained by adding new events as they occur
throughout the life of the member, e.g. training and other developmental services the client
has benefited from, information on exiting, etc. By linking the client database to operational
data maintained in the savings and loans ledgers, a complete biography of the client will be
available for all types of analysis.
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5.4
Evaluation, Comments and Recommendations:
a) The existing Membership Application form needs to be redesigned to capture a lot
more data. A new form should be designed at the start of implementation, when the
software has been selected.
b) The computer software selected to implement the new IS should have a clients
information management module to provide this capacity. The required features and
functionalities of this module should include the following:
c) A data entry screen to capture information from input forms
d) A database management program to organize and store the information
e) The flexibility to extract and view or print information using various criteria such as
membership number, geographical area (district/region, etc.), date of registration,
economic activity, etc.
f) The software should provide the tools to generate the following reports as standard:
Report title
Description
Clients Register
An alphabetic listing of Groups and members
broken down by Districts within Regions. The
register will serve as a directory, given
reference data such as name of group,
number of members, date admitted, group
executives, address and meeting place, etc.
Various analyses of Groups and Group
members by criteria such as gender, education
level, income level, age, etc
Analysis of the developmental and other
training programs presented to the Groups
within a specified period, or since the group
was admitted.
A computer generated deposit slip for all
deposits received and loan repayments
entered
Statement of Account for savings and loans
ledgers, filtered by product type.
Clients Statistics
Clients Training
Payment Receipt/
Deposit Slip
Customer Statement
of Account by
Product
Loan Maturation
report
A report on each loan at maturation
Maata-N-Tudu Association IS Implementation - Report on Needs Assessment
Frequency of
preparation
Before
annual
general
assembly
On demand
On demand
At data entry
time
On demand
At loan
maturation
Page 16
SECTION 6:
6.1
INFORMATION NEEDS FOR THE SAVINGS FUNCTION
The importance of Savings
Savings mobilization plays a number of crucial roles in the operation of microfinance
institutions. Inculcating the savings habit among its members is a value in itself. It builds up
the habit of thrift and discourages people from consuming all the income they generate.
Besides, most MFIs depend on savings mobilization as a means of becoming an economically
self-sustaining financial intermediation and reducing over-reliance on donor aids or
commercial borrowing to fund their lending programs. Maata-N-Tudu’s strategic policies
support this view.
6.2
Existing Policies and Practices –Group Savings Products
The essential features of the existing information system are the following:
a)
The savings products being offered are: a) Compulsory Savings; and b) Voluntary
savings.
b)
Groups maintain savings passbooks at the their meeting place. All savings deposits
and withdrawals are recorded in the members passbook.
c)
The association maintains Savings ledger at the regional offices in which the same
information is recorded.
d)
Two methods of collection of savings are used, depending on the convenience to the
client, and the banking facilities available at the district where the clients are located..
The standard method is for the Group to deposit the amount into the Association’s
bank account, and later bring the bank deposit slip to the office where the information
is entered into their passbook. The other method is where a loan officer visits the
clients at their meeting place, collects the cash, issues an official receipt, and enters
the transaction in the Group passbook. The loan officer pays in the money collected at
the end of the day’s rounds into the Association’s bank account, and brings the
deposit slip to the office where it is used to update the savings ledger.
e)
The accounts department uses the deposit slips to post transactions into the cash
books and update the Savings Ledger Control account
f)
The procedure for savings withdrawals is as follows:
i. The Group, through their executives, apply to withdraw part of their savings
ii. The Loan officer checks the savings account balance to ascertain that the
group has enough funds in the account, and recommends the withdrawal
iii. The Executive Secretary authorizes the withdrawal
iv. The Accounts Officer prepares a check for the amount in the name of the
group
v. The Group Executive come to MTA office to collect the cheque and sign a
payment voucher. A Loan officer enters the amount of withdrawal in the
Group’s passbook before the ceque is released to them.
vi. Credits Unit uses the payment voucher to enter the withdrawal in the savings
ledger and update savings account balances.
vii. The Accounts officer enters the withdrawal in the cash book, and at the end of
the day posts the transaction in total to savings control account.
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Page 17
6.3
Savings-related Reports Prepared in the Existing System.
Table 6.1 lists the standard reports prepared:
Table 6.1: Savings-related Reports in the existing system
Report Title/Description
Group Savings Balances
Group Savings Statement
6.4
Frequency
At end of the month
On request
Comments on Existing Savings Procedures
The operational policies and procedures are standard for savings systems. However,
technology opportunities should be exploited to relieve the system of clerical workload and
improve management reporting. These are discussed in Sub-section 6.5 that follows.
6.5
Major Features of new Information System to Support Savings
System Integration
In the re-structured IS, the software selected for its implementation should have a module
for savings. This module should, however, be tightly integrated with Group and Group
Members Database management module (described in preceding Section 5), Loans module
(described shortly in Section 7), and with General ledger (described shortly in Section 8).
The primary purpose of integration will be to assist MTA achieve a high level of data sharing
among the functional organizational units and thereby reduce transaction unit cost.
Integration with loans system is critical because of the linkages (percentage of loan amount
the client must have in the savings account). Specific capabilities will include:
 Data entry screens for entering savings deposits and withdrawals
 Tracking of savings at Group and Group Members levels
 Automatic posting of deposits and withdrawals to Group savings accounts and Group
Members savings accounts
 Automatic posting of savings transactions to cash book
 Automatic posting of savings transactions (in summary) to the general ledger
Savings Product Types
The computer software should support group savings methodology, as minimum. In
addition, as MTA intensifies its savings mobilization efforts, it is likely to come up with newer
savings products, and/or review the terms and methodologies of existing ones to make them
more attractive to clients or more profitable. For these reasons, the computer software
Maata-N-Tudu Association IS Implementation - Report on Needs Assessment
Page 18
should provide the user with the flexibility to create new products and define individual
product terms and conditions.
Interest Calculation
The following features are required as minimum:
 The software should provide features for interest calculation. MTA currently does not
pay interest on the Group savings, therefore this capability is intended for the future.
 The software should provide for all the popular methods of interest calculation, i.e.
minimum, average, maximum daily/weekly/monthly balance, etc.
 The software should also allow the user to define the frequency and application of
interest, e.g. quarterly or annually.
 The software should automate the posting of interest calculated into the Groups, and
Members savings accounts, and also (in summary) into the general ledger
Data to be Managed
Group Savings account Opening:
 Group ID Number (to be selected from the Groups Information database)
 Group Name (to be selected from the Groups Information database)
 Group Savings account number (to be assigned by the computer system, but with an
option for the user to modify it if a special coding scheme is used by the institution)
 District
 Region
 Date account opened
 Photographs of three group executives (optionally to be scanned and stored)
 Savings product code and name
Members Savings account Opening:
 Group ID Number (to be selected from the Groups Information database)
 Group Name (to be selected from the Groups Information database)
 Member ID within Group (to be selected from the Members Information database)
 Member Name (to be selected from the Members Information database)
 Member Savings account number (to be assigned by the computer system, but with
an option for the user to modify it if a special coding scheme is used by the
institution)
 District
 Region
 Date account opened
 Member’s photograph (optionally to be scanned and stored)
 Member’s next of kin (as beneficiary in case of death or incapacitation of member)
 Savings product code and name
Savings Deposit or Withdrawal Transaction:
 Group ID number
 Group name
 Member Code
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Page 19









