Charges

Open Products → Charges (or press Ctrl+K and type "charges"). You need charge-viewing permission to see the list, plus create, update, or delete permission for those actions.

A charge is a reusable template: name, currency, when Fineract collects it, how the amount is calculated, and whether it is a fee or a penalty. It is not money by itself. A loan product attaches the templates that should start on every new loan. An officer can still add or remove charges when opening a loan, and can add more from the loan workspace Charges section.

This page covers loan charges in detail. Savings charges use the same wizard with different times and calculations — see Other applies-to and Savings charges for the account. Client, share, and working-capital charges are summarised there too.

New and Edit use the same four-step wizard: applies to, terms, amount and settings, and review. After create, Applies to cannot change — Fineract does not allow it. Charges have no product availability window.

The list

Each row is a template: name, applies to, collection time, amount, and active.

• Search filters as you type (name, applies-to, time, amount, active).
• Export downloads the catalog as CSV or Excel.
• Click a row to open the charge, then Edit for the wizard.
• Inactive charges stay in the catalog but do not appear when you attach charges to a new loan product.

Creating — applies to

New charge opens the wizard. Applies to is the first step and the one field you cannot change later.

Pick Loan for everything on this page.

Collection time (loan)

Charge time is when Fineract puts the charge on the loan. Loan has five values. Changing time resets calculation to the first allowed option and clears due-day extras.

Disbursement

Due when the loan is disbursed. Typical processing or origination fee.

Cannot be a penalty. The penalty switch is off and disabled.

Specified due date

Due on a date the officer sets when they add the charge to an application or to an existing loan. Use this for a one-off fee that is not tied to disbursement or to every installment — insurance, a legal fee, a dated penalty.

On the loan, Add charge requires a due date for this time type.

Installment fee

Added to each repayment installment — a recurring processing fee, not a late fee. It can be a fee or a penalty (penalty is unusual here).

Overdue installment

A late fee. Fineract requires the penalty flag; Bankayo turns it on and locks the switch.

Optional add fee frequency (days, weeks, months, or years, plus an interval) controls how often the overdue charge repeats. Interval is required when frequency is on.

Tranche disbursement

For multi-disburse loans: collected when a tranche is disbursed, not only on the first disbursement.

Cannot be a penalty. Calculation is only flat or % of disbursement amount.

Calculation (loan)

How the number is computed. The amount field is a currency amount for flat, and a percent for the others.

Min and max caps are amounts in the charge currency. They bound the calculated result so a percentage fee cannot fall below a floor or exceed a ceiling. Both are optional; if both are set, min cannot be above max.

Payment mode

Required on loan and working-capital charges.

• Regular — collected with the loan (repayment / cash path).
• Account transfer — collected by transfer from a savings account.

Amount and settings

• Amount — the flat figure or the percent, depending on calculation.
• Active — defaults to on. Turn off to keep the template without offering it on new products.
• Penalty — marks the charge as a penalty rather than a fee. Locked off for disbursement and tranche disbursement; locked on for overdue installment.
• Tax group — optional when at least one group exists under Organization → Tax groups. Create components first, then a group. Working-capital charges do not take a tax group.
• Income account — not on a loan charge. The product decides where a loan charge posts: a default on accounting, overridden per charge on mappings. See Where a charge posts. Client charges are the exception — they pick an income or liability account on the charge itself.

Review, edit, delete

Review repeats applies to, terms, and amount. Save creates the template.

• Edit uses the same wizard. Applies to stays locked.
• Delete is refused if the charge is still attached to a product or a loan — read Fineract’s message.

Create detail GL accounts before a product can map charge income.

Attach to a loan product

On the product Charges step, the table lists loan charges in this product’s currency. Check a row to attach it. Search and All / Fee / Penalty tabs filter the list.

Those attachments become the starting set when an officer opens a loan. Officers can still add or remove charges on that loan. Fee and penalty income GL accounts are configured on mappings, not on the charge.

If the product list is empty, create the charge here first, in the same currency.

Where a charge posts

Two steps on the product decide the GL account, and the second one wins.

1. Accounting sets the product defaults: one income from fees account for every fee on the product, and one income from penalties account for every penalty. Both are required once the rule is Cash or Accrual.
2. Mappings overrides that per charge. Fee GL mappings and Penalty GL mappings each take a row of charge → income account, so one fee or one penalty can post to its own preferred account while everything else keeps the default.

Add a row only when a charge needs its own account — an unmapped charge is not an error, it just follows the product default. Mappings are optional, appear only when accounting is not None, and can be changed later with Edit. The accounts offered are the detail income accounts from Accounting → Chart of accounts.

On a loan

The loan workspace has a Charges section.

• The table shows name, fee or penalty, when it is collected, due date, amount, paid, outstanding, and status (outstanding, overdue, paid, waived).
• Add charge (needs loan-charge create permission) opens a docked sidebar. Pick a loan charge; specified due-date charges need a due date. Amount defaults from the template and can be changed.
• You cannot add charges on a closed, overpaid, or written-off loan.
• Remove (needs loan-charge delete permission) is only for a charge that has not been paid or waived and has no amount paid. Confirm in the dialog.

Product-attached charges also appear when opening a loan from the client — already selected; uncheck to drop one, or add another in the same currency.

On a savings account

Add, pay, waive, stop, and remove are documented under Savings charges.

Other applies-to

Same wizard, fewer combinations:

• Savings — activation, closure, withdrawal, annual, monthly, weekly, overdraft, no-activity, or specified due date. Flat, or percent of amount on withdrawal and no-activity. Annual and monthly fees need a due day; monthly and weekly need a repeat interval. Attach them on a savings product; manage them on the account under Savings charges. The product accounting step sets default income accounts, with optional per-charge mappings.
• Client — specified due date, flat only. Optional income account.
• Shares — activation (flat only), purchase, or redeem. Cannot be a penalty.
• Working capital — specified due date, flat, payment mode required, no tax group.

Troubleshooting