Special savings schemes: how a cooperative pools and tracks members' investments
Special savings are a separate pot members add to, which the society can invest on their behalf. KoopManager keeps it apart from regular savings, records each new valuation of the investment and updates every member's fund value to match.
The problem: a pooled share is easy to state once and hard to restate
When a society invests members' pooled money, a member's share is clear on the day they join and hard to work out later. Spreadsheets mix the pool with regular savings, and every new valuation means recalculating each member by hand.
Who feels it
- Members cannot see what their share is worth today or how it has moved since they joined.
- Officers have to explain each valuation, and each redemption, to members who joined at different times.
How KoopManager resolves it
Special savings sit apart from regular savings and carry no interest. Members contribute to a scheme, and when the society invests the pooled money it records a new valuation. Each member's fund value updates in line with it.
Members can ask to redeem into their regular savings, or to be paid out to their bank account. Whether a society may run such a scheme, and on what terms, is a matter for its bye-laws and its regulator.
Related guides
- How to move a cooperative society from spreadsheets to software
- Cooperative loan guarantees explained
- How cooperative loans are approved and repaid
Try KoopManager
Manage members, savings, loans and reports in one system. Start a 14-day free trial.