Setting up an employer MOU
The employer MOU (memorandum of understanding) is the legal basis for deducting a borrower's instalment straight from their salary. In Ustawi it is also a live status record: a check-off loan cannot disburse unless its borrower's employer has an active MOU, so getting the MOU on file — with the right terms and dates — is the first thing that has to happen.
What the MOU record holds
Employer MOU management keeps a status and terms record per employer. That record is what every check-off loan for that employer's staff is measured against — it says who the agreement is with, what it authorises, and the window during which payroll deduction is permitted.
Setting one up
- 1Create the employerCapture the employer the borrowers work for. Multiple employers and their MOUs are handled side by side, so each one is its own record.
- 2Record the MOU termsEnter the agreement's terms and its effective dates. The effective window is what later decides whether a loan can enter that employer's deduction batch.
- 3Set the status to activeOnly an active MOU authorises deduction. Until the MOU is active, loans for that employer's staff stay blocked at the disbursement gate.
Why it gates disbursement
For check-off products, a live employer MOU is a disbursement requirement gate. Even a fully approved loan will not disburse until the borrower's employer has an active MOU, because without it there is no authority to deduct from payroll. This is the same class of pre-disbursement condition as collateral perfection or credit-life coverage — approval and disbursement are deliberately separate.
An employer MOU covers every borrower employed there. You set it up once per employer, not once per loan, and every check-off loan for that employer's staff is checked against the same live record.