Frequently asked questions
Do members need a smartphone?
No. Admins record cash, bank, and mobile-money payments on a member's behalf — that's the core of the system. The online portal is an optional extra for members who want to pay themselves.
Can we still collect cash?
Absolutely. Offline recording is the heart of Collector; online payments are additive. Cash, bank transfer, and mobile money are all supported — see Recording payments.
How do we handle a member who pays several months at once?
Record one payment for the full amount. The allocation engine fills the oldest obligations first and parks the rest as credit, which auto-fills future months as they're generated. See Core concepts.
A member paid the wrong amount — what happens?
Underpayments leave the oldest obligation partially paid; overpayments become credit. Neither needs special handling.
Why hasn't a member been marked overdue?
Overdue status kicks in only after the due date plus your grace period (Settings → Overdue grace (days)). Also check whether parked credit fulfilled the obligation.
Why didn't a member receive a reminder?
Check, in order: the notification event is enabled (Admin → Notifications); the chosen channel matches contact details the member actually has (SMS needs a phone, email needs an address); and your SMTP/SMS credentials in Settings are correct. Members whose obligations are already fulfilled are skipped by design.
What about SMS costs?
Reminders use your own SMS provider credentials, so you pay the provider directly at their rates — no markup.
How do online payments work? Is it safe?
Members pay by card or mobile money through Paystack. Collector verifies every payment server-side with Paystack before it counts, and confirmation is idempotent — a payment can never be counted twice. See The member portal.
Does Collector take a cut of our collections?
No. Collector never takes a percentage of your collections. SMS and Paystack transaction fees are usage-based and paid to those providers.
Can we import our existing records?
Yes — members and historical payments import from CSV or Excel, validated row-by-row, and reversible in one click. See Importing data.
Is our data private?
Yes. Each organization runs on its own single-tenant deployment; your data is never shared with other organizations.
We changed our dues amount — do old arrears change too?
No. Obligations snapshot the amount in force when they were generated, so history never rewrites itself. New amounts apply from their effective date forward. See Products & payment rules.
Can I give our auditor read-only access?
Yes — create a role with only view permissions (members, payments, obligations, reports) and assign it to their user. See Users & roles.