Bulk collection
Collecting several overdue installments of a loan in one operation, instead of one by one.
The client vanished for three months and today shows up to pay everything. Instead of recording three collections in a row, use Bulk collection from the loan detail: pay several installments at once, in a single operation.
Like every collection, it requires an open cash drawer.
How it works
The form is a list of rows. In each row you only state two things:
Field | What you type |
|---|---|
Installment no. | Which installment you are paying |
Arrears | The arrears for that installment (optional; blank = 0) |
You do not type amounts. The principal and interest of each installment are derived by the system from the loan schedule: you cannot inject different figures. That is deliberate: in a mass collection, typing amounts by hand is the fastest route to a mismatch.
You can add up to 120 installments in one batch.
A worked example
A loan with an installment of RD$5,000 (principal 4,200 + interest 800). The client owes installments 3, 4 and 5, and you decide to charge 350, 200 and 50 of arrears respectively, figures you type into each row.
Installment | Installment (from schedule) | Arrears | Collected |
|---|---|---|---|
3 | 5,000 | 350 | 5,350 |
4 | 5,000 | 200 | 5,200 |
5 | 5,000 | 50 | 5,050 |
Total | 15,000 | 600 | RD$15,600 |
On save:
- The drawer is credited RD$15,600: installments plus arrears (collected arrears are cash received).
- The loan adds 3 paid installments, +15,600 to total paid and +3,000 of profit (2,400 interest + 600 arrears).
- The next payment date jumps to the first installment still unpaid in the schedule: not simply "the next one", if you left a gap, the system spots it and points there.
- The drawer records a single incoming movement for the 15,600; accounting records one entry per installment (so each payment stays individually traceable).
All or nothing
The batch is one single transaction: if one row fails, none is recorded. There is no "2 out of 3 collected".
Errors that abort the whole batch:
Message | Cause |
|---|---|
Duplicate installment number in the batch | You listed the same installment twice |
Installment N was already settled | That installment is already paid |
Installment outside the schedule | The number does not exist on this loan |
The loan is already settled / was renewed | The loan takes no payments |
There is no open cash session | The drawer is closed |
The loan changed state during the operation | Another collector touched the loan while you were filling the form |
When the loan ends up settled
Bulk takes no payoff: you cannot pay off the outstanding principal of future installments ahead of schedule. That is what Settling a loan is for.
But careful, that does not mean bulk never settles the loan:
If the installments you put in the batch are the ones that were missing, the loan ends up settled, exactly as if you had made the last normal collection.
Example: a 12-installment loan with 9 paid. You add installments 10, 11 and 12 to a batch and on save the loan turns Settled, frees its seat in your plan's quota and drops out of the active portfolio.
The difference with a payoff is what you collect, not the outcome: bulk collects full installments (principal + interest of each one, per the schedule); a payoff settles only the outstanding principal, with no future interest.
What bulk does NOT do
- It takes no payoff. It does not settle principal ahead of schedule: it collects full installments from the schedule.
- It takes no partial payments. Each row pays the full installment. If the client brings less, use the normal collection with a partial (Recording a payment).
- It does not extend open-interest loans.
- It does not compute arrears for you: every row's arrears field comes in blank and whatever you type there is what gets collected (empty = zero arrears). Check the arrears in the arrears screen or the loan detail before filling the batch. See How arrears are calculated.
Who it is credited to
If you are the owner, the batch also shows the Collected by field, which works the same as in a normal collection: by default, the loan's collector if they have no access to the platform; otherwise whoever records it. It applies to every installment in the batch, and the money goes into the cash box of whoever records it. See Assigning collectors and crediting collections.
Permission
Bulk uses a different permission from normal collection: record bulk payments. You can let a collector charge installment by installment without letting them process batches.