Member name
Savings account number
District
Region
Transaction type (Deposit or Withdrawal)
Transaction date
Voucher reference (pay-in-slip number, receipt number or Payment voucher number)
Amount deposited or withdrawn
Running Balance
Savings Reports
The software should provide tools for the preparation of the following reports as standard:
Report title
Description
Printing of savings deposit slips
Serves as receipt for deposits received
Group savings Accounts
Statement
A detailed listing of savings activities
for the period (at the Group level),
including opening and closing
balances
A detailed listing of savings activities
for the period (at individual Members
level), including opening and closing
balances
A listing of closing balances as at the
report date
A printout of deposits received from
individual districts (in detail or
summary form) to aid management in
liquidity management)
A savings account is regarded as
dormant if it goes without activity for
a specified period. This report
provides
information
on
these
dormant accounts, giving account
number, client name, balance and
date of last transaction.
For cash flow planning it is essential
to project upcoming maturing time
deposits in order to anticipate
substantial withdrawals. This report
groups upcoming maturing accounts
by maturity date, giving sub-totals of
Members savings accounts
statement
Groups, and Members, savings
balances
Deposits Received during the
day or week from all regions
Dormant Savings Account
Upcoming Maturing Time
Deposits
Maata-N-Tudu Association IS Implementation - Report on Needs Assessment
Frequency
of
Preparation
Daily, when
deposit is
received
Quarterly,
and on
demand
Quarterly,
and on
demand
Monthly
Daily and
weekly
Quarterly and
on demand
Weekly
Page 20
amounts falling due within each date
range. The column headed Account
Rolled Over indicates whether the
account has been renewed at least
once. If so, the column Days on
Deposit gives the number of days that
at least some of the funds have been
on deposit.
Savings Interest
Accrual/application Report
This report is a listing of the interest
calculation for interest bearing savings
products. Separate reports can be
prepared for interest accrued and
interest applied. It can be detailed
listing or summary by product by
District, etc.
Savings Concentration Report
This report provides management with Weekly or
a breakdown of savings accounts by monthly
size of deposit. With this information
management can determine, for
example, whether a large share of
savings comes from a relatively small
share of depositors, and how many
accounts are below the minimum
balance necessary for profitability. The
report groups by size of deposit,
reporting the number of accounts and
the total deposits in each category, as
well as the category's share of all
accounts and deposits.
Maata-N-Tudu Association IS Implementation - Report on Needs Assessment
Monthly, on
interest
accrual and
application
date
Page 21
SECTION 7:
7.1
INFORMATION NEEDS FOR THE LOANS FUNCTION
Loan Products
Maata-N-Tudu currently offers five loan products, namely:
a) Rice processing
b) Sheabutter
c) Handicraft
d) Petty Trading
e) Grain Banking
f) Pito Brewing
The Association uses only the group lending methodology, with loan tracking at group
member level. Individual members of a Group can get different loan amounts.
7.2
Product Terms
The products refinement study undertaken by the Association in 2004/2005 produced
the terms and methodologies for the loan products as reproduced in Table 7.1 on the
next two pages
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Page 22
Table 7.1: Loan Product Terms
PRODUCT ATTRIBUTE
Product (Design)
Application to
disbursement Time
Collateral/Guarantees
Duration of loan
Repayment frequency
Disbursement Period
Grace Period
Loan size
Access Requirement
Price
ANFAANI RURAL
RICE PROCESSING
/ PITO BREWING
ANFAANI RURAL
SHEABUTTER
LOANS
ANFAANI RURAL
HANDICRAFT
ANFAANI URBAN
PETTY TRADING
ANFAANI RURAL
GRAIN BANKING
2weeks
2weeks
2weeks
2weeks
2weeks
Group
9 months Nov/DecAug
Monthly
Group
9 months
Group
6 months
Group
6 months
Group
9 months
Monthly
Monthly
Monthly
Monthly
3 months
¢3,000,000
-Membership of MTA
-Compulsory
minimum saving of
¢100,000
-Compulsory savings
should be mobilized
during animation
3 moths
¢3,000,000
-Membership of
MTA
-Compulsory
minimum saving of
¢100,000
-Compulsory
savings should be
mobilized during
animation
Interest rate – 36%
P.A.
Other fees:
training
fees(5,000*2)
saving l(Door to
door) mobilization
fee.
3 moths
¢3,000,000
Membership of MTA
-Compulsory
minimum saving of
¢100,000
-Compulsory savings
should be mobilized
during animation
1 month
¢3,000,000
-Membership of MTA
-Compulsory
minimum saving of
¢100,000
-Compulsory savings
should be mobilized
during animation
6 months
¢5,000,000
-Membership of MTA
-Compulsory
minimum saving of
¢100,000
-Compulsory savings
should be mobilized
during animation
Interest rate – 36%
P.A.
Other fees:
training
fees(5,000*2
saving(Door to
door) mobilization
fee
Interest rate – 36%
P.A.
Other fees:
training fees(5,000*2
saving (Door to door)
mobilization fee
Interest rate –38%
P.A.
Other fees:
training fees
saving (Door to door)
mobilization fee
Interest rate – 36%
P.A.
Other fees:
training fees(5,000*2
saving (Door to door)
l mobilization fee
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Page 23
Others
Late Payment Penalties
4% ON Principal +
Interest installment
in arrears
Inbuilt in the interest
rate
4% ON Principal +
Interest installment
in arrears
Inbuilt in the
interest rate
4% ON Principal +
Interest installment
in arrears
Inbuilt in the
interest rate
4% ON Principal +
Interest installment
in arrears
Inbuilt in the interest
rate
4% ON Principal +
Interest installment in
arrears
Inbuilt in the interest
rate
Marketing/Information
Dissemination
Advertising
BOT, AGM, Group
BOT, AGM Group
BOT, AGM Group
BOT, AGM ,Group
BOT ,AGM, Group
By word of mouth
By word of mouth
By word of mouth
By word of mouth
By word of mouth
Place
At group meetings
by mobile field
officers.
At group
meetings by
mobile field
officers
At group meetings
by mobile field
officers
At group meetings
by mobile field
officers
At group meetings
by mobile field
officers
Anfaani
Anfaani
Anfaani
Anfaani
Anfaan
Save more get
more
MTA Passbook
Save more get
more
MTA Passbook
Save more get
more
MTA Passbook
Save more get
more
MTA Passbook
MTA Passbook
People
Friendly, firm and
approachable
Friendly, firm and
approachable
Friendly, firm and
approachable
Friendly, firm and
approachable
Friendly, firm and
approachable
Process
Quick, efficient, and Quick, efficient,
timely
and timely
Quick, efficient,
and timely
Quick, efficient, and Quick, efficient, and
timely
timely
Pre Payment incentives
Promotion
Positioning:
Slogan,
Product image
Corporate image
Physical evidence
Maata-N-Tudu Association IS Implementation - Report on Needs Assessment
Page 24
7.3
Operational Procedures
Maata-N-Tudu’s procedure for assessing credits is well documented and known to all staff
concerned. The process steps are represented diagrammatically in the form of a process
chart, as shown on the next page. There are 12 steps, as described below:
Step 1, Application for Membership: Group applies to join the Association in the form of a
letter. The letter will provide the following details, as minimum:
 The name the Group has selected for itself. If this name conflicts with the name of an
existing Group, MTA advices the Group to select another name.
 A list of the individual members of the Group,
 The names of the persons designated as group executives. The Group executive
should comprise a president, a secretary, and a treasurer, as minimum
 The bank account of the Group
 Usual meeting place
The average size of a Group is fifteen (15) members. The minimum is 10.
Step 2 – Animation: MTA organizes its staff to provide group animation and conveys a
informs the group of the scheduled date, time and venue for the program. MTA staff also
undertakes a routine check to vet the Group. MTA also administers a poverty assessment
through a standard questionnaire.
Step 3 – Admission and Registration: If the result of step 2 is successful, the Group receives
an admission letter from MTA, to become a dully registered member.The Group is requested
to pay a nominal sum as application fee.
Step 4 – Savings mobilization: The group is required to make monthly savings for the next
three to six months, before it becomes eligible to access credits. The amount of monthly
contribution is not fixed, but the group is made aware of the linkage between loan size and
savings, i.e. a beneficiary can obtain a loan equal to five times the savings, for the first cycle
loans. The Association frowns on member groups making a one-off deposit of a large
amount just to qualify for a loan.
Step 5 – Application for loan: When a Group becomes eligible for loans, i.e. after the initial
six months, it can submit an application for a loan. The Group completes a formal loan
application form, on which it provides the following information:
 Name of the Group
 Region
 Total amount requested by the group (in words, and in figures)
 Number of member loan applicants
 Loan type (product name)
 A schedule showing the names, economic activity, amount of loan and the
signature/thumbprint of each member applicant
 The president, treasurer, and secretary of the association also sign/thumbprint and
date a loan guarantee form.
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Page 25
3
4
2
5
1
6
7
13
8
12
11
Maata-N-Tudu Association IS Implementation - Report on Needs Assessment
9
10
Page 26
Step 6 – Loan Appraisal: The Credit Officer carries out a loan appraisal to establish eligibility,
verify the accuracy of the information provided on the form, and assess the ability of the
borrower to pay. The officer submits his/her findings and makes appropriate
recommendations to the Credit Coordinator, recommending approval or rejection of the
application
Step 7 – Loan Approval/Rejection: The Credit Coordinator submits his comments to a Loan
Review Committee, which has the final say in approving or rejecting the application.
Step 8 – Pre-disbursement Training: If a loan is approved, the Credit/loan officer prepares
and delivers a pre-disbursement training to the successful group. During this training, the
Group receives instructions on the repayment procedures, among other sensitization
materials.
Step 9 – Loan Disbursement: The accounts department will be requested to prepare a
cheque for the amount approved, in the name of the Group. Actual disbursement takes place
only after completion of the pre-disbursement training. The standard mode of disbursement
is direct payment to the bank account of the Group..
Step 10 – Loan Monitoring by Loan officers: The Loan officers regularly monitor repayment
installments in order to ensure timely payment of installments. This enables them to detect
late payments so that they can take remedial action to collect overdue amounts before it
becomes too bad.
Step 11 – Loan Recovery by Loan Officers: The Loan officers regularly monitor repayment
installments in order to ensure timely payment of installments. This enables them to detect
late payments so that they can take remedial action to collect overdue amounts before it
becomes too bad.
Step 12 – Reporting to Technical Committee by Credit Coordinator and Accounts Officer:
7.4
Evaluation, Conclusions and Recommendations
Maata-N-Tudu has a clear and well defined policy and set of procedures for loan
administration which is well understood by the staff. The product methodologies and terms
are also clearly defined and documented. This deserves high commendation. It also creates
the enabling atmosphere for computer intervention in the new Information System.
A few areas that deserve improvement, especially in a new computerized environment are
worth mentioning here. The key points are the following:
a) Currently, membership application is done in the form of a letter written by the
prospective applicants. A standard membership application should be designed and
printed and made available to intending (prospective applicants. This will ensure that
all the required information on membership application is pre-determined, and ensure
the completeness of data provided by applicants.
Maata-N-Tudu Association IS Implementation - Report on Needs Assessment
Page 27
b) Provision should be made on this form for membership number to serve as an
identification code throughout the life of the Group. The Group ID number should be
quoted on all correspondence including the loan application form, disbursement
vouchers, and repayment sheets.
c) Provision should be made for the photographs of at least the Group executive officers,
i.e. the president, secretary and treasurer.
d) The loan Application should include a sheet showing the repayment plan (loan
repayment schedule). The information on the repayment schedule will be very useful
to borrowers because it will remind them of installment due dates. Repayment
schedule is also very important in the record keeping of the Credit department
because it makes it possible to determine and monitor delinquency, and to age
arrears.
e) A loan number should be assigned immediately the loan is approved, to serve as an
Identification code for the loan. This number should be quoted on loan ledger card
maintained by the Credits department. It should also be quoted on the Loan
Repayment Card maintained by the Group, and on all transaction documents relating
to the loan, i.e. the disbursement voucher, repayment collection sheets, etc.
7.5
Major Features of new Information System to Support Loans
System Integration
In the re-structured IS, the software selected for its implementation should have a module
for Loans administration and portfolio management. This module should however, be tightly
integrated with Group and Group Members Database management module (described in
preceding Section 5), Savings module (described shortly in Section 6), and with General
ledger (described shortly in Section 8). The primary purpose of integration will be to assist
MTA achieve a high level of data sharing among the functional organizational units and
thereby reduce transaction unit cost. Integration with the savings module is critical because
of the linkages (percentage of loan amount the client must have in the savings account).
Specific capabilities will include:
 Loan account opening for Groups and group members
 Data entry screens for recording loan applications received, and tracking it through
approval up to disbursement
 Support for the credit assessment and approval procedure
 Automatic preparation of repayment schedule, with the flexibility for the user to
adjust due dates where necessary e.g. set due day to a specific day of the week to
coincide with usual group meeting day
 Recording of loan disbursements and creation of loan accounts
 Tracking of loans at Group and Group Members levels
 Automatic posting of loan disbursements the Group loan account and Group Members
loan accounts
 Automatic posting of loan disbursements to the cash book
 Automatic posting of loan disbursement (in summary) to the general ledger
 Recording of loan repayments
 Automatic posting of loan repayments to the Group loan account and Group Members
loan accounts
 Automatic posting of loan repayments to the cash book
Maata-N-Tudu Association IS Implementation - Report on Needs Assessment
Page 28

Automatic posting of loan repayment (in summary) to the general ledger
Loan Product Types, Terms and Methodologies
The computer software should support group lending methodology, with the capacity to
track loans at group as well as member level. The following are minimum requirements for
loan products:
 Flexibility for the user to set up new product types as required
 Flexibility for the user to define the terms and methodologies for each product type
 Support for all the popular interest rate calculation methods, including flat rate,
declining balance, balloon payment, etc.
 Flexibility for the user to define linkages to savings, e.g. percentage of loan amount to
be present in the savings account, range of percentages depending on loan size, etc.
Interest Calculation and Application
The following features are required as minimum:
 The software should provide features for all the popular interest calculation methods.
It should allow MTA to define the grace period and whether interest is to be
calculated during this period.
 The software should provide for all the popular methods of interest calculation, i.e.
minimum, average, maximum daily/weekly/monthly balance, etc.
 The software should also allow the user to define whether interest is calculated in
days (365/366 Days/year), weeks (48/52 weeks/year) or months (12 month/year)
 Flexibility to specify whether interest is paid as lump sum during first installment,
spread equally over the repayment period, deducted at disbursement, etc.
 Flexibility to specify whether there is a minimum interest amount
 The software should automate the posting of interest calculated into the Groups, and
Members savings accounts, and also (in summary) into the general ledger
Penalty Calculation and Application
The following features are required as minimum:
Flexibility to enable the user to specify if penalty is to be calculated on late payments
Flexibility to specify the penalty calculation methods, e.g. as a lump sum, as percentage of
principal in arrears, as percentage of principal and interest in arrears, etc.
Flexibility to specify whether there is a minimum penalty amount.
Data to be Captured and Managed
Group Loans account Opening:
 Group ID Number (to be selected from the Groups Information database)
 Group Name (to be selected from the Groups Information database)
 Group Loan account number (to be assigned by the computer system, but with an
option for the user to modify it if a special coding scheme is used by the institution)
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Page 29






District
Region
Date account opened
Signatories to group loan transactions such as cheques for repayment
Photographs of group signatories (optionally to be scanned and stored)
Loan product code and name e.g. Anfaani Sheabutter processing,
Members Loan account Opening:
 Group ID Number (to be selected from the Groups Information database)
 Group Name (to be selected from the Groups Information database)
 Member ID within Group (to be selected from the Members Information database)
 Member Name (to be selected from the Members Information database)
 Member Loan account number (to be assigned by the computer system, but with an
option for the user to modify it if a special coding scheme is used by the institution)
 District
 Region
 Date account opened
 Member’s photograph (optionally to be scanned and stored)
 Member’s next of kin (as beneficiary in case of death or incapacitation of member)
 Loan product code and name
Loan Application Received:
 Group ID number
 Group name
 List of Members to take the loan (member Code and name)
 District
 Region
 Loan product code and name
 Date application received
 Amount applied for (total for the Group)
 Amount applied for individual members
 Business Sector
Credit Officer / Loan Officer Appraisal Report:
 Group ID number
 Group name
 District
 Region
 Loan product code and name
 Recommended for approval rejection flag
 Date of recommendation
 Amount recommended (total for the Group)
 Amount recommended for individual members
 Reason for recommending approval/rejection
 Credit Officer / Loan officer code and name
Loan Approval/Rejection:
 Group ID number
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Page 30











Group name
District
Region
Loan product code and name
Approved/Rejected flag
Date approved/rejected
Amount approved (total for the Group)
Amount approved for individual members
Approved/Rejected flag
Reason for rejection
Reason for approving higher/lower amount than originally applied for
Commissions and Fees:
 Group ID number
 Group name
 District
 Region
 Loan product code and name
 Loan account number
 Commitment fee paid (amount)
 Date received
 Voucher reference
 Cheque number
Loan Disbursements:
 Group ID number
 Group name
 District
 Region
 Loan product code and name
 Loan account number
 Amount disbursed (total for the group)
 Amount disbursed individual members (member code, name and amount for each
member)
 Date disbursed
 Voucher reference
 Cheque number
 Loan Cycle
Loan Repayment Schedule (Group):
 Group ID number
 Group name
 District
 Region
 Loan product code and name
 Loan account number
 Date repaid
 Total due (principal and interest)
Maata-N-Tudu Association IS Implementation - Report on Needs Assessment
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


