Creating and setting up your group

Who can create a group

Any user who signs up can create a group and automatically becomes that group's Secretary.

If you don't intend to manage a group, or you're not an official in your group, we recommend inviting your Secretary — or whoever will be managing your group in Kosalo — instead of creating one yourself.

Creating a new group

Every group created comes with a free 1-month trial. Here's how to create a new group:

1. On your home screen, go to the menu and select Groups.
2. Once in the Groups page, type your group name and choose the current cycle you'd like to start with. Learn more on the Cycles page.
3. Select a membership plan for your group. There are 3 plans available:
   Starter

   Up to 15 members

   Standard

   Up to 50 members

   Community

   Up to 100 members
4. Tap Start Group — this takes you to the group setup page to finish setting up your group.

Group setup

Once you've created your group, complete the setup by doing the following:

1. Choose your group type. There are 3 group types available:
   Table Banking

   Members contribute shares, borrow from a loan pool, and earn dividends at cycle end.

   Merry-Go-Round

   Members contribute each round and take turns receiving the payout — no loans, no interest.

   Hybrid

   Both a merry-go-round rotation and a table-banking loan pool, running together.
   Choose carefully — this can't be changed later. Group type is locked once setup is complete. It's also not the same as payout model: group type is the shape your group takes (chosen here), while payout model — like Standard Chama — is a separate setting for the dividend side of your group, chosen a few steps ahead.
2. Select your group's location — county, constituency, and ward (wherever you normally hold meetings or reside).
3. Select your savings frequency.

   Table Banking groups can record weekly or monthly. Merry-Go-Round and Hybrid groups also have the option to record daily.

   Frequency is flexible — as a Secretary, you can add extra periods as your group needs them, up to a maximum of 365 days, 52 weeks, or 12 months depending on the frequency you chose. How this looks when you're actually recording contributions is covered in Recording Contributions and Loans Manually.

4. Choose your types of contributions. Default fields are loans, shares, and fines. Optional fields include starting capital, social funds, development fund, and welfare.
   Merry-Go-Round and Hybrid groups also get a Contributions and Payout Received field — tracking what each member puts in every round and what they receive when it's their turn for the payout. This field only appears if you selected Merry-Go-Round or Hybrid as your group type.
5. Choose your dividend calculation and payout model. Learn more on the Dividend & Payout Model page.

   Table Banking and Hybrid groups choose a dividend model here. Merry-Go-Round groups use a single default payout model called Rotation — there's nothing to choose.

6. Enter your loan interest rate. This is used to auto-calculate interest on any loan you record.

   Applies to Table Banking and Hybrid groups only — Merry-Go-Round groups don't issue loans.

Confirm your details are correct, then proceed. You can always make changes later from Group Settings in the menu.

Once setup is complete, you'll land on your dashboard with your new group set as active. From there, head to the Members page to start adding your group members.

Daily, weekly, and monthly groups

Your available frequency options depend on group type. Table Banking groups can record weekly or monthly. Merry-Go-Round and Hybrid groups can also record daily, on top of weekly or monthly.

Unlike group type, frequency isn't locked in — a Secretary can change it later from Group Settings.

Frequency is also flexible: a Secretary can add extra periods as the group needs them, rather than being locked to a fixed calendar. There's a cap depending on which frequency you're on — 365 days, 52 weeks, or 12 months — and the Activity page reflects however many periods have been added so far, up to that cap.