You can monitor the status of all disbursement transactions in the Symba Payments interface.

Viewing disbursements

• Log in to Symba Payments with a user who is authorized to view disbursements.
• In Symba Payments, click the 'Disbursal' menu item in the sidebar.
• The 'Disbursements' section will show a list of all disbursements and their status.

Disbursement statuses

Disbursement statuses include:

• Pending - Disbursement has been created but not yet processed
• Reserved - Loan has been disbursed in Symba Microbanking and marked as active, but the payment provider has not yet been called
• In Progress - Mobile money transfer has been initiated with the payment provider and is awaiting confirmation
• Succeeded - Disbursement has been successfully processed and funds have been transferred to the recipient
• Failed - Disbursement transaction failed. The loan has been automatically reversed from "active" back to "approved" status (e.g., mobile money transfer was rejected)
• Stuck - Transfer result is unclear and requires manual verification. This can occur due to:
  • Network timeouts after sending the request to the payment provider
  • Payment provider server errors
  • Automatic undodisbursal failure after a failed transfer
  • See Resolving Stuck Disbursements for more information
• Cancelled - Disbursement was cancelled before completion

Understanding the disbursement flow

Disbursements use a Microbanking-first approach to prevent double disbursements:

1. The loan is first disbursed in Symba Microbanking, which validates the loan status and marks it as active
2. Only after successful disbursement in Microbanking is the payment provider called
3. If the payment provider transfer fails, the system automatically attempts to undo the disbursement in Microbanking (reverting the loan from "active" back to "approved" status)
4. If the transfer result is unclear (e.g., due to timeout), the disbursement enters a "stuck" state requiring manual resolution

This approach ensures that loans are never disbursed twice, even if multiple disbursement requests are made simultaneously.

Alert types

When monitoring disbursements, you may encounter different types of alerts:

Warning alerts

• Stuck due to provider ambiguity: The payment provider's response was unclear (e.g., timeout)
• Action required: Review the provider dashboard and manually resolve the disbursement

Critical alerts

• Automatic rollback failed: A failed transfer could not be automatically undone in Microbanking
• Manual rollback failed: An administrator attempted to mark a stuck disbursement as failed, but the undodisbursal operation failed
• Action required: Immediate manual database intervention needed to reconcile the loan status

Checking provider dashboards

When investigating stuck disbursements, check the relevant payment provider dashboard:

• MTN Mobile Money: Log in to the MTN MoMo portal and search for the transaction by reference number
• Safaricom M-PESA: Check the Daraja API dashboard or M-PESA statement for the business account
• Cash: Verify with the staff member who processed the cash disbursement

Compare the provider's record with the loan status in Symba Microbanking to determine the correct resolution action.