How to Manage Bank Accounts

What is a Bank Account?

A bank account in M2 represents one of your local’s real-world bank accounts — a checking account, savings account, or similar. M2 keeps a running balance for each one based on the deposits, disbursements, transfers, and adjustments you record against it.

You can track more than one bank account if your local keeps money in more than one place — for example, a general checking account and a separate savings account for a building fund.

Before You Begin

You must have local financial write access to add, edit, or deactivate bank accounts. If you only have financial view access, you can see bank accounts but not change them.

Getting Started / How to Access

Go to your local’s dashboard.
Click the Income & Expenses tab.
Find the Bank Accounts card. It lists your active bank accounts and their current balances.

From here you can add a new account, or click the menu icon (the stacked lines) in the corner of the card for quick actions, or click the open-in-browser icon to see the full list of bank accounts, including inactive ones.

Adding a Bank Account

From the Bank Accounts card on the Income & Expenses page, click the menu icon and select Add Bank Account. (You can also reach this from the full Bank Accounts list by clicking the + button in the card header.)
Fill out the form:

Field	What to Enter
Name	A name that identifies this account, such as “Main Checking” or “Building Fund Savings.” Required.
Institution Name	The name of the bank holding this account. Optional, but helpful for your records.
Last Four	The last four digits of the account number, for identification purposes. Optional.
Starting Balance	The balance to start tracking from in M2. If you’re just beginning to use M2 for this account, enter the balance as of a specific date. Leave at 0.00 if this account has no history to bring in.
Starting Balance As Of	The date the starting balance was accurate. Required if you enter a starting balance other than zero.

Click Save.

You’ll see a confirmation that the account has been added, and it appears in your Bank Accounts list.

Editing a Bank Account

Go to the Bank Accounts list (click the open-in-browser icon on the Bank Accounts card, or Financials > Bank Accounts if you’re on the full list already).
Find the account and click the pencil (edit) icon in its row, or open the account and click the pencil icon next to its name.
Update any fields as needed.
Click Update.

A note on changing the starting balance: If you change the starting balance or its date on an account that already has deposits, disbursements, transfers, or adjustments recorded before that new date, M2 automatically recalculates so your balance stays accurate — it shifts the starting balance date back to the day before the earliest transaction and adjusts the starting balance amount to match. You don’t need to do this math yourself.

Setting a Default Bank Account

If your local uses more than one bank account, you can mark one as the default. The default account is used automatically in places where M2 needs to guess which account applies.

Open the bank account you want to make the default (click its name in the Bank Accounts list).
Click Make Default Bank Account. This button only appears if the account isn’t already the default.

You’ll see a confirmation that the account is now the default. Only one bank account per local can be the default at a time — making a new one default automatically removes the setting from whichever account had it before.

Deactivating or Removing a Bank Account

Go to the Bank Accounts list.
Find the account and click the trash icon in its row.
Confirm when asked “Are you sure you want to delete this?”

What happens next depends on whether the account has any history:

No recorded activity (no deposits, disbursements, transfers, or adjustments): the account is removed completely.
Has recorded activity: M2 keeps the account for your records but marks it inactive instead of deleting it, since deleting it would break the history of past transactions. You’ll see a message explaining it was deactivated instead of removed.

Inactive accounts no longer appear on the Bank Accounts card on your Income & Expenses page, but they still show up in the full Bank Accounts list, shown in gray. You can reactivate an account at any time by editing it and turning the Active switch back on.

Tips

Set a default early. If your local mostly uses one account, mark it as the default so it’s pre-selected wherever M2 asks you to pick an account.
Use “Last Four,” not the full account number. M2 only asks for the last four digits — there’s no need, and no field, for the complete account number.
Don’t delete an account with history. M2 protects your records by deactivating instead of deleting whenever an account has activity attached to it, so you won’t lose the trail of past transactions.

Troubleshooting

Q: I don’t see the option to add or edit a bank account. A: You need local financial write access. Contact whoever manages permissions for your local.

Q: I deactivated an account by mistake. Can I bring it back? A: Yes. Edit the account and turn the Active switch back on.

Q: Why can’t I make the starting balance date later than some of my transactions? A: M2 needs to know the balance as of a clean starting point, before anything else was recorded. If you set a starting balance date after transactions already exist, M2 automatically moves the starting date earlier (to the day before the oldest transaction) and adjusts the amount so your running balance still comes out correct.

How to View a Bank Account Ledger
How to Transfer Between Bank Accounts
How to Create and Manage Funds
How to Create a Disbursement Authorization

Glossary

Local — The individual unit within your organization where members hold their primary membership. Depending on your organization, this might correspond to a lodge, chapter, local committee, or similar body.