21 - How to View a Bank Account Ledger

What is a Bank Account Ledger?

The bank account ledger is a running record of every deposit, disbursement, transfer, and manual adjustment posted against a single bank account, along with the balance after each one. It’s the same idea as the register you’d keep for a checkbook, kept for you automatically as you record activity elsewhere in M2.

Use the ledger to see how a bank account’s balance got to where it is, or to track down a specific transaction.

Getting Started / How to Access

Go to your local’s dashboard.
Click the Income & Expenses tab.
In the Bank Accounts card, click the name of the account you want to view.

You can also get here from the full Bank Accounts list: click the open-in-browser icon on the Bank Accounts card, then click the account’s name.

Reading the Account Summary

The left side of the account page summarizes the account:

Field	What It Shows
Institution	The bank holding this account, if entered.
Account Number	The last four digits on file for this account.
Default Account	Whether this is the local’s default bank account.
Starting Balance	The balance M2 starts counting from, and the date it was accurate “as of.”
+ Deposits	Total of officer funds transfers deposited into this account.
- Disbursements	Total of money paid out of this account.
+ Transfers In	Total transferred into this account from other bank accounts.
- Transfers Out	Total transferred out of this account to other bank accounts.
Adjustments	Net total of manual adjustments recorded on this account.
Current Balance	Starting balance plus deposits, minus disbursements, plus transfers in, minus transfers out, plus adjustments. This is the account’s balance in M2 today.

Reading the Ledger

The right side of the page lists every transaction on this account, in date order, with a running balance:

Column	What It Shows
Date	The date of the transaction.
Check No.	The check number, for disbursements paid by check.
Description	What the entry is — a deposit, disbursement, transfer, or adjustment, with any memo or comment attached.
Deposit	The amount, if this entry added money to the account.
Disbursement	The amount, if this entry took money out of the account.
Balance	The running balance after this entry is applied.

The first row is always the account’s Starting Balance — the anchor point the rest of the ledger builds from. If the balance shown ever goes negative, it appears in red.

Each type of entry behaves a little differently:

Deposits (officer funds transfers) — click the amount to open the transfer that deposited this money.
Disbursements — click the amount to open the disbursement authorization, showing the payee, check number, and what it was for.
Transfers between bank accounts — shows which account the money came from or went to. Click the amount to see the transfer’s details.
Adjustments — shows the memo you entered when recording the adjustment. If you have financial write access, you can click Adjustment to edit it, or the trash icon to remove it.

Recording an Adjustment from This Page

If you need to correct the balance for a reason that isn’t a normal deposit, disbursement, or transfer — a bank fee, interest earned, or a correction — click Record Adjustment at the top of the account page. Enter the date, the amount (use a negative number to reduce the balance), and a memo explaining the adjustment, then click Save.

Tips

Use the memo field. Transfers and adjustments both have a memo field — fill it in so anyone reading the ledger later understands what happened and why.
Click before you assume. Every dollar amount in the ledger is a link to the underlying record. If a number looks wrong, click it to see the full detail rather than guessing.
Watch for red. A balance shown in red means the running total has gone negative at that point in the ledger — worth investigating even if the current balance is positive.

Troubleshooting

Q: A transaction I expected to see isn’t in the ledger. A: Check that the transaction’s date falls after the account’s starting balance date. Entries dated on or before the starting balance date are already accounted for in the starting balance itself and aren’t listed separately.

Q: The balance in M2 doesn’t match my bank statement. A: This is normal if you have outstanding checks that haven’t cleared yet, or deposits still in transit. Compare the ledger against your statement transaction by transaction to spot the differences.

How to Manage Bank Accounts
How to Transfer Between Bank Accounts
How to Create a Disbursement Authorization
How to Create an Officer Funds Transfer

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.