Branches and Centres

A branch in Mambu is the default label for an organization's subdivision. Often branches represent:

• A geographical subdivision of an organization.
• A product line.
• Any other entity that represents a subdivision of an organization.

A centre is the default label for a subdivision of a branch. It can be considered a sub-branch. Each branch can have multiple centres assigned to it.

The terminology branch and centre are the default labels used for these concepts. For more information about changing these labels, see Labels.

Clients and groups can be assigned to branches and centres.

Mambu users can be assigned to branches but they cannot be assigned to centres.

Branches

The main reasons to use branches are:

• Reporting and client assignment: branches allow you to assign clients to a branch. And you can also collect branch-specific reporting for example to view how many clients are assigned to a specific branch. For more information about assigning clients to branches, see Assign clients to branches, centers, credit officers and groups.
• Limiting user access per branch: you can decide which users have access to information under certain branches. For more information, see Creating a User - Access Rights.
• Limiting products offered per branch: you can decide which loan products or deposit products are available in which branches. For more information about limiting loan products, see Setting Up New Loan Products - Product availability. For more information about limiting deposit products, see Setting Up New Deposit Products - Product availability.
• Branch-specific accounting: you can create balance sheets or profit and loss statement for individual branches. For more information, see Branch-level accounting reports.

Creating a branch

To create a new branch:

1. Go to Administration > Organization > Branches.
2. Select New Branch.
3. In the Creating A New Branch dialog, enter all the necessary information. See below for more information on the fields.
4. Select Create Branch.

Fields for branches

Fields with a green outline are required fields. Fields with a grey outline are not required.

General

General fields for branches include:

• Branch Name (required)
• ID (required)
• Address (optional)

Contact

Contact fields include:

• *Phone Number
• Email Address

Notes

You may enter free text notes if desired.

Editing a branch

To make any changes in your organization's branches:

1. Go to Administration > Organization > Branches.
2. In the list of branches, find the branch you would like to edit and select Actions > Edit .
3. In the Editing Branches dialog, make your changes.
4. Select Save Changes.

Deactivating a branch

You can deactivate a branch even if active accounts are still associated with it.

Deactivating or reactivating a branch can be performed only by users with Edit Branch permissions.

Deactivated branches can be visually identified by a deactivated marker after the name of the branch across Mambu and this means you can still search or pull reports for the deactivated object.

To deactivate a branch:

1. Go to Administration > Organization > Branches.
2. In the list of branches, find the branch you would like to deactivate and select Actions > Deactivate.
3. Select Deactivate.

If you have deactivated branches, you can view them by selecting the Show deactivated Branches check box.

Setting holidays for a branch

Branch-specific holidays allow granular holiday management, these work in conjunction with general holidays with loan schedules of clients belonging to each branch.

To set up branch-specific holidays:

1. Go to Administration > Organization > Branches.
2. In the list of branches, find the branch you would like to set a holiday for.
3. Select Actions > Set Holidays.
4. Select Add Holiday.
5. In the Add A Holiday dialog enter all the required information.
6. Select Apply Changes.

Managing multiple branches

If your organization is configured with more than one branch and you have the necessary user permissions, you can easily keep track of everything that happens in each branch, assign staff and clients to different branches, and limit user access to a single branch.

Branch selector

You may easily configure which branch's data are displayed in Mambu using the branches selector in the top toolbar:

All Branches is selected by default. If you select a specific branch in the dropdown box, the following changes will occur:

• The Dashboard will show the activities and indicators for the selected branch only.
• When you navigate to the relevant pages, you will see only the clients, groups, savings, loans, and transactions for the specified branch.
• The Search Box will only return requested values for the specified branch.
• Reporting pages will only report data associated with the specified branch.

Centres

A centre is a subdivision of a branch. Each branch can have multiple centres. Centres are not widely-used, but can be helpful, depending on your needs.

Clients may be assigned to a centre, which can be useful if you wish to collect centre-specific reporting. For more information about assigning clients to branches, see Assign clients to branches, centers, credit officers and groups.

Creating a centre

To create a new centre:

1. Go to Administration > Organization > Centres.
2. Select New Centre.
3. In the Creating a New Centre dialog, enter all the required information.
4. Select Create Centre.

Deactivating a centre

You can deactivate a centre even if active accounts are still associated with it.

Deactivating or reactivating a centre can be performed only by users with Edit Centre permissions.

Deactivated centres can be visually identified by a "deactivated" marker after the name of the centre across Mambu and this means you can still search or pull reports for the deactivated object.

To deactivate a centre:

1. Go to Administration > Organization > Centres.
2. In the list of centres, find the centre you would like to deactivate and select Actions > Deactivate.
3. Select Deactivate.

If you have deactivated centres, you can view them by selecting the Show deactivated centres check box.

Weekly Meeting Day

If your credit officers visit the clients on a specific day weekly to collect repayments, defining the Weekly Meeting Day will ensure that when creating new accounts for those clients, Mambu will automatically reschedule the first repayment to the next possible day.

Viewing organizational structure

To see the list of all of your organization's branches, centers, and users:

1. Go to Administration > Organization > Branches.
2. From the list of branches, select the branch you want to view.
3. Here you will be able to see general information, comments and a list of activities associated to the branch.