First steps

This is the setup path, in the order it has to be done. Each step depends on the previous one: you cannot create a loan without a client, or collect without an open cash shift.

Realistic estimate: 30 to 45 minutes to get the business running, plus whatever time it takes to load the clients you already have.

1. Get into your company

Create the company and pick a plan, or accept the invitation you were sent. All of that happens in the onboarding wizard: Creating or joining a company.

When you finish you land on the dashboard. It will look almost empty; that's normal, there is nothing to show yet.

2. Register your first client

Clients → New client. You need a first name, a last name and their ID number or passport. The document is required: it is what enables the borrower's payment history, what lets you search them by document later, and what gets printed on the promissory note.

Before saving you can press Verify to see whether that ID already has a payment history on the platform. Details in Registering a client and Trust and the bureau.

3. Open the cash shift

Cash → Open shift. You declare how much cash is in the drawer right now.

This step gets skipped and it hurts later. Disbursements and collections are cash movements: with no open shift, there is nowhere to record them. Open it before you lend.

4. Create your first loan

Loans → New loan. You pick the client, the amount, the rate, the term and the frequency (daily, weekly, biweekly or monthly), and the platform generates the payment schedule for you.

If you are unsure how the installment will look, simulate the loan first with the Calculator: it creates nothing, it just shows you the numbers.

When you disburse, the money leaves the cash drawer automatically.

5. Collect the first installment

Go to Payments, or open the loan and register the payment. You enter the amount; the platform decides what gets paid first (arrears, interest, principal), updates the balance, puts the cash into the drawer and leaves the receipt ready. See Registering a payment.

6. Close the shift

Cash → Close shift. The platform tells you how much should be there, you count what is there and enter the real figure. If there is a surplus or a shortfall, the difference is recorded under your name. That is the cash count.

7. (Optional) Invite your collectors

Agents → Invite. They get an email with a code and come in through the same wizard. Then you grant them the permissions you want: create clients, collect, see the business cash…

The Basic plan includes no agents. If you are going to have collectors you need Gold (up to 5) or Premium (up to 10); see Plans and billing.

What you can leave for later

• Recurring services: if besides lending you also bill monthly fees or memberships.
• Accounting: it fills itself from what you already do; no journal entries to type.
• Reports (Gold and Premium): portfolio, arrears, collector performance.

If something doesn't appear on your screen

It isn't broken: either you don't have permission for it, or your plan doesn't include it. Prestafolio does not show buttons it is going to reject afterwards. If you are a collector and think something is missing, ask the company owner.

Unsure about a word? They are all in the glossary.