CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of study
The need to develop document routing and tracking system has given rise to automated methods of solving such problems. Necessity has inspired man to develop the information and data processing technique we now use to provide required information as quickly and as economically as possible. This is because once a firm begins to expand, the information requirements expands proportionally too.
Document routing and tracking have the characteristics of input, processing, output and feedback. If we consider a microfinance bank as a system of subsystems, we may discover document routing system has been a manual process subject to all the traditional business problems. Documents get lost, there is no personnel accountability and it takes way too long. An attempt to determine its status is the definition of absolute inefficiency. Most large organizations use a computerized executive documents management system (EDMS) to manage the tracking and transfer of files prepared for senior management.
The document tracking will keep track of who is responsible for the file, who has it at any given time, when it is due to arrive at the next step in the process, and whether it is overdue in arriving there.
The document tracking also controls the movement of the e-file of the document itself. When the hardcopy of a file moves to another office, the e-file of the document itself is transferred to that office at the same time.
At that point, no other office is able to modify the e-file. Until the file is transferred elsewhere through the EDMS, that office alone is responsible for:
•    reviewing whatever action has been requested or taken to date; and
•    prepare documents as needed.
However, this work concentrates on the loaning aspect of the document routing and tracking system in general and the application in particular. Various manual systems and devices have been used in time past in collection of loans by customers. The most recent of such devices is the computer with an advantage of speed and accuracy over the previous devices.
In view of this, certain information about the customers are stored in a database- a collection of related fields; and this data is manipulated to give rise to the loaning system. The need for this medium of application is for approval/transfer of document at a faster rate than before has been highly called for. The computer programmers aim at ensuring that the application by customers is processed on time in the computer to generate an effective loaning system for the microfinance bank.