Amount repaid (total for the group – Principal and interest)
Amount repaid (breakdown for each member – Principal and interest)
Repayment installment, e.g. 1st installment, 2nd installment, etc.
Loans Reports
The software should provide tools for the preparation of the following reports as standard.
Most of these reports are on the CGAP recommended list of reports for microfinance
institutions.
This category comprises reports on loan activity and includes
reports on individual loans used to communicate information
Category B - Loan Activity to clients on the status of their accounts, and routine
Reports
management reports used by field staff to improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of their day-to-day routines.
Loan Activity Report - (B1)
This category comprises reports on loan activity and include
reports on individual loans used to communicate information
to clients on the status of their accounts, and routine
management reports used by field staff to improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of their day-to-day routines.
Loan Repayment Schedule Some loan products are fairly standard with little variation in
- (B2)
the variables that determine the repayment schedule. Other
loan products allow a great deal of flexibility. The schedule of
loan repayment helps shape the loan contract and provides
the information the MIS needs to track loan charges and
repayment timing and produce the portfolio quality reports
as detailed in Category C.
Customer Status Report - This report lists the status of all active loan and savings
(B3)
accounts for the client, the history on all the client's closed
accounts, and the client's status as guarantor of active loans.
Group Membership Report If your institution uses group lending methodology, this
- (B4)
report lists the members of each group, along with other
relevant information on the group and its members.
Active Loans
Officer - (B6)
by
Loan This is one of two key reports used by Loan officers to
monitor their clients' status. It should be printed weekly. It
lists all active loans for a Loan Officer, with initial information
such as amount, disbursement date and term, upcoming
payments and current loan status.
For delinquent loans the report shows the principal and
interest in arrears so that the loan officer can tell the client
the total amount due.
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Daily Payments by Loan
Officer - (B7)
This report could be adapted to be a listing of the Daily
Collection Sheet from loan officers and mobile bankers
Pending
Applications This is a listing of the application at the appraisal stage.
report - (B8)
Approved/Rejected
This report lists applications that have completed the
Applications report - (B9)
approval stage, but not yet disbursed
Portfolio
Concentration To diversify risk, management should regularly monitor the
Report - (B10)
distribution of the portfolio by such criteria as business
activity, geographic area and size of loan.
This report can be used for such analysis. Distribution is
monitored according to both number of loans and share of
portfolio, and percentages of totals are calculated for each
category.
Category C –
Quality Reports
The reports in this category focus on portfolio quality
indicators. Several provide detailed information on single
loans or single clients, some provide information on a single
Portfolio
Loan Officer's portfolio, and others cover single District
offices. Most provide information on delinquent loan status
and ageing of the portfolio at risk.
Detailed
Ageing
Portfolio at Risk - (C1)
of Portfolio at risk is the most important indicator for monitoring
portfolio quality. The portfolio-at-risk indicator is based on
the concept that if one or more payments are overdue on a
loan, an entire loan is in jeopardy (at risk), not just the
installment that is overdue, as in the arrears rate indicating.
For this report to be of any value, it is important that all
information such as loan status is up to date.
Delinquent Loans by Loan This report is one of the most important to be used by Loan
Officer - (C2)
Officers. It should be produced weekly an be used to follow
up immediately on overdue loans. It includes all information
helpful in client follow-up, such as contact phone numbers.
Although it is similar to the Active Loans by Loan Officer
report, it includes more details on delinquency.
Delinquent
Loans
by This report is used primarily by District managers to monitor
District and Product - (C3) the most seriously overdue loans in their District. It shows
basic characteristics of the loan such as financing sources
and economic sector, and notes the responsible Loan Officer.
The Days without Payment column is helpful in monitoring
the effectiveness of follow-up efforts - a loan may be three
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payments overdue, but if the client has made a payment
recently, the situation is less serious than if no payment has
been received for 90 days.
The Net Savings column calculates the outstanding loan
balance less compulsory savings. These savings, blocked
from access by the client, serve as collateral for the loan.
Detailed Delinquent Loans
History by Region and
Product - (C4)
This report is used primarily by District managers to monitor
the most seriously overdue loans in their District. It shows
basic characteristics of the loan such as financing sources
and economic sector, and notes the responsible Loan Officer.
The Days without Payment column is helpful in monitoring
the effectiveness of follow-up efforts - a loan may be three
payments overdue, but if the client has made a payment
recently, the situation is less serious than if no payment has
been received for 90 days.
The Net Savings column calculates the outstanding loan
balance less compulsory savings. These savings, blocked
from access by the client, serve as collateral for the loan.
Summary of Portfolio at
Risk by Loan Officer - (C5)
Summary of Portfolio at
Risk by District and
Product - (C6)
Loan Write-off and
Recuperation report - (C7)
Loan Loss Provisioning
Report - (C8)
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SECTION 8:
8.1
INFORMATION NEEDS, FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING
Existing Accounting Policies and Practices
Maata-N-Tudu’s accounting requirements can be described as fairly standard for small-tomedium microfinance institutions (MFIs) or financial NGOs (FNGOs). It covers procedures for
cash management (receiving and payment of cash and cheques, cashbook maintenance,
bank reconciliation, etc.); purchasing of consumable items and stocks (inventory); and
standard general ledger.
At present, there is no Chart of Accounts in the conventional use of this term, but the
general ledger is structured around the UK/US international accounting standards (IAS). MTA
is also a member institution of GHAMFIN, the apex body for microfinanace institutions in
Ghana, and is therefore required to comply the provisions of the accounting manual
approved by the body.
8.2
Capabilities Required from the new General Ledger
The bulk of accounting transactions originate from the micro credit operations such as
savings deposits and withdrawals, loan disbursements and receiving of repayments, interest
receivable on loans, penalties and other non-interest incomes, loan loss provisioning and
loan write-offs. The new information system should make it possible for these transactions to
be generated and passed on automatically to the General ledger, thereby reducing manual
processing and ensuring the general ledger is kept up-to-date.
The new IS should make it easy for the Association to fully comply with all the provisions of
the GHAMFIN accounting manual. This will entail the design of a new chart of accounts,
classification of portfolio into performing and non-performing, compliance with loan loss
provisioning, among others. The software selected for implementation of the new IS should
provide facilities for all these, as a minimum.
8.3
Accounting Reports, Financial Statements, and Accounting Ratios
The next major requirements of the accounting system cover preparation of various
categories of reports. The following are considered basic.
A. Activity Reports: Periodic listing of various types of accounting transactions,
including the following:
i. Daily transactions listing (Journal vouchers processed, Receipt and Payment
vouchers, Purchases, etc.
ii. Detailed General Ledger Account listing (statement of account) showing
opening balance, debit and credit transactions posted to the ledger account,
and closing balance.
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iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
Cash Book Details showing the opening balance, payments and receipts and
closing balance for each cash or bank account.
Daily Cashbook balances
Monthly Depreciation calculation
Loan loss provisioning
Loan write-off listing
B. Financial Statements: The following are considered standard financial statements
to be automatically generated by the software:
viii.
Monthly Trial balance
ix. Consolidated Monthly Trial Balance
x. Detailed Monthly Income Statement.
xi. Summary Consolidated Monthly Income Statement.
xii. Detailed Monthly Budget Variance report
xiii. Summary Consolidated Monthly Budget Variance report
xiv. Detailed Quarterly, half-yearly, and yearly Balance Sheet
xv.
Summary Consolidated Quarterly, half-yearly, and yearly Balance Sheet
xvi. Monthly Projected Cash Flow Statement
C. Ratios and Trends:
xvii. Loan Portfolio quality Analysis
xviii. Portfolio at Risk (PAR)
xix. Arrears rate
xx. Repayment Rate
xxi. Current Repayment Rate
D. Staff Productivity Ratios:
xxii. Number of active loan clients per staff member
xxiii. Number of active loan clients per loan officer
xxiv. Number of active loan clients per District office
xxv. Gross portfolio outstanding per loan officer
xxvi. Yield on portfolio
E. Financial Productivity Ratios:
xxvii. Cost Efficiency Ratios
xxviii.
Administrative efficiency
xxix. Personnel Expense ratio
xxx. Operating Expenses ratio
xxxi. Financial Expenses ratio
xxxii.
Operational Self-Sufficiency
xxxiii. Financial Self-Sufficiency
xxxiv. Accounts Inflation and Subsidy Adjustments
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SECTION 9:
9.1
INFORMATION NEEDS – LIQUIDITY MANAGEMENT
Existing Policies and Procedures on Liquidity Management
One of the key strategic considerations in the Association’s business plan is to intensify
savings mobilization as a source of funding for the loans granted to Groups. In pursuit of this
policy, the Association requires an aggressive liquidity management that will enable it to
know, on daily basis, all idle funds lying in non-interest yielding bank accounts that could be
used to source further loans. Presently, in case of urgent liquidity needs, the Association
resorts to commercial borrowing from financial institutions, notably BESSFA rural bank.
The existing procedures require all districts and regions to communicate their cash
collections and bank balances to head office at soon as feasible. Of course, poor
communications infrastructure does not make it easy to attain this objective.
The structure of deposits and its effect on liquidity management policies and procedures:
a) Types of savings products (voluntary vs compulsory savings)
b) Turnover of the various savings products (fewer withdrawals means security to use
more of the savings to finance loans – the case at MTA)
c) Loan arrears and default rate (loan repayments are recycled to fund new loans)
d) The prudential regulation of the Central Bank (not applicable to MTA)
e) Liquidity management and cash flow projections
f) Which institutional organ in the Association is responsible for liquidity management?
g) Where computerized IS comes in:
 Produce daily, weekly, monthly and yearly cash-flow projections. The planned figures
and the actual income and expenses are compared on a daily basis and liquidity
projections are adjusted accordingly. Thereby providing a powerful instrument to
identify critical liquidity shortages in advance.
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SECTION 10:
10.1
INFORMATION NEEDS - INTERNAL CONTROLS
The Objectives of the Internal Controls and Audit Review
The objectives of this aspect of the Needs Assessment study are:
a) To determine the existence of formalized key processes for controlling risks and
safeguarding the security of the Association’s assets;
b) To evaluate the effectiveness with which these procedures are being applied;
c) To evaluate the adequacy of existing procedures to cover the specific requirements
of microfinance;
d) To assess the competence and objectivity of the internal auditor personnel and
whether they are adequately resourced to carry out their functions effectively.
Traditionally, the Internal Controls and Audit officer reports directly to the Board (of
Trustees). This is to safeguard the independence of the Unit.
10.2
Internal Controls, Audit and Inspection Policies and Procedures
MTA currently does not have a written down internal Controls, Audit and Inspection manual
to guide everyday activities of this function. The consultant recommends that one should be
prepared. The following paragraphs discuss major operational areas that should be
considered in preparing this manual.
A.
Cash Management
Internal control policies and procedures covering cash management aim at ensuring safety
of the cash that passes through the hands of loan officers who go to the field to mobilize
savings and collect loan repayments, and the cashier at the office who receives cash in the
form of processing fees and commissions or occasionally as loan repayments.
Internal controls policies and procedures should include guidelines for routine inspection of
field officers to ensure all moneys collected are paid into the Association’s bank account the
same day. The auditor should have a daily schedule of accompanying selected loan officers
to the field and carrying out spot checks of the passbooks of clients to ensure that entries in
the passbooks tally with the entries in the Daily Collection Sheet. Similarly, the cash book
should be inspected to ensure that all moneys received by the cashier during the day are
paid to the bank account the same day. Each office should have a safe in which cash may be
kept overnight where it is too late to go to the Bank.
B.
Savings Portfolio
The primary areas that internal control functions should be concerned with are discussed in
the paragraphs that follow.
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a) Savings Withdrawals: The product terms and methodologies for each microfinance
savings product also include specific instructions on withdrawals from the account.
The Audit and Inspection manual should include specific procedures for verifying
withdrawals
b) Auditing and Authenticating of Clients Passbooks: The manual should include
guidelines for periodic field inspection of the passbooks of the Groups and members
to ensure that the information in them tally that of the savings ledger. Inspection
requires that the auditor has access to both the office records as well as client’s
passbooks at the same time to be able to compare entries. The Association may wish
to consider equipping the auditor with a hand-held portable computer (known
generally as PDA). The computer system can download (transfer) client’s savings
ledger details together with photographs and signature/thumbprint, to this device
which the auditor can carry with him during the field inspection. PDAs are inexpensive
modern technology tools which are gaining popularity in the microfinance industry.
Many MFIs who have very high active field mobilization function now equip their loan
officers with these devices so that they can enter transactions directly while in the
field, and download to the central system when they return to the office.
C.
Loans Portfolio
Internal controls and Audit functions cover many areas of loans administration and credits
monitoring. A few of the key areas are mentioned below.
a) Loan Appraisal/Approval:
 Vet the client’s loan application form to ensure the group is properly registered
and the details tally with those in the Clients information database.
 Check to ensure that the application does not violate the eligibility terms of the
product, e.g. if the product terms state that an applicant cannot have a second
loan if a previous facility is fully paid for, check the client’s loan ledger card to
ensure loan has been fully paid for.
 Ensure the application form was properly completed and sighed by the Group
executive and the individual group members who want to benefit from the loan.
Also, check to ensure that all the required paper documents were supplied and are
in order e.g. passport size photograph(s), savings account number, etc. This
should be done with reference to the specific product terms and methodologies.
 Check to ensure the proper application/processing/commitment fees have been
paid.
 Check to ensure that the Group animation course was presented.
 Check the loan appraisal report by the field officer/loan officer.
 Check the loan approval process to ensure that the proper approval body has
recommended the loan.
 Verify amount applied and amount approved to ensure it is within the credit limit
with reference to the specific products terms.
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b) Loan Disbursement:
 Check the arithmetic accuracy of the interest calculation,
 Check the accuracy of the loan repayment schedule with reference to the product
terms, e.g. payment frequency, number of installments, grace period, etc.
 Check the physical disbursement process to ensure the proper vouchers were
prepared and duly authorized
 Verify that the amount was credited to the Group’s savings account.
 Ensure other requirements with regard to Group loans were complied with.
 Verify that the client was properly informed of the disbursement, and has signed
the proper documents to accept receipt of the amount.
 Verify that a loan ledger card was opened for the loan and duly debited with the
amount disbursed.
c) Loan Repayments:
 Check to ensure that all repayments received were posted correctly to the loan
ledger cards.
 Test check the arithmetic accuracy of the loan ledger running balance to ensure
correctness.
 Ensure that the split between principal repayment and interest is done correctly.
 Reconcile clients loan passbooks with the loan ledger cards at the office at periodic
intervals.
d) Loan Reports: Internal Control should be equally concerned with the availability and
reliability of key operational and management reports such as:
 Loan Applications Received, Approved/Rejected during a Period: This is a register
listing all new applications received and processed during the reporting period. The
frequency of preparation could be weekly. Microfinance audit inspection function
should cover ensuring that this register is up to date and that the information
contained in it is complete.
 Microfinance Loans Disbursement Register: This is a register listing all new loan
disbursed during the reporting period. The frequency of preparation could be
weekly. Microfinance audit inspection function should cover ensuring that this
register is up to date and that the information contained in it is complete. During
inspection, sample test should be carried out to ensure that a loan ledger card was
opened for each new loan disbursed
 Microfinance Loans Ledger Balances: This is a register listing loan ledger balances
as at the report date. The frequency of preparation could be Monthly.
Portfolio Management
Internal controls should pay special attention to effective monitoring of portfolio health to
ensure financial self-sustainability and profitability. Various tools exist for monitoring portfolio
health, and the responsibilities for this function cuts across the various functional units in the
microfinance department. The primary responsibility lies, naturally, with the Credits Unit. But
the Finance and Accounting Unit is traditionally the one that prepares the financial ratios.
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The Internal Controls and Audit Unit’s primary role in portfolio monitoring is to ensure that
organizational units that have the responsibility for preparing the critical performance reports
do so on timely basis and accurately. The Internal Controls procedures manual should
include specific instructions on the auditing of these crucial reports. The following are
considered the primary ones:
Delinquency Management:
 Daily report on repayments in arrears: This is a very important report because it
gives early warning of potential for a loan that may go bad. The principle is ‘catch
it while fresh’. The report should be disaggregated by credit officer/loan officers.
Internal Controls and audit officer should receive copies of this report and monitor
closely the follow up actions taken by credit officers/loan officers.
 Loans in Arrears Aged Report: This report should be prepared monthly. This is an
internal report and the Microfinance department should set the aging interval for
each loan product based on the repayment frequency. Products with shorter
repayment frequencies should have shorter ageing intervals.
Risk Management
In microfinance, risk management is generally concerned with limiting losses brought about
by non-recovery of loans. Many factors contribute to delinquencies. Similarly there are a
number mechanisms and strategies to limit its prevalence in microfinance practice. A few of
the potential causes, and preventive steps are listed in the box below.
Causes
Ineffective selection of microfinance
clients
Inappropriate loan sizes
Ineffective loan appraisal
Poor, or no incentive to pay
Poor quality MIS
Prevention
1. Improve on the client selection process.
2. Quality verification by internal control to
ensure
compliance
with
laid-down
procedures.
1. The product development stage should
come up with loan sizes that suites the
requirements of the target clients
2. Loan approval authorities should desist
from arbitrarily reducing the amount of
loan applied for.
1. Improve the skills of loan officers in loan
appraisal procedures
2. Quality verification by internal controls and
audit staff.
1. Proper attention should be paid to
incentives during product development
e.g. promise to access higher loans if
previous one was paid on time.
1. Improve the MIS to provide timely
information on loan records, loan balances,
and loans in arrears.
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2. MIS should provide timely and quality
information to support internal control
officer and other field staff.
3. MIS should produce quality management
reports and financial indicators to aid in
monitoring portfolio health and measuring
performance.
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SECTION 11:
11.1
IS/IT RESOUCES AND MANAGEMENT
Computer Configuration
In the Project Preparation report submitted by the consultant on completion of that segment
of the IS implementation consulting services, the consultant proposed a conceptual design of
the type of computer system that would be used to implement the IS (refer to Section 3.4 of
that report). The recommendations were for a client/server network system at each of the
regional offices and at Head office, and stand-alone desktops at the District offices where
reliable power supply was available. It further suggested that wide area connectivity
between regional offices and the Head office was strongly needed and the option should be
vigorously pursued, where an appropriate technology exists at affordable cost. The
consultant is convinced, at the end of the information needs assessment study, that the
original proposals were in order.
Figure 11.1 is a proposed computer configuration at the Head Office in Tamale, which is also
the regional office for the Northern Region.
Figure 11.1: Computer Configuration model for Head Office
Credit Officer
Credit Officer
Cashier/Client
Services
Network printer
IT officer
(System
Administrator)
Accounts Officer
Loan Officers
Server
Development
Coordinator
Credit Coordinator
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Executive Director
Page 43
The configuration for the regional offices (Upper East and Upper West) will also be a
local area network (LAN) but with fewer workstations, as illustrated in Figure 11.2.
The model allows for addition of more workstations as volume of business grows.
Figure 11.2: Computer configuration model for Regional Office
Credit Officer
Accounts Officer
Data Officer
Network printer
Server
Regional
Development
Officer
11.2
Regional Credits
Coordinator
Wide Area Network (WAN)
Wide area connectivity is considered crucial to ensure transfer of critical information from the
regional offices to Head Office. Without this, cash flow and liquidity management will be very
difficult. Head office needs accurate and up to date bank balances from all the districts and
regions, on daily basis, in order to determine the quantum of idle cash that could be used to
finance new loans. Head Office also needs information on delinquencies on timely basis so
that they can influence efforts by regional and district loan officers to collect the arrears.
District to Regional Office Connectivity: The regional offices need to receive data from
the districts regularly, optimally daily. At districts where electricity is available, it has already
been suggested that they are equipped with one desktop so that they can capture and
process their data locally. At the end of the day, the district database should be transferred
to the regional office for consolidation. Data transfer options will depend on the availability
of technology and the cost of such technology. Two options were considered viable, namely:
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In a zero-technology environment, the district will download its database to a removable
storage medium such as compact disk (CD) or flash disk (pen drive) and send it to the
regional office using reliable courier service.
Where internet services are available, the district could compress their database and send it
as attachment to an e-mail
A more sophisticated technology is required to exchange data between regional offices and
head office. Various options were evaluated. The one that appeared viable was a VSAT
solution proposed by a communications network service provider called SATCONSULT. The
firm is based in Tamale. They claim to have provided affordable solutions to other NGOs in
the northern regions. Their system may perhaps offer solutions to most of the DistrictRegional Office connectivity.
The benefits of the Satconsult solution, as listed by the firm are:

