Custom Fields
Mifos provides custom fields that enable MFIs to capture additional information for customized processing.  The custom fields can be used by the MFI to capture different sets of information.  The fields can be used to capture text, date or numeric data.  The system allows the system administrator to make the custom fields mandatory and to change the labels for such fields.
Offices
The office hierarchy in Mifos defines the relationship between different office types in the MFI.  The MFIs can have offices, which can be broken down based on geographical or functional divisions.  The system uses the office hierarchy to manage, control and report microfinance transactions.  Users in the system and clients must be attached to offices.  This chapter guides the user how to define an office structure, view it and maintain the structure.
Both the Head Office and Branch office types are mandatory for the system and cannot disabled.  Mifos allows a maximum of 5 levels of office types.  The following organization chart shows the possible relationships that can be defined in an MFI.
 Office Hierarchy
The office hierarchy page shows the enabled office types for the MFI.  For example, an MFI can have the Head Office and the Branch Office only.  The office hierarchy will show that both Head Office and Branch Office are enabled and the user will be able to define offices that are of these two types.  An MFI can only have one head office.
Fees
MFIs can charge their customer fee for the various services offered. Reasons for charging a fee can vary from one MFI to another. Mifos system gives the flexibility to MFIs and branches to define fee instances to meet their requirements.  Examples of fee instances can be client creation fee, training fee, account creation fee, etc.
Defining a Fee Type
Different fee types can be defined at the head office by authorized users.  The user must have Can define fee type permission in order to define a fee type.
Checklist
Checklists are used to communicate the internal processes (as a reminder of guidelines) required before certain state movements of accounts or customer records can proceed.  Each time a user attempts changing the state of an account or customer record, the Checklist defined for that state change is shown to the user. The user can read through the checklist and make sure all the requirements are met. These checklists will be associated with all workflows for accounts and client records but are not automated.
Checklists will be defined by the HO and associated with certain states of customer records or accounts. Checklists will not be attached to individual customer records/accounts, but are displayed in between state changes. It provides a set of "reminders" to the user.
For example, if HO defines a Checklist for the state "Pending Approval" of a Loan account, every time a user attempts to change the state of a loan account to "Pending Approval", the Checklist is displayed to the user. The users can then go through the list and make sure all items on the checklist have been satisfied. A Checklist is defined for the destination state and is not dependant on the source state.  Each state destination for clients, groups and products can only have one checklist attached.
Managing Roles
 Creating a Role
1. Enter the name of the role in the Role Name field.
2. Create permissions by enabling the activities applicable as illustrated in the page above.  The page shows how the activities are structured in Mifos.  Whereas some activities are standalone e.g. System Parameters, others are compound e.g. Calendar & Holiday.  A compound activity is made of sub-activities, which can be enabled or disabled individually.  If you enable Calendar & Holidays activity, its sub-activities will be enabled automatically.  However, you can selectively enable sub-activities for a role.  For example: the sub-activities Define and modify calendar and Define MFI wide Holidays can be enabled for a role whereas Office Specific Holiday is disabled.  If at least one sub-activity is disabled, the Calendar & Holidays activity will be unchecked (disabled) but allowing the individual sub-activities to be effective on a role.
 Creating a User
Creating a Center
There are 2 main steps in creating a center i.e. selecting the center's parent branch and entering the center details.  The system will walk the user through these steps, once they have selected to create new center. The following steps outline these steps in more detail.
Create a Group
1. You can create a group that is attached to a center or to a branch. To create a group, click Create new group on the Clients & Accounts Tasks as shown below and the system will walk the user through simple steps to create a group.
Create a Client
To create a client you need to choose to attach a client to a branch or group and enter the client details.  The following steps provide more details on the how to create a client.
 Defining a Product Category
 Targeted Deposits and Withdrawal Restrictions
Loan Accounts
 Loan Account Status
Following transactions can still be made to the account if the account is in any of the Closed statuses (i.e. Closed-Obligation met; Closed- Rescheduled, or Closed- Written Off): Payment of principal, Payment of Interest, Payment of fees (only "Single charge"), Payment of penalty charging of fees, Charging of penalty and Adjustments.
Change Log
The changes made to any of the following items on the accounts page will be logged in the change logs.
a. Account information changes
b. Addition/removal of fee types
c. Addition of notes and change in collateral notes
d. Status changes: includes changes that were made by the user and the system.
Changes related to transactions e.g. payment of principal, interest, fee, and penalty will not be logged.
 Account Status History
The account history shows listing of loan status changes with the first entry being the first status assigned to the loan when it was created.  The information can be used to track the progress of the loan, the efficiency of the loan officer or MFI approval process.
Notes
The following section of the loan account dashboard shows the Recent Notes of a loan account.  It shows various notes that have been appended to the loan account.  The loan dashboard shows the 3 most recent notes.  A note must be added when the user is changing the status of the account.  The user can also add a note when need arises by using the Add note link.