Thrift (Ajo)

Ajo, esusu and adashe are savings circles: a group pays in on a schedule, and the money is kept for the people in it or paid out to them in turn. SocietyLedger keeps the records. It never holds your group's money. The money stays in your own bank account, and SocietyLedger records every payment, gives each person a receipt, and works out who is owed what.

You can use Ajo in two ways:

• As part of an association. The association adds the Ajo add-on and its officers run circles for members.
• On its own. A savings group with no association signs up as a thrift group. It pays only for Ajo, and nothing else in SocietyLedger.

Start hereCopy Anchor Link

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Start hereCopy Anchor Link

• Setting up your thrift group: From a new account to your first circle with its people in it, in about ten minutes.
• Choosing a circle type: Rotating pot or collector thrift: how the money works in each, who each suits, and the settings you will meet.
• Standalone thrift groups: How a group that signed up only for Thrift differs from an association with the add-on: its own home, menus, people and settings on web and phone.
• What members can see in a circle: What each member of a rotating pot sees about the circle, what stays private, and what collector-thrift savers see about their own savings.

ConceptsCopy Anchor Link

• Payment statuses: What Paid on time, Reported, Overdue, Missed and the other words mean in a circle, who decides them, and what counts as paid.
• Cash reconciliation: How cash a collector takes in becomes confirmed money: recorded, handed over, counted, then confirmed, and what happens when the count is short.

For group adminsCopy Anchor Link

• Rules, grace and late fees: Set a circle's rules: grace days, late fee, guarantors, what happens if someone stops paying, and what members can see. And how to change them fairly.
• Adding and approving people: Add people to a circle, see what each one is still waiting for, and approve them so they can start, including adding many at once from a list.
• Starting a circle: What must be true before a circle can start, what each refusal means (people waiting, start date passed, draw out of date), and how to fix it.
• Guarantors: Record a guarantor's agreement for a member, in person or by sending them a link, and understand what a guarantor is and is not.
• The payout order and the draw: How a rotating pot decides who is paid when: the recorded draw, shares, swapping places, and emergency changes with a reason.
• Confirming payments: Check a reported transfer against the bank statement and confirm it, turn it down, or reverse a payment that was entered by mistake.
• Preparing, approving and recording a payout: How a payout is worked out, approved by a second person, paid from the circle's own account and recorded, and what to do if the transfer fails.
• Late fees, default cases, repayment plans and disputes: What happens when someone falls behind: how late fees are worked out and waived, how cases and repayment plans run, and how to decide a claim.
• Savings cycles: How a collector-thrift circle runs in cycles: each saver's own amount, the choice to withdraw or continue, and starting the next cycle.
• Handovers and counting cash: Count the cash a collector hands over, tick the payments that were really in it, and confirm them, including what to do when the count is short.
• Reports and exports: The eight Ajo reports: what each one counts, which tier includes it, and how to filter, read and download them as CSV or PDF.
• Officer accountability: See who prepared, approved and recorded every payout, how long payments wait to be confirmed, cash by collector and day, and every exception with its reason.
• Roles in a thrift group: The roles in a standalone thrift group (Administrator, Officer, Collector, Member), what each can do, and how to give someone a role on web and phone.
• Plans, billing and limits: The Ajo tiers, what each includes, how the contributor limit works, the platform levy, and what happens when your Ajo add-on ends.

For collectorsCopy Anchor Link

• Your day as a collector: What a collector does each day in SocietyLedger: see who you collect from, record cash as you take it, and hand over at the end of the day.
• Recording cash: Record cash from a saver the moment you take it, what the saver sees, and what to do if you record the wrong amount.
• Handing over at the end of the day: Record how much cash you handed to the office, what the difference means, and what happens if you are short.

For membersCopy Anchor Link

• Joining a circle and accepting the rules: What to do when a circle adds you: read and accept the rules, confirm your phone if asked, and see what you are waiting for.
• Paying and sending proof: Send your contribution to the circle's bank account, then tell SocietyLedger you have paid and attach your slip, and what happens until it is confirmed.
• Your payout account and verification: Add the bank account your circle pays you into, understand the SocietyLedger check, and what happens when you change the account.
• Your savings as a saver: If you save through a collector: see every naira you have given, where your cash is, what you will get back, and what to do at the end of the cycle.
• Your trust score: How your on-time record in your circles becomes a score, what the bands mean, and what the score can and cannot affect.
• Raising a query about a payment: If you paid but it does not show, tell your circle with I already paid this, attach your evidence, and see how an officer decides it.
• Your statement: Download your savings statement as a PDF or CSV, or a circle statement you can share in the group chat, and how anyone can check it is genuine.
• Leaving a circle: When you can leave a circle, what happens to what you have paid and are owed, and what to do instead if the circle has already started paying out.

HelpCopy Anchor Link

• Staying safe in a circle: What SocietyLedger does and does not do with your money, and the habits that protect you, your savers and your circle.
• Ajo and Thrift troubleshooting and FAQ: Quick answers about Ajo and Thrift: payments that do not show, late fees, payouts, the order, collectors, accounts and limits.