Direct satellite connection to the internet, avoiding inefficiencies of local Internet
Service Providers (IPSs) and the discomforts in unreliable radio links.

Available anywhere it is required. The VSAT network supports implementation of
terminals at any geographical location. This guarantees about 99.5% availability of
the VSAT connectivity to other VSAT networks and the internet.

A world-class professional service management by Intelsat.

Single worldwide service provider with dedicated “VSAT” services. This ascertains that
each VSAT can operated independently of any ISP.

Probably the most beneficial would be the affordability of the equipment and
recurrent cost. Less costly to deploy, operate and maintain.

Uniform service levels across your business

Rapid deployment

Cost effective choice for multicast content distribution.

Site relocation/additions are less complex and less costly.

Network and bandwidth expansion is convenient and simple.

Emerging application support for bandwidth intensive applications.
This option will be investigated further in due course. Provisional cost estimates provided by
Satconsult are shown below.
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HARDWARE COST (VSAT EQUIPMENT)
Description
Hardware
LINKSTAR + LNB + 2W
BUC + OMT + 1.2M
ANTENNA
INSTALLATION
&
CONFIGURATION
Qty.
Unit Cost
Total Cost
1
$3,500
$3,500
1
$1,500
Sub-total – Hardware
$5,000
RECURRENT COST
Internet Access
Qty.
Monthly Cost (64 k / 128k shared)
Monthly Maintenance charges
NCA License fee @ $150 per site per month
Total Service Charges
1
1
1
11.3
Unit Cost
Quarterly Cost
$450
$50
$150
$1,350
$150
$450
$1,950
Management of System Resources
An IT Officer will be recruited at the Head Office in Tamale to be responsible for the
management of the Information Technology resources as well as the management of the
corporate database. A brief description of responsibilities is given below.
 Advice and help management to assess the effectiveness of the technology and
systems in use, evaluate newer technology opportunities and recommend those that
can improve the Bank’s operations.
 Troubleshooting and solving all problems encountered by users.
 Be responsible for training the development of IT skills within the Association.
 Undertake in-house development of small applications, or develop add-ons to the
commercial software packages in use.
 Routinely (i.e. daily) gather and consolidate data from the regional offices
 Preparation of a range of operational and management reports.
 Daily backup of corporate database
 Maintaining a fault log to record and track all equipment breakdown and software
failures.
At the regional office, the administration of computer resources, and management of the
databases will be the responsibilities of a Data Officer. A brief description of his/her
responsibilities is given below.
 System startup at the beginning of the day, and shut down at close of day.
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




11.4
Database backup and Restore
End-of-day reports preparation.
Uploading regional data to head office; downloading updated databases from head
office
First level technical support and troubleshooting for the users. Major problems are
referred to Head office for the IT officer to look at and solve.
Maintaining a an equipment faults log to record hardware and software malfunctions
Information System Policies and Procedures
A comprehensive IS Policies and Procedures manual will need to be prepared, during system
implementation. This document will be in two parts, namely a Section on policy issues, and a
Section on operational procedures. Is policies discusses issues such as IS policy objectives,
policy guidelines on security including internet and e-mail usage, protection of hardware and
software, disaster prevention and recovery, etc. The Section 2 on operational procedures will
cover specific issues such as:
A.
System Administration:

User Profile, i.e. the procedures for selecting the users who are authorized to use
the system functions, and their access rights, i.e. what specific tasks each
authorized user can perform; what time of the day is a user allowed access to
system facilities, etc.

Passwords management including validity period, procedures for invalidating a
password or removing a user when he/she resigns or even during the leave
period, etc.

Frequency of database backup both at the Regional offices and at the Head Office,
and the procedures for securing the backups, i.e. where they should be stored,
etc.
B.
System Operations:
Start-of-day procedures i.e. when the server should be made ready for users,
special chores to be performed before allowing users to start the day’s work, e.g.
set system operation date, complete previous day’s reporting, data
upload/download, etc.

End-of-day procedures: i.e. when users are expected to lock out so that central
operations can begin, consolidating data, preparing the end-of-day reports, etc.

