Product Definitions

Introduction

A product is a financial offering by an MFI to its clients:

Product Type. Mifos supports the following two product types: loans and savings. An MFI can offer loans to clients or groups with active accounts. It can offer savings accounts to client, groups, and centers.
Categories. An MFI can define product categories, which are logical groupings of products that can be used for reporting purposes. MFIs can define any number of product categories, containing any number of products, at any time. Products not assigned to any category will belong to Other by default. Product categories are defined from theDefine new category link on the Admin tab.
Products. Products are the different offerings belonging to a product type, such as personal loan, agricultural loan, cattle loan or voluntary or mandatory savings, which are defined in terms of interest rates, minimum and maximum loan amount, etc. When a user creates a loan or savings account, the defaults of the product are inherited by the account.

Loan product

Loan products are defined from the Define new loan product linkon the Admin tab, according to the attribute definitions provided in the attribute table that follows. Loan products can have interest applied in one of three ways: flat, declining balance, and declining balance with equal principal installment. See Interest calculations for loan accounts for more information.

Loan defaults based on previous loan amount

An MFI can specify that default loan amounts are calculated in one of three ways:

Same for all loans. Using this method, loan history is not taken into consideration. Users specify minimum, maximum, and default loan amounts, which is the same for all loan amounts.
By last loan amount. Using this method, the ranges are defined based on the loan history of the client, since a client should be eligible for increasingly larger loans. Users specify the minimum, maximum, and default values for the range of the last loan amount paid by the client. Up to six ranges can be entered, with the first range starting at 0. For example, if the first end range is 3000, then the start range in the second row is 3001.
By loan cycle. Using this method, loan cycles, i.e., the number of successfully repaid loans are used to determine a loan amount. The user enters the maximum, minimum, and default loan amounts for each loan cycle (values can be entered for the following cycles: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and >4).

The values entered for whichever method is chosen for both the loan amount field and the number of installment field should be for successfully repaid loans, not rescheduled loans, and should apply to loans based on the same product. Note that previous loans can have late payments and still be considered successfully repaid.

Loan default definitions can be modified after they have been created. Changes are effective immediately and will affect new loan accounts only.

If your MFI is set up to have more than 1 currency, you can specify a currency for the loan product during creation. This is currency will be inherited in all loan accounts created from that loan product. Mifos does not display currency of values throughout, so it is recommended to denote currency in the name of the Loan Product. See Currency Denominated Loan Products for more details.

Savings products

Savings products are defined from the Define new savings product linkon the Admin tab, according to the attribute definitions provided in the attribute table that follows. Note savings products are defined as either mandatory or voluntary.

Attributes for products

Attributes for product categories, all products, and attributes specific for loan products and savings products are provided in the following tables.

Product Categories

Product categories are logical groupings of products which can be used for reporting purposes. Product categories can be created anytime.

System has no limit on the number of product categories that can be created or the number of products that can be put in each category. Therefore, a user can create any number of product categories and a product category can have any number of products under it.
A category called “Other” will be present by default in the Mifos system. If the product does not fall into any of the defined product categories, it can be put in the “Other” category. This category can be modified like any other category.

Attributes for Product Category Creation

S. no.	attribute name	Data type	range	mandatory/optional	can be modified after product category creation	modifications to be applied to all open accounts or to new accounts	description/notes

S. no.	attribute name	Data type	range	mandatory/optional	can be modified after product category creation	modifications to be applied to all open accounts or to new accounts	description/notes
1.	Product Type	Drop-Down	Loan/Savings	Mandatory	No	N/A	Once a category is saved its product type cannot be changed.
2.	Category Name	Text (50 char)	None	Mandatory	Yes	All closed, open, and new accounts	If category name is changed, change takes effect immediately and all reports generated and all transactions recorded after the change takes the new name.
3.	Description	Text (250 char)	None	Optional	Yes	All closed, open, and new accounts
4.	Status	Drop-Down, single select	Active; Inactive	Mandatory	Yes	New accounts	A category is created in Active status by default. If status is changed from Active to Inactive, existing accounts are not affected, and they can continue to completion under the same product category

Products

At the lowest level of product hierarchy, products are the different offerings of a product type to the MFI clients. Products are defined in terms of interest rates, minimum and maximum loan amount and purpose of the loan. Personal loan, Agricultural loan, Cattle loan etc, are a few examples of Products. The sections below detail out the flexibility provided by the Mifos system in defining these products.

