Documentation

Disbursing to Savings

Disburse loans directly to linked savings accounts without requiring phone numbers or external payment providers.

Overview

The "Disburse to Savings" feature allows you to disburse loan funds directly to a savings account linked to the loan. This method is ideal for:

Clients who have both loan and savings accounts
Internal transfers that don't require mobile money
Ensuring funds go directly into the client's savings for safekeeping

Important: Symba Payments does not ask you to select a destination savings account. It uses the savings account already linked to the loan in Symba Microbanking. The disbursable-loans table shows this destination before you create the disbursement.

Prerequisites

Before you can disburse a loan to savings:

The client must have an active savings account
The loan must be linked to the savings account (see Linking Savings Accounts)
The loan must be in approved status (not yet disbursed)

How It Works

When you select "Disburse to Savings" as the payment method:

The system validates that the loan has a linked savings account
The loan funds are transferred directly to the linked savings account
The loan status changes to "active" immediately
The savings account balance increases by the loan amount

This process happens instantly without requiring any external payment provider or phone number.

Creating Disbursements to Savings

Log in to Symba Payments with a user who is authorized to create disbursements.
In Symba Payments, click the 'Disbursal' menu item in the sidebar.
In the 'Disbursable loans' section, select the loans that have linked savings accounts.
Click the 'Disburse' button.
In the "Select Disbursal Method" dialog, choose "Disburse to Savings" from the dropdown.
Confirm that every selected loan is shown as eligible. The dialog blocks confirmation if a selected loan has no active, verified linked savings account.
Click the 'OK' button.

The disbursements are now created and ready to be transferred.

Transferring Disbursements to Savings

Log in to Symba Payments with a user who is authorized to transfer electronic disbursements.
In Symba Payments, click the 'Disbursal' menu item in the sidebar.
Click the 'Disbursements' tab to view pending disbursements.
Select the disbursements you want to transfer (those with "Disburse to Savings" as the provider).
Click the 'Transfer' button.

The system will immediately:

Validate that each loan has a linked savings account
Transfer the funds to the linked savings accounts
Mark the loans as "active"
Update the disbursement status to "succeeded"

If any loan does not have a linked savings account, that disbursement will fail with a clear error message.

Eligibility is checked when the disbursement is created and checked again immediately before transfer. This prevents invalid disbursement records and catches any savings-account status changes that occur after creation.

Troubleshooting

Situation	Resolution
Loan is Submitted or Pending Approval	In Symba Microbanking, modify the application and select an active linked savings account.
Loan is already Approved	Use Cash or Mobile Money, or recreate the loan application with the correct linked savings account.
Linked savings account is inactive	Resolve the savings-account status or use another disbursal method.
Linked savings eligibility is unavailable	Reload the disbursable loans. If it remains unavailable, use another method and report the issue.
Loan is already Active	The loan has already been disbursed and cannot be disbursed again.