Maata-N-Tudu Association IS Implementation - Report on Needs Assessment
Page 47
SECTION 12:
HUMAN RESOURCES
12.1
Staffing Responsibilities
A few



new positions were recommended in the preceding Sections of this report, e.g.
IT Officer or Systems Administrator at the Head Office
Data Officers at regional offices
Internal Controls and Audit Officer at the Head Office
Job description, salary structure, qualifications and experience and other employment issues
for these new positions will need to be determined by management,
12.2
Staff Skills Development
MTA already has a number of training programmes for the clients and the staff. A few new
ones may have to be developed. Table 12.1 provides a partial list of training courses that
MTA can incorporate into the existing ones.
Table 12.1: Partial list of training packages:
Department
Course title
Participants
General
Induction/Orientation Programme
External professional/carrier development
Strategic planning for Microfinance
Regional
Conferences/seminars
on
microfinance
All newly recruited staff
Staff who wish to do so
ES, Credit Coordinator
ES, Credit Coordinator
Management
Business
Development
Credits
Internal Control,
Audit & Inspection
IT / MIS
Product development, marketing
clientele
Sustainability – Product pricing and
interest rates
Financial Services Evaluation
and ES, Credit Coordinator,
Accounts/Admin. Officer
ES, Credit Coordinator,
Accounts/Admin. Officer
ES, Credit Coordinator,
Accounts/Admin. Officer
Microfinance loan appraisal
Credit / Loan officer
Customer Services and Client Satisfaction Credit / Loan officer
Internal Controls Functions of
Internal Controls and Audit
microfinance Audit Inspectors
officer
Field Inspection of Clients books
Internal Controls and Audit
officer
Trends in IT for the microfinance industry IT officer / System Admin.
Specific training on the software selected Data officers, users
for IS implementation
Maata-N-Tudu Association IS Implementation - Report on Needs Assessment
Page 48
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
(Information Requirements Matrix)
APPENDICE A: CLIENTS INFORMATION
Maata-N-Tudu Association IS Implementation - Report on Needs Assessment
Page 49
APPENDIX A:
Data (field)
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION – CLIENTS INFORMATION
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
The full name of the Individual client, Group client, or Group
member.
This field identifies the client as an Individual, Group, or Group
Member
This is the surname (or last name) of the individual client or
Group member.
This is the first name of the individual client or Group member.
Required
This is the middle name(s) of the individual client or Group
member.
date
This is the date the Individual or Group Applied to become a
member of the MFI.
This is the date the client effectively became a member or
client of the MFI.
This is the date the client effectively ceased to be a customer of
the MFI.
Group This is the date the Group member joined the Group.
Optional
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Client Name
Client Type
Surname
First Name
Middle names
Membership Application
Date Group Registered
Date of Exiting (Group)
Required
Must be a drop-down list
Required
Applies only to Individual
clients or Group members
Applies only to Individual
clients or Group members
Applies only to Individual
clients or Group members
A drop-down calendar to
facilitate data entry
A drop-down calendar to
facilitate data entry
A drop-down calendar to
facilitate data entry
A drop-down calendar to
facilitate data entry
A drop-down calendar to
facilitate data entry
The
software
should
provide
facilities
for
Optional
Required
Required
Required
Date Member Joined
Required
Registered
Date of Exiting (Member./ This is the date the member ceased to be a member of the Required
Individual))
Group, or when an Individual client left the MFI.
Reason for Exiting
This is a description of the reason(s) for leaving the MFI.
Required
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page A 1
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Client Registration Number
This represents the registration code assigned to the client on Required
registration. It is a unique code that is used to reference the
client throughout the system.
Loan Cycle
This indicates the number of loans a borrower has taken.
Credit Officer / Loan Officer
This is the name of the credit officer (or loan officer) assigned Optional
to the client. The credit/loan officer becomes the de facto
accounts officer
This is code that indicates the status of the client, i.e. Active, Required
Dormant, Blacklisted/Blocked, Exited, etc.
Client Status
Resident
Nationality
Required
This is a Yes / No indicator to describe whether the Client is a Optional
resident of the country of the MFI. Valid entries are : Y = Yes
N = No
This is the nationality of the client.
Required
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
maintaining standard list of
reasons.
It
should
additionally display the list
in a drop-down list box for
the user to choose from
during data entry.
System assigned, but with
an option for the MFI to
change
this,
where
necessary, e.g. to meet
internal practices.
System calculated, with an
option for the MFI to
change this, especially at
system roll-over.
Recommended
A Status Code Table to
hold valid codes and
descriptions.
The
software
should
restrict response to either
“Y” or “N”
A drop-down list box
displaying the international
country
names.
The
software should set the
Page A 2
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
default to “Ghanaian”
A drop-down list box
displaying the international
country
names.
The
software should set the
default to “Ghanaian”
Country of Residence
This is the client’s country of residence.
Date of Birth
This is the birth date of the Individual client or Group member
Required
Gender
This is the gender of the Individual client or Group member
Required
Marital Status
This is a code that describes the marital status of the Individual Required
client or Group Member.
Name of Spouse
This is name of the wife or husband of the Individual client or Required
Group member
Number of Children
This is information on the number of children the Individual Required
client or Group member has.
Number of Dependants
This is information on the number of dependants the Individual Required
client or Group member has.
The system should provide
facilities for maintaining
standard
codes
and
descriptions,
e.g.
M=Married,
D=Divorced, W=Widowed
ADDRESS INFORMATION
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page A 3
Data (field)
Description
Physical Address –
Street / Suburb
This is the street name and house number/apartment number Optional
where the Individual client or Group member resides, or the
meeting place of the Group
This is the town or city where the client resides
Required
Physical Address –
City / Town / Municipality
District
Required / Desired system features
Optional
This is the District where the client resides
Required
Region
This is the Region where the client resides
Required
Group Postal Address
This is the full postal address of the Group client
Required
Individual / Member postal This is the postal address of the individual client or group Optional
address
member
Individual
/
Member This is the telephone number(s) of the individual client or group Optional
telephone number(s)
member
IDENTITY DOCUMENT(S) INFORMATION
Personal Identification
Personal Identification Type
This is a description of the document that serves as personal
identification for the Individual client or Group member
This is a code that describes the personal identification
document, e.g. Voter Card, National ID Card, Driver’s license,
etc.
System should provide
tools for maintaining a
Personal
Identification
document codes. It should
provide a drop-down list of
the codes for the user to
choose from
Personal Identification Date This is the date the personal identification document was
Issued
issued.
Personal Identification Expiry This is the date the personal identification document expires.
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page A 4
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Date
Photograph of Individual Client This is a photograph of the client (Individual or group
or Group Member
member).
System should provide
tools for scanning, storing
and
retrieving
clients
photos
System should provide
tools for scanning, storing
and
retrieving
clients
signatures or thumbprints
Signature / Thumbprint of This is a signature or thumbprint of the individual client or the
Individual Client or Group group executives.
Executives
Group Executive – Chairperson
Group Executive – Secretary
This the name of the chairperson/ president/ etc. of the Group
client
This the name of the Secretary of the Group client
Group Executive – Treasurer
This the name of the Treasurer of the Group client
Group Executive – Other
This the name of any other executive of the Group client, e.g.
Organizer
Signatories to Group Accounts This is a list of the group executives permitted to sign cheques
/ Correspondence
and other documents on behalf of the Group
The software should allow
for three names as a
minimum.
CONTACT PERSON INFORMATION
Contact Name
This is either the Client name or the name of a person
designated by the Client to whom correspondence should be
addressed. For Group client, it may be name of a Group
Executive such as the chair person / president.
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Required for
individual
clients;
Optional for
other client
Page A 5
Data (field)
Description
Contact postal address
Contact Suburb / Street
Contact Town
Municipality
Contact District
Contact Region
/
City
Required / Desired system features
Optional
types
This is the postal address of the contact person
Required for
individual
clients;
Optional for
other client
types
This the suburb or street of the postal address of the contact Required for
person
individual
clients;
Optional for
other client
types
/ This the Town or City/municipality of the postal address of the Required for
contact person
individual
clients;
Optional for
other client
types
This the District or municipal area of the postal address of the Required for
contact person
individual
clients;
Optional for
other client
types
This the Region of the postal address of the contact person
Required for
individual
clients;
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page A 6
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Contact E-Mail
Optional for
other client
types
This is the contact person's work telephone number if Optional
applicable.
This is the contact person's home telephone number if Optional
applicable.
This is the contact person's (cellular) mobile telephone number Optional
if applicable.
This is the contact person's e-mail address if applicable.
Optional
Contact Fax. No
This is the contact person's facsimile number if applicable.
Contact Work Tel. No
Contact Home Tel. No.
Contact Mobile No
Optional
NEXT-OF-KIN INFORMATION
Next-of-kin name
Type of relationship
This is the name of the next-of-kin of the individual client or Required
Group member. Normally, the person becomes a beneficiary to
the client’s savings balances on death, incapacity or other
disability
This a code that describes the relationship, e.g. spouse, child,
sibling, etc.
Next-of-kin postal address
This is the postal address of the Next-of-kin
Next-of-kin physical address
This is the physical address of the next-of-kin e.g. Street or
suburb, village/town/city/municipality, District, and region
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
A drop-down list box from
which the user can select
the type of relationship.
Page A 7
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
LITERACY / LANGUAGES INFORMATION
Languages Spoken / Written
This is a list of the language(s) spoken or written by the client
Literacy level
This a code that broadly describes the literacy level of the
Individual client or Group Member.
Educational level
This is a description of the highest educational qualification of
the Individual client or Group Member.
Software should provide
tools for the user to
maintain a Table for
languages relevant to the
MFI’s area of operation. It
should provide a dropdown
list
of
these
languages for the user to
choose from during data
entry/edit.
Software should provide
facilities for maintaining a
Table for literacy levels. It
should provide a dropdown list of these codes for
the user to choose from.
Software should provide
facilities for maintaining a
Table
for
Educational
qualifications
levels.
It
should provide a dropdown list for the user to
choose from.
BANK ACCOUNT INFORMATION
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page A 8
Data (field)
Description
Savings Account Details –
Bank name
Savings Account Details –
Bank Branch
Savings Account Number
This is the name of the Bank where the client maintains
his/her/its savings account.
This is the name of the Branch of the Bank where the client
maintains at least one savings account.
This is the Savings Account Number of the client at the Branch.
Date Savings Account Opened
This is the date the savings account was opened at the Bank
Branch.
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Required
BUSINESS ACTIVITIES INFORMATION
Business / Service
Industry / Economic Sector
This is a description of the economic activity the client is
engaged in, e.g. vegetables seller, shoe repairer, poultry
farmer, etc.
This is a code that describes the industry in which the client
Required
operates, e.g. Agriculture, trading, manufacturing, services, etc.
Business Start Date
This is the date the client’s business operation started
Monthly Turnover
This is the average monthly turnover.
Income Level / Poverty Level
At Time of Joining
This information describes the client’s income level at time of
admission, i.e. before benefiting from any financial intervention
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
System should maintain a
Table of standard economic
sector codes, and provide a
drop-down list box to
choose from
System should maintain a
Table of Monthly Turnover
Levels and provide a dropdown list to choose from
System should provide
capacity to maintain an
Page A 9
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
from the MFI.
Income Levels Table using
monetary intervals (e.g.
below ¢2000, ¢2001¢5000, above ¢5000, etc.)
or national poverty criteria,
or any criteria the MFI
deems fit. The system
should then provide a
drop-down list to choose
income level from on the
data entry screens.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
User-defined fields
At least six free data fields that the MFI can use to store any
other information in the future
Required
Report Title
Description
Clients Register
Frequency
Remarks
of
preparation
Before
annual
general
assembly
An alphabetic listing of Groups and members broken down by
Districts within Regions. The register will serve as a directory,
given reference data such as name of group, number of
members, date admitted, group executives, address, meeting
place, etc.
Various analyses of Groups and Group members by criteria On demand
such as gender, education level, income level, age, etc
CLIENT-RELATED REPORTS
Clients Statistics
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page A 10
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Clients Training
Analysis of the developmental and other training programs
presented to the Groups within a specified period or since the
group was admitted.
A computer generated deposit slip for all deposits received and
loan repayments entered
Statement of Account for savings and loans ledgers, filtered by
product type.
On demand
Payment Receipt/ Deposit Slip
Customer Statement of
Account by Product
At data
entry.
On demand,
at Loan
maturation,
and on client
exiting.
OTHER FUNCTIONALITY/SYSTEM FEATURES
Image processing
A facility to store and maintain the photographs and
signatures/thumbprint of clients
Required
System Reference Tables
Maintenance
Facilities for creating and maintaining a number of reference
tables, with additional features that display these Tables in
drop-down list boxes during data entry. The following reference
Tables are considered basic:
 Client Type
 Client Status
 Languages spoken/written
 Income level / poverty level
 Business Sector
 Geographical Areas
 Districts/Regions
 Reason for exiting
Required
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page A 11
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Linkage of Group members to
the Groups they belong
Ability to link and trace any group member to the Group the
member belongs to, for purposes such as transactions
processing, portfolio tracking, etc.
Required
Linkage of Clients Information
database to all the core
modules including savings,
loans, and accounting.
Report filtering
A seamless integration between the Clients Information
database and the other system modules
Required
Flexibility for the user to generate disaggregated reports using
filters such as client category, geographical area, client status,
etc.
Required
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page A 12
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
(Information Requirements Matrix)
APPENDICE B: SAVINGS MODULE
APPENDIX B:
Data (field)
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION SAVINGS
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
GROUP SAVINGS ACCOUNT OPENING
Group Registration Number
(Group ID)
This represents the registration code assigned to the client on
registration. It is a unique code that is used to reference the
client throughout the system.
Required
Group name
This is the name of the Group
Required
Group Savings Account
Number
Required
District
This is the savings account number for the Group. It is the
Group Savings ledger account number maintained by the MFI,
and is different from the savings account number of the
Group at the Bank. All savings transactions including deposits
and withdrawals will be posted to this account.
This is the District where the Group resides.
Region
This is the Region where the Group resides.
Required
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Required
The system should display
the Group names and
Registration Codes in a dropdown list box for the MFI to
choose from.
The system should populate
this field using the Group ID
selected by the user
System should assign this
number, but provide the
flexibility for the MFI to
change the code if it so
wishes.
The system should fill this
field by retrieving the data
from the Clients Information
database
The system should fill this
field by retrieving the data
from the Clients Information
database
Page B 1
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Date account opened
This is the date the Savings Account was opened.
Required
Savings product
This is the code describing the savings product, e.g.
Compulsory Savings..
Required
The software should provide
a calendar pop-up button to
display the dates.
The system should provide
facility to maintain a
Products Codes and
Description Table. A dropdown list box to display valid
savings products for the user
to choose from.
MEMBER SAVINGS ACCOUNT OPENING
Group Registration Number
(Group ID)
This represents the registration code assigned to the Group
on registration. It is a unique code that is used to reference
the Group throughout the system.
Required
Group name
This is the name of the Group
Required
Member Registration Number
This represents the Member ID code assigned to the member
on registration. It is a unique code that is used to reference
the Member throughout the system.
Required
Member name
This is the full name of the Member
Required
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
The system should display
the Group names and
Registration Codes in a dropdown list box for the MFI to
choose from.
The system should populate
this field using the Member
ID selected by the user
The system should display
the Member names and IDs
in a drop-down list box for
the MFI to choose from.
The system should populate
this field using the Member
ID selected by the user
Page B 2
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Member Savings Account
Number
Required
District
This is the savings account number for the Member. It is the
Member Savings ledger account number maintained by the
MFI, and is different from the savings account number of the
Member at the Bank. All savings transactions including
deposits and withdrawals will be posted to this account.
This is the District where the Member resides.
Region
This is the Region where the Member resides.
Required
Date account opened
This is the date the Member’s Savings Account was opened.
Required
Savings product
This is the code describing the savings product, e.g.
Compulsory Savings..
Required
Member Photograph
This is the photograph of the Member
Optional
Member Signature or
This is the signature or thumbprint of the Member
Optional
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Required
System should assign this
number, but provide the
flexibility for the MFI to
change the code if it so
wishes.
The system should fill this
field by retrieving the data
from the Clients Information
database
The system should fill this
field by retrieving the data
from the Clients Information
database
The software should provide
a calendar pop-up button to
display the dates.
The system should provide
facility to maintain a
Products Codes and
Description Table. A dropdown list box to display valid
savings products for the user
to choose from.
The software should provide
features for storing and
managing members
photographs
The software should provide
Page B 3
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Thumbprint
features for storing and
managing members
signature or thumbprint
INDIVIDUAL CLIENT SAVINGS ACCOUNT OPENING
Individual Client Registration
Number
This represents the Client ID code assigned to the individual
client on registration. It is a unique code that is used to
reference the Member throughout the system.
Required
Individual Client name
This is the full name of the Individual Client
Required
Individual Client Savings
Account Number
District
This is the savings account number for the Individual Client. It Required
is the Individual Client Savings ledger account number
maintained by the MFI, and is different from the savings
account number of the Individual Client at the Bank. All
savings transactions including deposits and withdrawals will
be posted to this account.
This is the District where the Individual Client resides.
Required
Region
This is the Region where the Individual Client resides.
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Required
The system should display
the Individual client’s names
and IDs in a drop-down list
box for the MFI to choose
from.
The system should populate
this field using the Individual
Client ID selected by the
user
System should assign this
number, but provide the
flexibility for the MFI to
change the code if it so
wishes.
The system should fill this
field by retrieving the data
from the Clients Information
database
The system should fill this
field by retrieving the data
from the Clients Information
Page B 4
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Date account opened
This is the date the Individual Client’s Savings Account was
opened.
Required
Savings product
This is the code describing the savings product, e.g.
Compulsory Savings.
Required
Individual Client Photograph
This is the photograph of the Individual Client
Optional
Individual Client Signature or
Thumbprint
This is the signature or thumbprint of the Individual Client
Optional
database
The software should provide
a calendar pop-up button to
display the dates.
The system should provide
facility to maintain a
Products Codes and
Description Table. A dropdown list box to display valid
savings products for the user
to choose from.
The software should provide
features for storing and
managing Individual Client
photographs
The software should provide
features for storing and
managing Individual Client
signature or thumbprint
SAVINGS TRANSACTIONS (DEPOSITS, WITHDRAWALS, etc.)
Savings Account Number
This is the Savings Account Number of the Individual client,
Group, or Group member.
Required
Group ID, and Name
These are display fields showing the Group code and name of
the selected savings account
Required for
Group and
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
The system should provide a
drop-down list box from
which the user can select the
specific account
The system should retrieve
this information and display
Page B 5
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Member
savings
accounts
Member ID, and Name
These are display fields showing the Member code and name
of the selected savings account
District
This is the District where the account holder resides.
Required for
Member
savings
accounts
Required
Region
This is the Region where the account holder resides.
Required
Savings product
This is the code describing the savings product for the
selected account, e.g. Compulsory Savings.
Required
Transaction Code
This is a code that identifies the type of activity, e.g.
D=Deposit, W=Withdrawal, I=Interest, etc.
Required
Transaction Date
