Creating a savings product

Interest, compounding and posting, lock-in, compulsory vs voluntary savings, overdraft and accounting.

Where

WhoAdministrators

A savings product sets the rules for every account opened from it: the interest paid, how it is calculated and posted, minimum balances, lock-in and fees.

Details

Field	Required	What it means
Name / short name	required	e.g. “Ordinary Savings” / “ORD”.
Description	required	Who the product is for.
Currency	required	Account currency.
Decimals	required	Decimal places balances are rounded to.
Savings category	required	Voluntary — the member saves when they wish. Compulsory — required deposits, e.g. as loan security or SACCO membership deposits.
Auto create	required	Open an account of this product automatically for every new member.
Active	required	Only active products can be used for new accounts.

Interest

Field	Required	What it means
Default interest rate	required	Annual interest rate paid to members.
Interest calculation type	required	Daily balance — interest on each day’s closing balance. Average balance — interest on the average balance over the period.
Compounding period	required	How often earned interest is added to the balance that earns interest — daily, weekly, monthly, biannual or annually.
Interest posting period	required	How often interest is actually credited to the account (e.g. monthly or annually).
Minimum balance for interest calculation	required	Accounts below this balance earn no interest.

Note

Compounding and posting are different: interest can compound monthly but only be posted (and become withdrawable) annually.

Balances and restrictions

Field	Required	What it means
Automatic opening balance	required	Amount required (or deposited) when an account opens.
Lock-in period + type	required	How long money must stay before it can be withdrawn — in days, weeks, months or years. Use `0` for none.
Allow overdraft	required	Whether the account can go below zero. Overdraft interest posts to the overdraft income account.

Accounting

Choose None or Cash accounting, then map the savings control, interest-on-savings, write-off, fee, penalty and overdraft-interest accounts — see Product accounting.

Charges

Attach savings charges (below) so they apply to every account of the product.