Using LoanTabs AI

LoanTabs AI is a chat assistant built into the system. Ask it about your borrowers, loans, payments, reports and portfolio in plain words, ask it how to do something in LoanTabs, or ask it to start a record for you. It is for questions about your lending business and this system; for anything unrelated it will politely decline.

It never changes anything on its own: when you ask it to create or update a record, it prepares the change and shows it to you, and nothing is saved until a person clicks Confirm.

Opening the assistant

Click the Ask LoanTabs AI icon in the top bar. A panel opens on the right.

• In a new conversation it offers suggestions you can click: How's the portfolio doing?, Who is most overdue?, Lent out this month, Collected this month, Loans due this week, and — for roles that can open Reports — Net profit this month. Another suggestion starts recording a payment (or explains how, for roles that can't record one).
• Type your question in the box ("Ask a question…") and send it. Write in your own language and the assistant replies in it.
• The new conversation icon at the top of the panel starts afresh. A conversation is remembered for the browser tab you are using, so refreshing the page keeps it, while opening a new tab or signing out starts a new one. Very long conversations reach a length limit; the panel then offers a link to start a new one.

If the panel says LoanTabs AI isn't enabled, an Admin can turn it on under Admin → LoanTabs AI (see Admin Configuration). If your free trial has ended or your subscription has expired, the assistant is unavailable until the institution upgrades or renews.

What you can ask

Everyday words work: released, lent out and issued mean disbursed; collected and received mean payments received; overdue, late and in arrears mean behind on payments; client and member mean borrower.

Your portfolio

• How is the portfolio doing?, What's our PAR30?, How much is outstanding right now?
• Who is most overdue?, Which loans need attention today?
• Which loans are due next week?, Which loans are more than 60 days late?, Show me our biggest loans, List the loans on the Salary product, Show me closed loans, Which loans mature next month? — lists come with totals worked out by the system.
• How much did we lend out last month?, What did we collect this week?, Compare this month's disbursements with last month, Disbursements by loan product this year, Which officer lent out the most this quarter?

One borrower, loan or group

• How is Mary doing?, Does Martin owe us anything? — a borrower's position across all their loans.
• What is the last payment on loan 1042?, What installments are left on Martin's loan?, Has Martin been charged any penalties?, When is loan 1042 due?
• How is the Tuesday group doing?, Is group G-004 behind?, How many members does Umoja have?
• What payments came in yesterday?, Show me Mary's payments, How much did we get by mobile money this month?
• What loans are waiting for my approval?
• What would it cost Sarah to settle her loan today? — a quote with three payoff scenarios; nothing is closed or recorded.
• If more than one borrower or loan matches a name, the assistant asks which one you mean instead of guessing.

Reports (for the roles that can open Reports — see Who can use what below)

• What was our collection rate last month?, How is each loan officer performing this quarter?, What was PAR30 at the end of last month?, How much provision do we need?, How much have we written off this year, and how much recovered?, Who are our biggest borrowers as a share of the book?, How much is due to be collected in the next 30 days?, How many new clients did we get last month?, Show me today's collection sheet, Were any payments edited or deleted last month?
• What's our net profit this month? and Who are our most profitable borrowers?
• How many members do we have?, How much have members saved?, What is our share capital?, How many dormant accounts do we have?, When is the next AGM? — totals for the SACCO add-on, for the staff who can open the SACCO workspace, on the plans that include it (the free trial, Corporate and Enterprise). The assistant also explains how to use SACCO and links its pages. It never gives an individual member's name or balance.

The figures come from the same calculations as the Dashboard and the Reports pages (see Reports), so the same loan shows the same numbers everywhere.

How do I…? Ask how to do something and the assistant answers from this documentation — for example How do I add a branch? or How do I record a payment?. It only repeats what the guides say; if there isn't a guide for it, it says so.

Where is…? Ask where something is and it gives you a link — for example Where can I see the disbursement report? or Take me to the loans waiting for approval. It only offers pages and reports your role can open.

Arithmetic. For a follow-up such as What is 5% of that? it uses a calculator rather than working the number out itself.

Creating and changing records

The assistant can start these for you by asking the same questions as the real form:

• Create: a loan (from a blank form, as a copy of an existing loan with changes, or from a loan product), a borrower, a payment on a loan, a comment on a loan, a guarantor, a collateral item, a team member, a cash account, a branch, and a lending group.
• Update: a borrower, guarantor, collateral item, team member, cash account, branch or group — it finds the record first, then changes only what you ask.

How it works:

1. Tell it what you want — Record a payment of 50,000 from Martin, Add a new borrower, Change the meeting day of the Umoja group to Friday.
2. It asks for the details one at a time, in plain words, and only for what is still needed. Sensible defaults are filled in as on the normal form.
3. When the details are complete it shows a confirmation card listing the values that will be saved — for an update, only what changes, old value to new value. It tells you plainly what will happen, for example whether a loan will be created and active at once or created as a draft waiting for approval.
4. Nothing happens until you click Confirm. Cancel drops it.

The same rules as the real screens apply: the same checks on every field, your role's permissions, and the branch day lock if one is on (see Day Control). A change the form would refuse, the assistant refuses too, and it tells you why.

What the assistant can't do

• It can't approve, reject, disburse, close, write off, delete or reverse anything. It can quote an early settlement but not carry it out; approvals and reversals are done on the loan itself (see Loans and Payments). It can say what a draft would look like if approved, without approving it.
• It can't set a group's status, leaders, members or loan officer, collect a group meeting, or create expenses, other income, loan products, fees or penalty types — those are done on their own pages, where the checks are. Ask where, and it links you.
• It can't enrol SACCO members or post SACCO deposits, withdrawals, transfers, interest or dividends, or change a member or an account — those are done in the SACCO workspace, where the checks are. Ask where, and it links you.
• It can't show other branches. It works on your active branch; an Admin can look across branches on the Reports pages.
• It doesn't give out borrowers' phone numbers, email addresses or ID numbers in chat — it links to the borrower's page instead — and it never shows internal ids; loans are named by their loan number and people by their name.
• It won't make up an answer. Every amount, count, percentage and date it states comes from the system. If it can't produce something, it says what it can do instead and links to the page.

Who can use what

Creating and updating follows each role's normal permissions, record by record:

• Admin — everything above. Creating or editing a branch is Admin-only.
• Branch Manager — everything above except branches.
• Loan Officer — loans, borrowers, payments, loan comments, guarantors, collateral and groups. Not team members, cash accounts or branches.
• Accountant — cash accounts only.
• Cashier — recording a loan payment.
• Collections Officer — adding a comment to a loan (a contact, a promise to pay).

If an Admin changes what a role can do in Admin → User Permissions, the assistant follows when a permission is taken away. A permission a role did not have to begin with may not make the assistant offer that action to the role.

See Roles & Permissions for what each role may do. If you ask for something your role can't do, the assistant says so.

Limits and plans

• Each institution has a monthly AI budget that depends on its plan and resets each month. A notice appears in the panel once most of it has been used, and when it runs out the assistant stops until the budget resets — an Admin can upgrade the plan from Billing for more. See Billing.
• To avoid runaway use there is also a short-term limit on how many requests a person can make in a few minutes; if you reach it, wait a moment and try again.

Tips for good answers

• Say the period in your own words — last month, this year, since 2024, Q2 2025 — and check the dates the assistant states.
• Use a loan number, group number or the borrower's full name to avoid a "which one?" question.
• Ask one thing at a time, then follow up (what about last month?, break that down by officer).
• Check the confirmation card before you click Confirm: it is the exact set of values that will be saved.