This is the date of the transaction, e.g. the date deposit
received or withdrawal made.
This is the transaction document reference e.g. receipt
Required
Voucher Reference
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
it. The user should not be
able to change the data
displayed (i.e. fields are
read-only)
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
The system should provide
facility to maintain a
Products Codes and
Description Table. A dropdown list box to display valid
savings products for the user
to choose from.
The software should provide
facilities for maintaining
Transaction Codes and
Descriptions.
A pop-up calendar to
facilitate data entry
Required
Page B 6
Data (field)
Cheque number
Amount
Running Balance
Description
number, deposit slip number, or payment voucher number.
This is the cheque number, e.g. the cheque used to pay client
withdrawal, or the client’s cheque used to pay a deposit.
This is the amount paid or received.
This is the Savings account balance after the transaction
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Optional
Required
Required
The system should calculate
this balance.
OTHER FUNCTIONALITIES AND SYSTEM FEATURES
System Integration
Product Definition and
Customization
Interest Calculation and
Application
The Savings module should be tightly integrated with all the Required
core modules including clients information, loans and
accounting.
Capability for the user to create new Savings products and Required
define the product terms and methodologies for all products
1. Support for all the popular interest calculation
methodologies including:
 Interest calculated at maturation
 Minimum daily balance
 Minimum monthly /quarterly balance
 Average daily balance
 Average monthly/quarterly balance
 Highest balance during period
 Day of deposit to day of withdrawal
 User-defined accrual frequencies (e.g. weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc.)
 Automatic accrual and application of interest.
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page B 7
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
2. Posting of interest transactions to the general ledger
Tracking of account status
Disallow accounts
overdrawn
to
The software should track account status and validate/ warn Required
or disallow certain transactions based on account status, e.g.
posting to dormant or closed account.
be
The ability of the system to prevent savings accounts to be Required
overdrawn
Configurable alerts
Ability of the system to display alerts (caution messages) in Required
the event of unusual transactions, e.g. withdrawal on dormant
or inactive accounts
Control over the withdrawal
intervals,
User Defined query filters
during report generation
Flexibility for the user to define the interval between two Required
withdrawals
Flexibility for the user to customize reports through the use Required
of appropriate filters, e.g. reporting date, products types,
geographical area, etc.
SAVINGS RELATED STANDARD REPORTS
Report Title
Description
Frequency
Remarks
Daily Deposits Register
A detailed listing of deposits taken during the day.
Daily
Daily Deposits Summary
A summary of deposits taken during the day, broken down by Daily
various parameters such as product, district/region, etc..
Ideally as part of End-of-day
routine
Ideally as part of End-of-day
routine
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page B 8
Data (field)
Description
Group Savings Statement
Detailed listing of the savings ledger showing transaction Monthly, On
details and running balance.
demand, and
at client
exiting.
Savings account balances in the Group savings ledger
Monthly, On
demand, and
at client
exiting.
Detailed listing of the savings ledger of the selected member, On demand,
showing transaction details and running balance.
and at client
exiting.
Savings account balances, showing the balances of individual On demand,
members in the Group.
and at client
exiting.
This is a summary report showing the number of clients and
total savings in each of the designated zones (Branches or
Districts). It is useful in assessing the effectiveness of the
outreach efforts.
Group Savings Balances
Member Savings Statement
Member Savings Balances
Savings Concentration Report
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Flexibility for the user to
specify the reporting period.
Flexibility for the user to
specify the balance date.
Page B 9
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
(Information Requirements Matrix)
APPENDICE C: LOANS MODULE
APPENDIX C:
Data (field)
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION LOANS
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
GROUP LOANS ACCOUNT OPENING
Group Registration Number
(Group ID)
This represents the registration code assigned to the Group
on registration. It is a unique code that is used to reference
the Group throughout the system.
Required
Group name
This is the name of the Group
Required
Group Loans Account Number
This is the Loans account number for the Group. All Loans
Required
transactions including disbursements and loan repayments will
be posted to this account.
District
This is the District where the account holder resides.
Required
Region
This is the Region where the account holder resides.
Required
Loan product
This is the code describing the Loan product for the selected
account, e.g. Anfaani Trading.
Required
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
The system should display
the Group names and
Registration Codes in a dropdown list box for the MFI to
choose from.
The system should populate
this field using the Group ID
selected by the user
System should assign this
number, but provide the
flexibility for the MFI to
change the code if it so
wishes.
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
The system should provide
facility to maintain a
Products Codes and
Page C 1
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Date account opened
This is the date the Group Loan Account was opened.
Required
Group Executive Photographs
This is the photographs of the leading Executive members of
the Group
Optional
Group Executive Signatures or
Thumbprint
This is the signatures or thumbprints of the leading Executive
members of the Group
Optional
Date account Closed
This is the date the Group Loan Account was closed.
Required
Description Table. A dropdown list box to display valid
Loan products for the user to
choose from.
The software should provide
a calendar pop-up button to
display the dates.
The software should retrieve
the photographs from the
Group Clients Information
database and display them.
The software should retrieve
the signatures or
thumbprints from the Group
Clients Information database
and display them.
The software should provide
a calendar pop-up button to
display the dates.
GROUP MEMBER LOANS ACCOUNT OPENING
Group Registration Number
(Group ID)
This represents the registration code assigned to the Group
on registration. It is a unique code that is used to reference
the Group throughout the system.
Required
Group name
This is the name of the Group
Required
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
The system should display
the Group names and
Registration Codes in a dropdown list box for the MFI to
choose from.
The system should populate
Page C 2
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Member’s Registration Number
(Member ID)
This represents the registration code assigned to the Group
Member on registration. It is a unique code that is used to
reference the Group Member throughout the system.
Required
Group Member name
This is the full name of the Group Member
Required
Group Member Loans Account
Number
This is the Loans account number for the Group. All Loans
Required
transactions including disbursements and loan repayments will
be posted to this account.
District
This is the District where the account holder resides.
Required
Region
This is the Region where the account holder resides.
Required
Loan product
This is the code describing the Loan product for the selected
account, e.g. Anfaani Trading.
Required
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
this field using the Group ID
selected by the user
The system should display
the Group Membersnames
and Registration Codes in a
drop-down list box for the
MFI to choose from.
The system should populate
this field using the Member
ID selected by the user
System should assign this
number, but provide the
flexibility for the MFI to
change the code if it so
wishes.
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
The system should provide
facility to maintain a
Products Codes and
Description Table. A dropdown list box to display valid
Loan products for the user to
choose from.
Page C 3
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Date account opened
This is the date the Group Loan Account was opened.
Required
Group Member Photograph
This is the photograph of the Group member
Optional
Member’s Signature or
Thumbprint
This is the signature or thumbprint of the Group Member
Optional
Date account Closed
This is the date the Member’s Loan Account was closed.
Required
The software should provide
a calendar pop-up button to
display the dates.
The software should retrieve
the photographs from the
Clients Information database
and display them.
The software should retrieve
the signatures or
thumbprints from the Clients
Information database and
display them.
The software should provide
a calendar pop-up button to
display the dates.
INDIVIDUAL CLIENT LOANS ACCOUNT OPENING
Individual Client Registration
Number
(Individual ID)
This represents the registration code assigned to the
Individual client on registration. It is a unique code that is
used to reference the client throughout the system.
Required
Individual Client name
This is the full name of the Individual client
Required
Individual Client Loans
This is the Loans account number for the Individual Client. All
Required
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
The system should display
the Individual clients’ names
and Registration Codes in a
drop-down list box for the
MFI to choose from.
The system should populate
this field using the Individual
Client’s ID selected by the
user
System should assign this
Page C 4
Data (field)
Description
Account Number
Loans transactions including disbursements and loan
repayments will be posted to this account.
District
This is the District where the account holder resides.
Required
Region
This is the Region where the account holder resides.
Required
Loan product
This is the code describing the Loan product for the selected
account, e.g. Anfaani Trading.
Required
Date account opened
This is the date the Loan Account was opened.
Required
Individual Client Photograph
This is the photograph of the Individual Client
Optional
Individual Client’s Signature or
Thumbprint
This is the signature or thumbprint of the Individual Client
Optional
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Required / Desired system features
Optional
number, but provide the
flexibility for the MFI to
change the code if it so
wishes.
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
The system should provide
facility to maintain a
Products Codes and
Description Table. A dropdown list box to display valid
Loan products for the user to
choose from.
The software should provide
a calendar pop-up button to
display the dates.
The software should retrieve
the photograph from the
Clients Information database
and display them.
The software should retrieve
the signature or thumbprint
from the Clients Information
database and display them.
Page C 5
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Date account Closed
This is the date the Loan Account was closed.
Required
Guarantors ID
This is the field to be used to enter the ID and names of
Guarantors
Optional
Collaterals
This is information on collaterals provided by the borrower. It
contains a description of the type of collateral and the value.
Optional
The software should provide
a calendar pop-up button to
display the dates.
The software should provide
facilities for maintaining a
database on Guarantors.
The software should provide
facilities for maintaining a
database on collaterals.
LOAN APPLICATION TRACKING
a) Application Forms Registration
Borrower’s ID
(Group ID / Member ID /
Individual Client ID)
This represents the registration code assigned to the client on
registration. It is a unique code that is used to reference the
client throughout the system.
Required
Borrower’s name
This is the name of the borrower, i.e. the Group name, Group
Member name, or Individual client name
Required
District
This is the District where the client resides.
Required
Region
This is the Region where the client resides.
Required
Loan product
This is the code describing the Loan product for the selected
Required
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
The system should display
the clients’ names and
Registration Codes in a dropdown list box for the MFI to
choose from.
The system should populate
this field using the Client’s ID
selected by the user
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
The system should provide
Page C 6
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
account, e.g. Anfaani Trading.
Loan Application Reference
This is a code assigned to identify the application.
Required
Date Application Received
This is the date the loan application was received.
Required
Total Amount applied for
This is the total loan amount applied for by Group or the
Individual Client
This field contains the names of the Group members and the
amount applied for by each member
This is the economic sector where the borrower is engaged in
Required
Guarantors ID
This is the field to be used to enter the ID and names of
Guarantors provided by the borrower as security for the loan
Optional
Collaterals
This is information on collaterals provided by the borrower as
security for the loan. It contains a description of the type of
collateral and the value.
Optional
Amount applied for by each
Group Member
Business Sector
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Required for
Group loans
Required
facility to maintain a
Products Codes and
Description Table. A dropdown list box to display valid
Loan products for the user to
choose from.
The software should assign
this number, but provide an
option for the MFI to change
it, if necessary.
The software should provide
a calendar pop-up button to
display the dates.
The system should maintain
a Table of economic sectors
and provide a drop-down list
box for the user to choose
from at data entry.
The software should provide
facilities for maintaining a
database on Guarantors.
The software should provide
facilities for maintaining a
database on collaterals.
Page C 7
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Stationery Fees
This field contains the amount paid as loan form fee or other
application pre-processing charges
Optional
Borrower’s ID
(Group ID / Member ID /
Individual Client ID)
This represents the registration code assigned to the client on
registration. It is a unique code that is used to reference the
client throughout the system.
Required
Borrower’s name
This is the name of the borrower, i.e. the Group name, Group
Member name, or Individual client name
Required
District
This is the District where the client resides.
Required
Region
This is the Region where the client resides.
Required
Loan Application Reference
This is a code assigned to identify the application.
Required
Loan product
This is the code describing the Loan product for the selected
account, e.g. Anfaani Trading.
Required
LOAN APPLICATION TRACKING
b) Loan Appraisal Process
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
The system should display
the clients’ names and
Registration Codes in a dropdown list box for the MFI to
choose from.
The system should populate
this field using the Client’s ID
selected by the user
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
The software should retrieve
and display this information
from the list of applications
registered and pending.
The software should retrieve
and display this information
from the list of applications
registered and pending.
Page C 8
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Date Application Received
This is the date the loan application was received.
Required
Total Amount applied for
This is the total loan amount applied for by Group or the
Individual Client
Required
Amount recommended by
Credit Officer / Loan Officer
This is the amount recommended by the loan appraisal
officer. It will be zero if the officer does not recommend the
loan
This is an optional field applicable to Group loans and shows
the amount recommended by the loan appraisal officer for
each Group member. It will be zero if the officer does not
recommend the loan for the entire Group.
This is flag that shows whether the appraisal officer
recommended the loan for approval or rejection, e.g.
Y=Recommended for approval; N=Recommended rejection.
This is text field containing the reason for the positive or
negative recommendation by the appraisal officer
This is the code and name of the credit officer or loan officer
that carried out the loan appraisal.
This is the date the Credit Officer’s appraisal report was
submitted.
This is the code and name of the credit officer or loan officer
that carried out the loan appraisal.
This is flag that shows whether the loan review committee
approved or rejected the loan, e.g. A=Approved; R=Rejected.
Required
Amount recommended for
each Group Member
Recommended for Approval /
Rejection Flag
Reason for Recommendation
Credit Officer / Loan Officer ID
Appraisal Date
Credit Officer / Loan Officer ID
Loan Review Committee’s
recommendation Flag
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
The software should retrieve
and display this information
from the list of applications
registered and pending.
The software should retrieve
and display this information
from the list of applications
registered and pending.
Required
Required
Required
Required
Required
Required
Required
Page C 9
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Reason for Approval /
Rejection
This is text field containing the final decision of the loan
review committee, and the reason for approving or rejecting
the application.
Required
The software should provide
facilities for maintaining a
System Table on Reasons for
Approval or Rejection. This
will enhance future analysis
of the loan approval process.
The system should display
the clients’ names and
Registration Codes in a dropdown list box for the MFI to
choose from.
The system should populate
this field using the Client’s ID
selected by the user
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
The software should retrieve
and display this information
from the list of applications
registered and pending.
LOAN APPLICATION TRACKING
c) Loan Processing Fees and Commissions
Borrower’s ID
(Group ID / Member ID /
Individual Client ID)
This represents the registration code assigned to the client on
registration. It is a unique code that is used to reference the
client throughout the system.
Required
Borrower’s name
This is the name of the borrower, i.e. the Group name, Group
Member name, or Individual client name
Required
District
This is the District where the client resides.
Required
Region
This is the Region where the client resides.
Required
Loan Application Reference
This is a code assigned to identify the application.
Required
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page C 10
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Loan product
This is the code describing the Loan product for the selected
account, e.g. Anfaani Trading.
Required
Date Application Approved
This is the date the loan application was approved.
Required
Type of fee
This field contains a code that identifies the type of charges,
e.g. Processing Fee, Commission, Training, etc.
Required
Amount Received
This is the amount received
Required
Voucher Reference
The Receipt number or Bank Pay-in-slip Number, etc.
Optional
Method of Payment
This is a description of the mode of payment, e.g. by cash,
cheque, transfer from the client’s savings product, direct
payment to the MFI’s Bank account, etc.
Optional
Cheque Number
This is the cheque number if amount was paid by cheque
Required
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
The software should retrieve
and display this information
from the list of applications
registered and pending.
The software should retrieve
and display this information
from the list of applications
registered and pending.
The software should provide
facilities for maintaining a
System Table on Types of
Fees and Commissions. The
Table will contain a Code,
description, default amount,
and Income Account Number
in the Chart of Account, as
minimum.
The system should provide a
facility for maintaining a
System Table on Methods of
Payment.
Page C 11
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Borrower’s ID
(Group ID / Member ID /
Individual Client ID)
This represents the registration code assigned to the client on
registration. It is a unique code that is used to reference the
client throughout the system.
Required
Borrower’s name
This is the name of the borrower, i.e. the Group name, Group
Member name, or Individual client name
Required
District
This is the District where the client resides.
Required
Region
This is the Region where the client resides.
Required
Loan Application Reference
This is a code assigned to identify the application.
Required
Loan product
This is the code describing the Loan product for the selected
account, e.g. Anfaani Trading.
Required
Date Disbursed
This is the date the loan was disbursed.
Required
Amount Disbursed
This is the total amount disbursed for Individual Client Loan
Required
LOAN APPLICATION TRACKING
d) Loan Disbursement
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
The system should display
the clients’ names and
Registration Codes in a dropdown list box for the MFI to
choose from.
The system should populate
this field using the Client’s ID
selected by the user
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
Read-only fields. System
should retrieve and display
this information
The software should retrieve
and display this information
from the list of applications
registered and pending.
The software should retrieve
and display this information
from the list of applications
registered and pending.
Page C 12
Data (field)
Description
Amount Disbursed for each
Group Member
or a Group loan.
This field contains the names of the Group members and the
amount disbursed to each member
Required / Desired system features
Optional
Required for
Group Loans
Voucher Reference
The Payment Voucher, Loan Disbursement Sheet Reference,
Pay-in-slip Number, etc.
Optional
Method of Payment
This is a description of the mode of payment, e.g. by cash,
cheque, transfer from the client’s savings product, direct
payment to the MFI’s Bank account, etc.
Optional
Cheque Number
This is the cheque number if amount was paid by cheque
Required
Loan Cycle
This is the loan cycle.
Required
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
The system should provide a
facility for maintaining a
System Table on Methods of
Payment.
The software should
calculate loan cycles based
on the number of repeat
loans, but should provide the
flexibility for the MFI to
change this, e.g. at system
roll-over.
Page C 13
Appendix C2
Other Loan Functions and Processing Capabilities
1. System Integration: The Loans module should be tightly integrated with all the core
modules including savings, client information database, and accounting.
2. Product Definition and Customization: Capability for the user to create new Loan
products and define the product terms and methodologies for all products. The
following are considered minimum configurable options:
 Loan product code and name
 Rural/Urban/Per-urban Indicator
 Loan size (minimum, maximum, average, etc.)
 Duration of loan
 Interest rate per annum
 Interest calculation method (flat rate, fixed, amortized or declining balance,
floating/variable rate, stepped rate, etc.)
 Payment frequencies (Daily, Weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Balloon
payment, etc.)
 Payment year (360/365/366 days, 48-weeks, 50-weeks, 52-weeks,
 Grace period
 Interest calculation/payment during grace period
 Penalty methods
 Calculate as %, flat amount
 Calculate on the Principal in arrears only, or Principal + Interest in
arrears
 Minimum Penalty amount, etc.
 Other fixed or variable charges (processing fee, commitment fess, stationery
fee, training fee, etc.)
3. Loan Repayment Schedule: The software should provide features for automatic
preparation of loan repayment schedule. This facility should available at loan
application processing, with the schedule being updated at disbursement. The
following data is considered basic:
 Group ID number
 Group name
 District
 Region
 Loan product code and name
 Loan account number
 Loan Cycle
 Total Amount
 Total Principal
 Total interest
 Number of installments
 For each installment:
 Installment Number, e.g. 1, 2, 3, etc.
 Due date
 Amount due – Principal
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page C 14
 Amount due – Interest
 Total due (Principal + Interest)

