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Tutorial: Micro Loan |
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Tutorial: Micro Loan |
The Portal provides features to aid in the management of customer loans known as Micro Loans, which are small loans that are secured by items supplied by the customer. Micro Purchases are used to buy second-hand items from a customer with the aim of reselling them. These modules form part of the pawnbroking subsystem in the Portal. Loans and purchases are created at the Point of Sale but can be reported on in the Portal. In this tutorial we will investigate the maintenance and reporting of Micro Loans and Micro Purchases in the Portal.
This tutorial discusses the functionality available from the Micro Loans Menu. The Micro Loans Menu can be opened by selecting Menus, Customer, Services and Micro Loan from the Navigation Menu. Several links in the Micro Loans Menu provide different sections of the Menu - Maintenance, Loan Reports, Purchase Reports and Tracked Items. There is also links to provide Mail Out, SMS Out and Email Out facilities which are similar to the functions outlined in the Loyalty Correspondence tutorial. The standard Menus and Logout links also appear in the Micro Loans Menu.
In the first part of this tutorial we will discuss the Maintenance section of the Micro Loans Menu. Open the Maintenance section by clicking the Maintenance link in the Micro Loan Menu. A link is provided to open the Company Options to the Debtor section and another opens the Site Options screen to the Micro Loan section. There are also two links, New Customer and Edit Customer, which open the Customer Maintenance screen allowing you to create new or edit existing customer details. Use the Customer Reports link to open the Customer Reports screen, allowing you to report on various aspects of your customers. In this section of the tutorial we will discuss the final two links of the Maintenance section of the Micro Loans Menu, Find Loan and Find Purchase.
The Find Loan link in the Maintenance section of the Micro Loans Menu can be used to open the Search For Loan screen. This screen allows you to find details of a loan from a selected Site. Enter the Loan Number to find and press the Search button. Information displayed in this screen includes the Customer Name, Account ID, Loan Number, Amount Outstanding and Date of the Loan.
Click on a Customer Name to open the Customer Loan Maintenance screen, allowing you to edit the details of the loan. The Customer and Code are displayed for your reference, and the Loan Number field displays the currently selected loan. Three tabs of information are editable for the loan:
Details, allows you to edit the Due date of the loan, the Principle loaned, the Interest Due, the Period Type for the Interest Rate and the Status of the loan. The Loan Security amount, Date of the loan, Last Paid date, Location of the loan and Interest To Date fields each display information about the loan that cannot be edited in this screen.
Address, displays the Billing Address, Phone number, Mobile number, Fax number and Email address of the borrower. The Comment field allows you to enter a miscellaneous comment against the details of the loan.
Items, displays the security items provided by the customer for the loan. Each item's Description, Tracked Item Number, Item Number, Serial Number, Security Value, Terminal Number, Journal Number and Status are displayed in the screen. Click on a Tracked Item Number to open the Item Track Maintenance screen, allowing you to edit the details of the selected tracked item.
Press the Save button to save any changes made to the details of the Micro Loan.
The Find Purchase link in the Maintenance section of the Micro Loans Menu can be used to search for a Micro Purchase that has been made at the Point of Sale. Select the Site to search, enter the Purchase # and press the Search button to view details of the Micro Purchase. The Customer's Name, Account Number, Purchase Number, Amount and Date are displayed in this report screen.
Click on a Customer Name to open the Customer Purchase Maintenance screen, allowing you to edit the details of the Micro Purchase in the Portal. The Customer and Code are displayed for your reference and the Purchase Number of the selected Micro Purchase is provided also. Three tabs of information allow you to edit the purchase details:
Details, displays the Date and Location of the purchase. The amount of the Purchases can be edited in this tab.
Address, displays the Billing Address, Phone number, Mobile number, Fax number and Email address of the customer for your reference. A miscellaneous Comment field allows you to write a note against the purchase.
Items, displays the items involved in the Micro Purchase transaction. This screen lists each item's Description, Tracked Item Number, Item Number, Serial Number, Cost, Sell Price, Terminal Number, Journal Number and Status. Click on a Tracked Item Number to open the Item Track Maintenance screen, allowing you to edit the details of the selected tracked item.
In this part of the tutorial we will discuss some of the reports available to aid in the maintenance of Micro Loans in the Portal. The Loan Reports section of the Micro Loans Menu can be accessed by selecting the Loan Reports link. Two links are provided in this section of the Micro Loans Menu, Customers and Summary, that open the two reports that we will discuss in this section of the tutorial.
The Customers link in the Loan Reports section of the Micro Loans Menu opens the Customer Name and Address Extract Report. This report allows you to download a CSV file listing the names and addresses of each customer that has a loan outstanding. The CSV file can then be used in an external application such as Microsoft Excel to print address labels, for example. The report lists the number of customers, points and value for each customer in the report, which can be filtered by Gender. The Filters drop-down provides a miscellaneous filter that can be used to download the names and addresses of customers according to their State, Postcode, first letter of their surname, those that have email addresses or mobile phone numbers in the system. Click on the Download Names and Addresses link provided to create the CSV file.
Select the Summary link in the Loan Reports section of the Micro Loans Menu to open the Customer Loan Report. This report sumarises the loans at a selected Site during a specific period. The Type drop-down list can be used to filter the report by loan status - New, Due, Overdue, Expired, Cancelled or All. For each loan, the Customer's Name, Account Number, Site, Loan Number, Phone Number, Alternative Phone Number, Loan Date, Expiry Date, Last Payment, Status, Principle, Interest Paid and Balance are displayed.
Click on a Customer's Name to open a popup menu with the following options:
Edit Customer, opens the Customer Maintenance screen, allowing you to edit the details of the selected customer.
