Client Accounts

Introduction

As either individuals or as members of groups, clients are the end beneficiaries of microfinance services. Clients are typically recruited, assigned to and managed by a loan officer at a particular BO. If they belong to a group, they inherit the loan officer from the group.

Before clients can receive loans, set up savings accounts, or be charged fees, client accounts must be created for them in Mifos.

Users with appropriate permissions can create a new client record by clicking the Create new client link on the Quick start navigation pane of the Home tab.

Note the following

Periodic and one-time center fees can be pre-defined from the Admin tab. These can be defined to be automatically charged to any newly created center, appearing on the "Client Charges" page. An LO can remove one or more of these fees for a particular center account and edit the fee amount if it is a one-time fee. If a fee is removed from one account, it does not affect other accounts. In addition, an LO can apply pre-defined fees as well as miscellaneous fees or penalties on the account after it's been created. These charges will be added in the next payment.
At the same time, up to three savings accounts that can be automatically created for the client. The accounts are created when the client is moved into active state.

Attributes for Client Accounts

The following table of client attributes is divided into three sections: personal information, available during creation of a client record; MFI related information, available during creation of a client record; attributes/actions that are viewable and editable only after creation from the client account details page.

Attributes marked mandatory for Partial state in the table are the minimum requirements to create a record. Pending Approval is an optional state; if this state is hidden, the attributes marked mandatory for Pending state should be considered mandatory for the Active state. Note: We have not thoroughly tested Mifos with the "Pending Approval" state hidden. We do not recommend hiding this state.

S. No.	Attribute Name	Data Type	Default	Mandatory for State Partial / Pending	Editable after Approved	Partial / Pending/ Approved	Range	Can be hidden by MFI?	Mandatory / Configurable	Description / Notes
Personal Information
1.	Salutation	Drop-Down	None	Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes / Yes	Options defined by HO	No	Optional
2.	First Name	Alphanumeric	None	Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes / Yes	100 characters	No	Mandatory	For details, see Name.
3.	Middle Name	Alphanumeric	None	No	No	Yes / Yes / Yes	100 characters	Yes	Optional
4.	Second last	Alphanumeric	None	No	No	Yes / Yes / Yes	100 characters	Yes, if optional	Configurable
5.	Last Name	Alphanumeric	None	Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes / Yes	100 characters	No	Mandatory
6.	Government ID #	Alphanumeric	None	Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes / No	N/A	No	Configurable	This can be Government ID, or National ID, or Social Security Number. This is un-editable after a client enters Active state.
7.	Date of Birth	Date	None	Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes / Yes	Any date in the past	No	Mandatory	Date format is locale specific, but is stored in MFI format.
8.	Gender	Drop-down	None	Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes / Yes	Male; Female	No	Mandatory
9.	Marital Status	Drop-down	None	No	No	Yes / Yes / Yes	Options defined by MFI	No	Mandatory
10.	Number of children	Numeric	None	No	No	Yes / Yes / Yes	0-30	No	Configurable
10.	Citizenship	Drop-down	None	No	No	Yes / Yes / Yes	Options defined by MFI.	Yes, if optional	Configurable
11.	Ethnicity	Drop-down	None	No	No	Yes / Yes / Yes	Options defined by MFI.	Yes, if optional	Configurable
12.	Education level	Drop-down	None	No	No	Yes / Yes / Yes	Options defined by MFI.	Yes, if optional	Configurable
13.	Business Activities	Drop-down	None	No	No	Yes / Yes / Yes	Options defined by MFI	Yes, if optional	Configurable
14.	Handicapped	Drop-down	None	No	No	Yes / Yes / Yes	Options defined by MFI.	Yes, if optional	Configurable	MFI can make this yes/no, or this can be “blind” “deaf” “wheelchair”, etc.
15.	Photograph	Photo	No	No	No	Yes / Yes / Yes	N/A	Yes, if optional	Configurable	For details, see Photograph.
16.	Spouse /Father First Name	Alphanumeric	None	Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes / Yes	N/A	No	Configurable	For details, see Name.
17.	Spouse /Father Middle Name	Alphanumeric	None	No	No	Yes / Yes / Yes	200 characters	Yes	Optional
18.	Spouse /Father Second Last Name	Alphanumeric	None	No	No	Yes / Yes / Yes	60 characters	Yes, if optional	Configurable
19.	Spouse /Father Last Name	Alphanumeric	None	Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes / Yes	60 characters	No	Configurable
20.	Flag for whether /not father or spouse name	Drop-Down	None	Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes / Yes	Father or Spouse	No	Configurable
21.	Address 1	Alphanumeric	None	Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes / Yes	N/A	No	Mandatory	First field
22.	Address 2	Alphanumeric	None	No	No	Yes / Yes / Yes	N/A	No	Optional	Second field
23.	Address 3	Alphanumeric	None	No	No	Yes / Yes / Yes	N/A	Yes	Optional	Third field
24.	City	Alphanumeric	None	Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes / Yes	N/A	No	Configurable
25.	State	Drop down	MFI state	Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes / Yes	Defined by MFI	No.	Configurable
26.	Country	Alphanumeric	Country of the MFI	Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes / Yes	Defined by MFI.	Yes.	Configurable
27.	Postal Code	Numeric	None	Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes / Yes	None	No	Configurable	Label should be defined by MFI: “pin code”, etc.
28.	Telephone	Alphanumeric	None	No	No