Linkage to Savings Account
 Percentage of loan account to be in the savings account
 Range of percentages depending on loan size, cycle, or other parameters
4. Interest Calculation and Application: The following features are required as
minimum:
 The software should provide features for all the popular interest calculation
methods. It should allow MTA to define the grace period and whether interest
is to be calculated during this period.
 The software should provide for all the popular methods of interest calculation,
i.e. minimum, average, maximum daily/weekly/monthly balance, etc.
 The software should also allow the user to define whether interest is calculated
in days (360/365/366 Days/year), weeks (48/52 weeks/year) or months (12
month/year)
 Flexibility to specify whether interest is paid as lump sum during first
installment, spread equally over the repayment period, deducted at
disbursement, etc.
 Flexibility to specify whether there is a minimum interest amount
 The software should automate the posting of interest calculated into the
Groups, and Members savings accounts, and also (in summary) into the general
ledger
5. Tracking of account status: e.g. dormant or inactive accounts
6. Configurable alerts: The software should include features to track and display alerts
(caution messages) in the event of unusual transactions, e.g. loan disbursement
date earlier than the loan application date, insufficient funds in savings account to
cover the required collateral, etc.
7. Tracking of Loans at Group Member Level: The software should support both group
and Individual lending methodologies. It should additionally support loan tracking at
Group Member level.
8. Penalty Calculation and Application: The software should provide routines for
calculating and applying penalties on late payment based on the product terms and
methodologies specified during product configuration. It should additionally allow the
MFI to suspend or postpone penalty calculation if it so wishes.
9. Data entry and other processing capabilities: Specific capabilities will include:
 Loan account opening for Groups and group members
 Data entry screens for recording loan applications received, and tracking it
through approval up to disbursement
 Support for the credit assessment and approval procedure
 Automatic posting of loan disbursements the Group loan account and Group
Members loan accounts
 Automatic posting of loan disbursements to the cash book
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page C 15





