Creating a loan
Every field in the form, what the system validates and what happens to your cash when you disburse.
Creating a loan is the moment money leaves your cash drawer. Prestafolio does not just store a record: it deducts the principal from the cash account, computes the projected interest with its financial engine and writes the matching accounting entry, all in a single operation that either completes fully or does not happen at all.
You use it every time you hand money to an already registered client. If the client does not exist yet, create them first: the form only lets you pick from existing clients.
Before you start: two requirements
- The cash drawer must be open. With no open cash shift the loan is not created and you get a prompt to go to Cash and open it.
- You need create permission (
loans:create). The owner always has it; a collector must be granted it.
The fields, one by one
Client
The borrower. Picked from the search box (by name or ID document). Only your business's clients show up; if you pick one that was deleted, the system replies "The selected client was not found".
Principal (RD$)
The money you hand over. You type it in your company's currency (e.g. 10000 or 10000.50) and the system stores it internally in cents, with no floating-point decimals.
- Must be greater than zero.
- The cap is RD$500,000,000.
- It is what gets deducted from your cash the moment you create the loan.
Interest (%)
This is the most misread field. Interest is per installment period, not annual.5with monthly frequency means 5% monthly.5with daily frequency means 5% per day.
It must be zero or positive. Yes, 0 is accepted: an interest-free loan is valid and the system splits the principal linearly across the installments.
Installments
How many payments the loan will have. An integer between 1 and 1000. Outside that range the form flags it before submitting.
Loan type
The amortization system: Fixed installment, SAN, Fixed credit, Fixed interest or Open. It decides how principal and interest are split in each installment and changes the total payable. Explained in detail in Loan types.
Payment frequency
Daily, Weekly, Biweekly or Monthly. Together with the start date it decides the due dates. See Frequencies and calendar.
Start date
The loan's origination date. It is not the first installment's date: the first installment falls one period later. Lend on 10 January with monthly frequency and the first installment is due on 10 February.
Collect on Saturdays / Collect on Sundays
Toggles. When off (the default), the system pushes forward any due date landing on a Saturday or Sunday. When on, installments are allowed to fall on that day.
Arrears (%) and Grace days (optional)
- Arrears (%): rate per day of delay. Defaults to
0(you charge no late fee). - Grace days: how many days of delay you forgive before arrears start accruing. Defaults to
0.
Both can be changed later without touching the rest of the loan, even when the loan already has payments.
What the system computes (and you never send)
The loan's total projected interest is computed by the server with its own engine, from principal, rate, installments, type and frequency. It is not a field you can type or force: if the form and the server ever disagreed, the server wins. Same for the next payment date, derived from the start date and the frequency.
An example that adds up
RD$10,000 · 5% per period · 4 installments · monthly · Fixed installment · starting 10 January:
# | Due | Installment | Interest | Principal | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 10 Feb | RD$2,820.12 | RD$500.00 | RD$2,320.12 | RD$7,679.88 |
2 | 10 Mar | RD$2,820.12 | RD$383.99 | RD$2,436.13 | RD$5,243.75 |
3 | 10 Apr | RD$2,820.12 | RD$262.19 | RD$2,557.93 | RD$2,685.82 |
4 | 10 May | RD$2,820.12 | RD$134.29 | RD$2,685.83 | RD$0.00 |
Total payable: RD$11,280.48. Projected profit (interest): RD$1,280.47. RD$10,000.00 leaves your cash on the day you create it.
Errors you may hit
What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
There is no open cash session | The drawer is closed; no money can move | Open the cash drawer and retry |
Cash balance is not enough to disburse this loan | The principal exceeds available cash | Add cash to the drawer or lower the amount |
The selected client was not found | The client was deleted or is not yours | Pick another client |
The loan parameters are not valid | The rate/installments/type combination produces no computable schedule | Review the rate and the number of installments |
The amount exceeds the maximum allowed | Either the principal or the total projected interest overflows the system's ceiling | Lower the amount, the rate or the installment count |
The accounting module is not active | Your business has no provisioned ledger, and without it there is no authority for the cash balance | Contact support: nothing is disbursed blindly |
After creating it
- The loan shows up as Active in the portfolio.
- Your cash drops by the principal and a disbursement movement is recorded in the shift.
- The disbursement accounting entry is posted (see Disbursement and accounting).
Editing a freshly created loan
As long as it has no payments recorded, you can edit every parameter (even the principal: the cash is adjusted by the difference). The moment the first payment lands, the loan is locked for editing and you get "Cannot modify: the loan already has payments recorded".
Got the amount wrong and already collected? It cannot be edited or deleted. The way out is to renew the loan or reverse the payment first.
Tip
If you are unsure about the type or the rate, simulate it first in the Calculator: it runs the very same engine as the backend, shows you the full schedule and, once you like the result, opens the form pre-filled: you only pick the client and confirm.