Attributes for Product Definition

The table below lists down the attributes common for loans and savings. Following this, the attributes specific to each product type has been listed down under the respective sections.

s. no.	attribute name	data type	default value	range	Mandatory/ optional for products	can be modified after product creation	modifications to be applied to all open accounts or to new accounts	can be modified at account level	description/ notes

s. no.	attribute name	data type	default value	range	Mandatory/ optional for products	can be modified after product creation	modifications to be applied to all open accounts or to new accounts	can be modified at account level	description/ notes
1.	Product Type Name	N/A	None	Loan/Savings	N/A	No	N/A	No
2.	Product Category	Drop-Down	None	Categories defined for Product Type	Mandatory	Yes	Closed + Open + New Accounts	No	See Product Categories. The change in product category is effective from the point the change was made.
3.	Product Name	Alphanumeric (50 chars)	None	None	Mandatory	Yes	Closed + Open + New Accounts	No	Should be unique with the database that it is attached to. Product Details page should display the full name of the product.
4.	Product short name	Text (4 chars without spaces)	None	None	Mandatory	Yes	Closed + Open + New Accounts	No	This is for bulk entry, internal reports, UI pull-downs, etc. This has length limits and must be unique within an installation.
5.	Description	Text	None	None	Mandatory	Yes	Closed + Open + New Accounts	No	This is the brief description of the product. If empty, this attribute name should not appear in the UI.
6.	Product Code	System ID (string)	None	None	Mandatory	No (System generated Uniqued ID)	N/A	No	This is not to be displayed in the UI.
8.	Start Date	Date	Today's date	Current date to one year from current date	Mandatory	Once the start date is reached and the system has changed the state to “Active”, start date cannot be changed. But it can be changed if product is still in “Inactive” status.	All Open and New Accounts - This cannot be changed once any account is created	No	Date when the status of the product is changed to “Active” by the system and the product starts surfacing in the New Loan Creation page. Effective date of change is collected and state change occurs at 12:01am of the day specified.
9.	End Date	Date	None	One year from curent date	Optional	Yes	All Open and New Accounts	No	New accounts should not be created after the end date has passed. State change occurs at 11:59 p.m. of the date specified as the end date. If no end date is entered, then new accounts can always be created after start date
10.	Applicable for groups/ clients/ centers	Drop down; Single-select	None	Clients; Groups; Centers	Mandatory	No	New accounts	No	Whether/not product can be given to individuals, groups, or both. Center’s options are applicable only for savings accounts.
11.	Status	Drop down	As per the start and end dates	Active; Inactive	N/A	Yes	New accounts	No	During creation of a product, status is not user specified. System should create the product in active/inactive states as per the start date.

Attributes for Loan Product Definition

s. no.	attribute name	data type	default value	range	Mandatory/ optional for products	can be modified after product creation	modifications to be applied to all open accounts or to new accounts	can be modified at account level	description/ notes

s. no.	attribute name	data type	default value	range	Mandatory/ optional for products	can be modified after product creation	modifications to be applied to all open accounts or to new accounts	can be modified at account level	description/ notes
1.	Min loan amount	Number	None	None	Mandatory	Yes	New Accounts + current open accounts in Partial, Pending and Cancelled states	No
2.	Max loan amount	Number	None	None	Mandatory	Yes	New Accounts + current open accounts in Partial, Pending and Cancelled states	No
3.	Default amount	Number		None	Optional	Yes	New Accounts	No	The value can be overwritten at account level for the particular account
4.	Sources of funds	Multi-select	None	Defined by MFI	Optional	Yes	New Accounts + current open accounts in Partial, Pending and Cancelled states	Yes	Multiple sources of funds can be attached to a product.
5.	Frequency of installments	Number	1 week	Number of days/weeks/months	Mandatory	No	New Accounts	No	If product frequency conflicts with meeting schedule, LO would not be able to assign this product to a client Frequency can be every N number of days, weeks or every N number of months.
6.	Minimum number of installments	Number	1	None	Mandatory	Yes	New Accounts + Current Open Accounts in Partial, Pending and Cancelled states	No	The number of installments entered by LO at the account level should be in between the minimum and maximum number of installments specified at the product definition level.
7.	Maximum number of installments	Number	None	None	Mandatory	Yes	New Accounts + Current Open Accounts in Partial, Pending and Cancelled states	No
8.	Default number of installments	Number	None	None	Mandatory	Yes	New Accounts	Yes
9.	Interest rate type	Drop Down	None	Flat; Declining Balance; Declining Balance - Equal Principal Installment; Declining Balance - Interest Recalculation	Mandatory	Yes	New Accounts	No
10.	Max interest rate	Number	None	0 - 99.9%	Mandatory	Yes	New accounts + current open accounts in partial, pending, and cancelled states	No	Interest rates are annualized percentage, according to the number of days in a year specified at the MFI level.
11.	Min Interest Rate	Number	None	0 - 99.9%	Mandatory	Yes	New accounts + current open accounts in partial, pending, and cancelled states	No	Interest rates are annualized percentage, according to the number of days in a year specified at the MFI level.
12.	Default interest rate	Number	None	0 - 99.9%	Mandatory	Yes	New Accounts	No	Interest rates are annualized percentage, according to the number of days in a year specified at the MFI level.
13.	Grace period for repayments	Number	None		Mandatory	Yes	New Accounts	No