Automatic posting of loan disbursement (in summary) to the general ledger
Recording of loan repayments
Automatic posting of loan repayments to the Group loan account and Group
Members loan accounts
Automatic posting of loan repayments to the cash book
Automatic posting of loan repayment (in summary) to the general ledger
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page C 16
Appendix C3
Loans and Portfolio Management Reports
Report title
Category B - Loan Activity Reports
Description
This category comprises reports on loan activity and includes reports on individual loans
used to communicate information to clients on the status of their accounts, and routine
management reports used by field staff to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of
their day-to-day routines.
Loan Activity Report - (B1)
This category of reports are printouts of various loan transactions such as disbursements
during the period, repayments received, penalties calculated / applied, etc.
Loan Repayment Schedule - (B2)
A loan repayment Schedule provides a plan for the recovery of the credit by showing the
due dates and amount expected – both Principal and Interest. It is a useful information
to the borrower because it reminds him/her of the due dates so that he/she can plan to
meet repayment deadlines. It is equally critical to loan monitoring because it helps
determine due dates and arrears Delinquencies.
Customer Status Report - (B3)
This report lists the status of all active loan accounts for the client, the history on all the
client's closed accounts, and the client's status as guarantor of active loans.
Active Loans by Loan Officer - (B6)
This is one of two key reports used by Loan officers to monitor their clients' status. It
should be printed weekly. It lists all active loans for a Loan Officer, with initial
information such as amount, disbursement date and term, upcoming payments and
current loan status.
Daily Payments by Loan Officer - (B7)
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
For delinquent loans the report shows the principal and interest in arrears so that the
loan officer can tell the client the total amount due.
This report could be adapted to be a listing of the Daily Collection Sheet from loan
Page C 17
officers and mobile bankers
Pending Applications report - (B8)
This is a listing of the application received but at the appraisal stage.
Approved/Rejected Applications report (B9)
This report lists applications that have completed the approval stage, but not yet
disbursed. For applications rejected, the report should show the reason for rejection. The
report should also show the elapsed time between the date the application was received
and date the approval process was completed, i.e. application to approval time.
Portfolio Concentration Report - (B10)
To diversify risk, management should regularly monitor the distribution of the portfolio
by such criteria as business activity, geographic area (Districts/Regions), and loan size.
Distribution is monitored according to both number of loans and share of portfolio, and
percentages of totals are calculated for each category.
Category C – Portfolio Quality Reports
The reports in this category focus on portfolio quality indicators. Several of them provide
detailed information on single loans or single clients, some provide information on a
single Loan Officer's portfolio, and others cover single District offices. Most provide
information on delinquent loan status and ageing of the portfolio at risk.
Detailed Ageing of Portfolio at Risk - (C1)
Portfolio at risk is the most important indicator for monitoring portfolio quality. The
portfolio-at-risk indicator is based on the concept that if one or more payments are
overdue on a loan, an entire loan is in jeopardy (at risk), not just the installment that is
overdue, as in the arrears rate indicating.
Delinquent Loans by Loan Officer - (C2)
This report is one of the most important to be used by Loan Officers. It should be
produced weekly and be used to follow up immediately on overdue loans. It includes all
information helpful in client follow-up, such as contact phone numbers.
Although it is similar to the Active Loans by Loan Officer report, it includes more details
on delinquency.
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page C 18
Delinquent Loans by District and Product - This report is used primarily by District Credit Managers /credit officers to monitor the
(C3)
most seriously overdue loans in their District. It shows basic characteristics of the loan
such as financing sources and economic sector, and notes the responsible Loan Officer.
The Days without Payment column is helpful in monitoring the effectiveness of follow-up
efforts - a loan may be three payments overdue, but if the client has made a payment
recently, the situation is less serious than if no payment has been received for 90 days.
The Net Savings column calculates the outstanding loan balance less compulsory savings
blocked from access by the client, to serve as collateral for the loan (where linkages of
loans to savings methodology is employed).
Summary of Portfolio at Risk by Loan
Officer - (C5)
This management report provides a summary of portfolio at risk analyzed by credit
officers.
Summary of Portfolio at Risk by District This management report provides a summary of portfolio at risk analyzed by product
and Product - (C6)
type, District/Region.
Loan Write-off and Recuperation report (C7)
Loan Loss Provisioning Report - (C8)
This report provides information of the loan loss provisioning calculated for the period.
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page C 19
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
(Information Requirements Matrix)
APPENDICE D: ACCOUNTING (GENERAL LEDGER)
MODULE
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page D 1
APPENDIX D:
Data (field)
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION ACCOUNTING
Description
Required / Desired
Optional
system
features
GENERAL FEATURES, ACCOUNTING STANDARDS
Cash
or
Accounting
Accrual The software should allow the Required.
user to configure it to track
transactions on accrual or cash
basis.
Compliance
with The software should be capable Required
International
of generating reports that follow
Accounting Standards Generally Accepted Accounting
Principles (GAAP) or International
Accounting Standards (IAS)IAS.
System Integration
The accounting module should Required
integrate seamlessly with the
portfolio management modules,
allowing accounting transactions
to be generated from savings and
loans and posted to general
ledger
Cost Center
The software should be able to Required
track transactions by cost center
and provide the facilities to
generate standard accounting /
financial reports by cost center.
Fund Accounting
The software should be able to Required
track transactions by source of
funding and provide the facilities
to generate standard accounting
/
financial
reports
by
donor/source of funding.
Data Exchange
The software should provide Required
facilities to export accounting
data in formats that could be
accessed by other popular
application packages such as
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page D 2
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired
Optional
system
features
Excel spreadsheet or databases.
CHART OF ACCOUNTS MAINTENANCE
User-defined chart of The ability of the MFI to Required.
accounts structure
restructure and create its own
chart of accounts that meets its
internal accounting and financial
policies and procedures
Chart of Accounts The software should provide
Import template
facilities for the user to set up the
chart of accounts in Excel
spreadsheet or other popular
application and later import it to
the accounting system after it has
been reviewed and approved by
the organization
Multi-layered structure A multi layered structure that
allows the accounts to be
segmented into six layers,
namely: major account, subaccount, District/cost center,
Fund, Product, and Program. The
first two layers, i.e. major
account and sub-account, form
the primary account number. The
other layers are statistical codes
to be used primarily for tracking
and reporting incomes and
expenses.
Account Status
The ability to tag an account as
active or inactive. Additionally,
the software should prevent
posting to inactive accounts.
Account Designation
The ability to designate an
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Required
The
software
may provide a
sample chart of
accounts
to
guide the user.
However there
should
be
facilities
to
completely
delete
this
sample if the
user wishes to
do so.
An
Import
template
to
guide the user
as to how to
format
the
source data.
Required
Required
Required
Page D 3
Data (field)
Description
account as Posting, Summary or
Header account. Additionally, the
software should restrict posting
to
only
those
accounts
designated as “Posting”.
Maximum number of The chart should be capable of
accounts
accommodating at least 5,000
active accounts
Accounts Classification Ability to classify accounts into
the
major
accounting
classification in conformity with
International
Accounting
Standards (IAS), i.e. Balance
Sheet,
Liabilities,
Equity,
Incomes, Expenses, and Offbalance sheet accounts.
Beginning balances
The software should provide a
function to allow entry/editing
(with security) of beginning
balances of accounts
Account
number Ability to restrict entry to only
verification
valid major account/sub-account
combination
Required / Desired
Optional
system
features
Required
Required
Required
Required
BUDGET MAINTENANCE
Multiple budgets
The ability to maintain multiple Required.
budgets, e.g. Operational budget,
Donor Funds, etc.
Multiple years
The ability to maintain budgets Required
for previous year, current year,
and next year
Budget
Variance The ability to track actual Required
Reporting
incomes/expenses by budget
codes, perform variance analysis
TRANSACTIONS MAINTENANCE
Automatic
transactions
The accounting system should Required.
integrate seamlessly with other
modules.
The Savings module should
generate and transfer accounting
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page D 4
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired
Optional
system
features
entries
for
all
deposits,
withdrawals, charges, etc. to the
General ledger.
The
Loans
module
should
generate and transfer accounting
entries
for
disbursements,
repayments, interest and other
incomes, etc. to the General
Ledger.
Required
End-of-day and End- Routines for performing day-end Required
of-Month Routines
close out functions.
Year-end Routines
Facilities for performing year-end
close out functions
Double-entry checks
The system should automatically
restrict
transactions
from
updating accounts unless there is
an offsetting entry, i.e. total
debits equals total credits
User-defined Journal The ability to maintain a Table
entry Types
describing Types of Journal
entries, e.g. General Journal,
Bank Account Reconciliation, etc.
Automatic transaction The system should automatically
numbering
assign unique reference number
to each transaction
Recurring Journals
Ability to set up recurring journals
Automatic
The system should generate
transactions
transactions reference numbers
numbering
Online validation of Basic
data
validation
of
journal
entry transactions,
e.g.
validate
information
account
number,
validate
transaction date, etc.
Automatic
The system should generate
transactions
transactions reference numbers
numbering
Posting to Prior Year Ability to post transactions to
or Next Year
prior month/year (Back-dated
transactions) or future periods
(Forward-dated transactions)
Audit Trail controls
The system should maintain a
detailed audit trail of all
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Required
Required.
The
system
should generate
balancing offset
entry by default
Required
Required
Required
Required
Required
Required
Required
Required
Page D 5
Data (field)
Description
Accessing
Historical/Archival
Data
transactions
processed,
with
controlled access to audit trail
information.
The system should provide Required
controlled access to accounting
transactions for prior (closed)
years
The system should generate Required
transactions reference numbers
Automatic
transactions
numbering
Data interchange
Required / Desired
Optional
system
features
Ability to import accounting Required
journals from other database or
spreadsheet applications, and to
export data in any of the popular
data formats
ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL REPORTS
Report Title
Description
Frequency
Remarks
Activity Reports
Journal Entries
Cash Book
Detailed
Ledger
Statement
Detailed and Summary listing of Daily,
The
software
Journal Entries processed during Weekly, and should provide
the reporting period.
Monthly.
facilities
for
filtering
transactions e.g.
by date, cost
center,
fund,
product, etc.
Detailed and Summary printout of Daily,
the Cash and Bank Accounts
Weekly, and
Monthly.
General A detailed printout of the selected Monthly, and The
software
Account accounts,
showing
opening user-defined should provide
balance,
debit
and
credit period range facilities
for
transactions, running balance,
filtering
and closing balance
transactions e.g.
by date, account
number or range
of
account
numbers,
cost
center,
fund,
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page D 6
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired
Optional
system
features
product, etc.
Audit Trail
Detailed Audit Trail listing
On-demand
Budget
Variance Comparison of Actuals against Monthly,
Report
Budget
Quarterly,
Half-yearly,
Yearly
Monthly Trial Balance Ability to generate detailed and Monthly,
The
system
summary monthly Trial Balance
Quarterly,
should allow the
Half-yearly,
user to define
and Yearly
the
reporting
month
Financial Statements
Balance Sheet
Income Statement
Adjusted
Statement
Detailed
and
Summary
Consolidated Balance Sheet;
Detailed and Summary Balance
Sheet by District/Profit Center;
Detailed and Summary Balance
Sheet by Fund
Detailed
and
Summary
Consolidated Income Statement;
Detailed and Summary Income
Statement
by
District/Cost
Center; Detailed and Summary
Income Statement by Fund
Income
Cash Flow Statement
Monthly,
Quarterly,
Half-yearly,
and Yearly
Monthly,
Quarterly,
Half-yearly,
Yearly
Monthly,
Quarterly,
Half-yearly,
Yearly
Monthly
Financial Ratios and Trends: - Loan Portfolio Quality Analysis
Portfolio at Risk (PAR)
Arrears rate
Repayment Rate
Current
Rate
Repayment
Financial Ratios and Trends: - Staff Productivity Ratios
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page D 7
Data (field)
Description
Required / Desired
Optional
system
features
Number of active loan
clients per loan officer
Number of active loan
clients per District
office
Gross portfolio
outstanding per loan
officer
Yield on portfolio
Financial Productivity Ratios – Cost Efficiency Ratios
Administrative
efficiency
Personnel Expense
ratio
Operating
ratio
Expenses
Financial
ratio
Expenses
Operational
Sufficiency
Self-
Financial
Sufficiency
Self-
IS Needs Assessment – Technical Specification
Page D 8