List Security, opens the Item Track Report which details the items listed as security for the selected loan.
Show/Edit Loan, opens the Customer Loan Maintenance screen, allowing you to edit the details of the selected loan.
In the next stage of the tutorial we will discuss the reports available in the Portal to aid in the maintenance of Micro Purchases. The Purchase Reports section of the Micro Loans Menu can be accessed by selecting the Purchase Reports link. Two links are provided in this section of the Micro Loans Menu, Customers and Summary, that open the two reports that we will discuss in this section of the tutorial.
The Customers link in the Purchase Reports section of the Micro Loans Menu opens the Customer Name and Address Extract Report. This report allows you to download a CSV file listing the names and addresses of each customer that has a made a Micro Purchase. The CSV file can then be used in an external application such as Microsoft Excel to print address labels, for example. The report lists the number of customers, points and value for each customer in the report, which can be filtered by Gender. The Filters drop-down provides a miscellaneous filter that can be used to download the names and addresses of customers according to their State, Postcode, first letter of their surname, those that have email addresses or mobile phone numbers in the system. Click on the Download Names and Addresses link provided to create the CSV file.
Select the Summary link from the Purchase Reports section of the Micro Loans Menu to open the Customer Purchase Report. This report outlines each Micro Purchase made at the selected Site during the specified period. The Type drop-down list can be used to filter the report by the status of the Micro Purchases - Purchased, Cancelled or All. For each Micro Purchase in the report, the Customer Name, Account Number, Site Name, Terminal Number, Journal Number, Purchase Number, Phone Number, Alternative Phone Number, Purchase Date, Status and Purchase Amount are displayed.
Clicking on a Customer Name opens a popup menu with the following options:
Edit Customer, opens the Customer Maintenance screen, allowing you to edit the details of the selected customer.
List Items, opens the Item Track Report which details each item in the selected Micro Purchase.
Show Purchase, opens the Customer Purchase Maintenance screen, allowing you to edit the details of the selected Micro Purchase.
The final section of this tutorial will discuss the tracking of items for Micro Loans and Micro Purchases in the Portal. The Tracked Items section of the Micro Loans Menu can be opened by selecting the Tracked Items link. We will investigate each of the three links in the Tracked Items section of the Micro Loans Menu, Tracked Item, Item Report and Labels.
The Tracked Item link in the Tracked Items section of the Micro Loans Menu is used to edit the details of tracked items in the Portal. First the Find Tracked Item screen is opened, allowing you to select an item to view or edit. The Custom tab can be used to search for a tracked item by Description, Item Code or Track Item number. Alternatively you can select a tab with the corresponding first letter of the item description.
After you select the tracked item the Item Track Maintenance screen is loaded. This screen lists the Customer and Code for the owner of the item and the Tracking Number is also displayed for your reference. Four tabs of information allow you to view or edit the details of the tracked item:
Details, provides the details of the item. The Item # and Loan / Purchase # are displayed for ease of reference. The Description of the item can be edited and the Location for the item can be changed using the provided drop-down. It is possible to assign the item to a Fixture, Side and Shelf for stocktaking purposes. The Status of the item can be changed and a field is provided to display whether the item originally Was Security for a Micro Loan. Set the RRP for the item. Other miscellaneous information that is displayed in the screen includes the Item Type, Make, Model, Colour and Engraved. The Serial Number can be recorded and the Other field can be used to store some miscellaneous information in the item. The Check Date and Checked By fields provide information on when the item was evaluated.
Address, displays the Billing Address, Phone number, Mobile number, Fax number and Email address of the customer involved with the tracked item for loan or purchase. A Comment field is provided to store a miscellaneous comment against the customer.
Acquire Details, provides details of the acquisition of the tracked item. The Location, Journal number, Terminal number, Amount and Operator are displayed for your reference.
Sell Details, provides details of the sale of the tracked item for your reference. The Location, Terminal number, Journal number, Sold price and Operator are displayed in this screen.
Press the Save button to save any changes to the tracked item's details. You can enter an item code and press the Find button to search for another tracked item to view or edit. The New Label button can be used to add a tracked item label to be printed.
The Item Report link in the Tracked Items section of the Micro Loans Menu opens the Item Tracking Report. This report lists the number of tracked items at a selected Site. The Type drop-down can be used to filter the report results by tracked item status - Loan Security, Purchased, Sold, Present or All. Likewise the Department drop-down can be used to filter the report by department.
Select a Description to drill down to the Item Track Report, which displays details of each item. Each item's Description, Item Track Number, Customer Name, Loan Date, Date Checked, Loan or Purchase Reference Number, Serial Number, Status, Security Value, Recommended Retail Price and Image are displayed in the report.
Select an item's Description to open the Inventory Management screen, allowing you to edit the details of the selected item. Click on a Item Track Number to open the Item Track Maintenance screen. You can also select the Customer's Name to open the Customer Maintenance screen, allowing you to edit the details of the selected customer. Use the link in the Reference Number column to open the Customer Loan Maintenance screen or Customer Purchase Maintenance screen, allowing you to edit the details of the selected loan or purchase.
The Labels link in the Tracked Items section of the Micro Loans Menu opens the Receipt Label Management screen which allows you to print labels for your tracked items.
In this tutorial we have discussed the maintenance and reporting of Micro Loans and Micro Purchases in the Portal. The Micro Loan feature allows the Company to provide secured loans to customers while the Micro Purchase feature is used to buy second-hand items from a customer in order to resell them. Items purchased by the Micro Purchase feature or used as security in the Micro Loan feature can be tracked for reporting purposes. These two modules comprise a major part of the Portal's pawnbroking subsystem.