04.26.2012 User Meetup

Owned by Ed Cable
Last updated: Apr 27, 2012Version comment

Agenda

Before each meeting we'll post a proposed agenda.  You can add any item you would like to cover to the agenda by emailing the user list or editing this wiki page. 

Session

Description

Presenter

Time

Introduction

We will also have an introduction of everyone on the call so the community can get more personally connected.

Ed Cable

10 min

Demo/Tutorial

Each meeting, we'll do a demo of a feature or a tutorial of how to do a certain task within Mifos or how to use a tool or resource in the online community infrastructure. 

Demonstration of Mifos-ACC Accounting Module led by Hugo Technologies and Kakha

 Shiva/Kakha

30 min

Open Office Hours

This is the heart of the meeting - the time for users to ask any questions and connect with expert implementers and fellow users to discuss deploying Mifos, using Mifos, adopting technology, project management - any question you have.

Open

10 min

Product Feedback

Each meeting, we want users to voice their pains/challenges with Mifos and how we can make the product better. Any bugs you've found, feature requests you've had, ideas to make the product better should be shared at this time. 

This is the chance for our developers to directly hear from the mouth of the users how they use the product and what they need to use it more effectively.

Discussion on Mifos X and Individual Lending Requirements

Keith W

10 min

On the Call

On the Call

  • Ed
  • Praveen (GK - India)
  • Keith Woodlock (Working on Mifos X - Ireland)
  • Chetan (SunGard - Product Management for Mifos - India)
  • Patrick Asare-Frimpong (WWB - IT - Looking to do support for other MFIs - Ghana)
  • Vishwas (Conflux - Bangalore - India)
  • Jakub (SolDevelo - Main Dev Team -  Poland)
  • Kakha (FinA - Mifos Support/ACC - Georgia) 
  • Venkat (Hugo - India)
  • Shiva (Hugo - India))
  • Patrick M. (Rwanda)
  • Semba (Kongalend - Namibia)

Notes

Live notes from http://sync.in/MuE2kgb8sO

Agenda

  • User Presentation from an MFI in India. 
  • Demonstration of Accounting Proof of Concept from Hugo Technologies and FinA
  • Introduction of Mifos X Individual Lending functionality
  • Discussion of Volunteer Opportunities 
  • Outreach on the Ground Blog Series 

Firsthand Experiences with Mifos

  • Challenges from Shiva at Hugo Technologies
  • Mifos product is purely to MF industry
    • Collateral Management - financial/commercial segment going into MF - NBFCs in India.
  • Challenges from Patrick (Ghana)
    • One requirement needed by client is fixed deposit - customer can put $ in for set period (3-6-9 months) and can accrued interest
    •  
  • Long time for closing opportunities - 4 - 6 months
  • Follow-up - 6 months with the MFI
  • New capabilities for Mifos X Hugo Patrick Asare-Frimpong would like to see
    • Term/Fixed Deposits
    • SMS notifications

Accounting Background

  • Led and financed by FinA
  • Functional Design by Binny
  • Dev by Hugo
  • Reporting by Conflux
  • several MFIs to test
  • all will be published by github - any help/code review is appreciated. 
  • Investing in 2 systems was difficult (i.e. both Mifos and Tally)
  • Impetus to develop these simple functionalities into Mifos
  • Functional design made and convinced Kakha to fund.
  • Currently 70% through Mifos-ACC

How it Works

  • 4 different areas from Accounting Section in Admin
  • GL Transactions
  • Journal Voucher
  • Defining Open Balances
    • Primary starting point
      • Select financial year (but currently hard-coded)
        • Can then select office hierarchy because each one can be a cost center - Opening balances can be defined at any level
        • Then you can select the Chart of accounts and account head
        • Right now no separate debit/credit dropdown but that's on it's way
        • Debit is +
        • Credit is -
  • GL Transactions
    • Can select which office level again
    • 4 types of transactions
      • Cash Receipt, Bank Receipt, Cash Payment, Bank Payment
    • Can go to MainAccount and then AccountHead
    • Bank Receipts vs. Cash Receipts
      • Have additional details for check/bank transaction, etc. 
    • All transactions can be done at any cost center level.
  • Journal Vouchers
    • For contra entires or correcting transactions/doing adjustements
    • Can do these at any level
    • You select the debit and credit account heads
  • View GL transactions shows the entries that have been made that day. 
    • Enhance: would be nice to specify a (to-from) range to show these transactions
    • Might decrease performance if go beyond 1 month's transactions
  • Questions:
    • KW: What is relationship to existing accounting transactions in Mifos? Is this completely independent?
      • Users have option to transfer on a day to day basis the portfolio transactions into the financial accounting transaction table.
    • Users have option to transfer on a day to day basis the portfolio transactions into the financial accounting transaction table
      .
    • KW: is this for users that need to simple approach to accounting and don't have a separate system?
      • Shiva: yes - rich MFIs and poor MFIs - poor MFIs cannot afford system like Tally - this will be a better solution for them.
    • Shiva: yes - rich MFIs and poor MFIs - poor MFIs cannot afford system like Tally - this will be a better solution for them
      • Kakha: Mifos-ACC helps to consolidate accounting transactions into one place and can export these transactions on a consolidate or one-by-one basis.
    • Ed: Which reports are being built?
      • Cash Books
      • Bank Books
      • GL
      • P&L
      • Balance Sheet
      • Depreciation and Taxation and others are out of scope
  • Process for Feedback
    • Email or through Mifos-ACC project on JIRA
  • Accounting Roadmap
    • Plan for APIs and to integrate with accounting
  • See Youtube Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ozbsgQNAg

Mifos X Update

  • For MFIs who are focused on individual lending and clients go to the youtube demonstration and look at the demo server.
  • See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN5Dn1Lc_js
  • Ed: More details on unified roadmap with Mifos to come
  • Kakha: would like more technical details so can work with it.