Your local (the individual unit of your organization, such as a chapter or local committee) may keep all its money in one checking account, which M2 calls the Operating Account. Each account you add, such as savings, raffle checking, a CD, or an investment account, gets its own ledger and balance. Funds track what the money is for. Bank accounts track where it sits.
Before you start
- You need local financial write access. View-only access lets you look but not change anything.
- Get a statement for every account, dated the day before your starting date.
- On the Income & Expenses tab, open Fund Reconciliation from the Bank Accounts card menu. If it shows a difference, fix that first.
Pick your starting date
M2 doesn't accept anything dated on or before an account's starting balance date. Everything after that date has to be entered. Two good choices:
- The first day of your fiscal year. Choose this if you'll enter everything since then, or if your auditors want the whole year in M2.
- The day after your most recent statement. This is the quickest.
The starting balance date is the statement's closing date, the day before you start.
Line up your Operating Account with the bank
- On your local's dashboard, click the Income & Expenses tab.
- In the Bank Accounts card, click Operating Account (your local may have renamed it).
- In the ledger, find the Balance on the last row dated on or before the statement date.
- Take the statement's ending balance. Subtract checks that haven't cleared, and add deposits the bank hasn't posted yet. Compare the result to the M2 balance.
If they differ, first make sure nothing is missing in M2, such as an unrecorded check or payments still on Untransferred Funds. Then record the difference on both sides:
- On the Operating Account page, click Record Adjustment.
- Enter the statement date in Date. In Amount, type the difference: your adjusted statement balance minus the M2 balance, with a minus sign first if M2 is higher. In Memo, type something like "Correction to match bank statement of September 30, 2026." Click Save.
- Back on the Income & Expenses tab, click the fund that money belongs to in the Funds card, usually General Fund.
- Click Record Adjustment, enter the same date, amount, and memo, and click Save.
The fund side keeps Fund Reconciliation at zero.
Don't change the Operating Account's starting balance instead. If you type the statement date there, M2 recalculates the amount and moves the date to the day before the account's earliest entry. The balance comes out right, but nothing dated shows your auditors the correction.
If the starting balance itself is wrong (for example, it's negative), see How to Fix a Starting Balance.
Add each other account
- On the Income & Expenses tab, click the Bank Accounts shortcut at the top. The shortcuts only show on a wide screen. On a smaller one, choose Add Bank Account from the Bank Accounts card menu and skip to step 3.
- Click the green plus icon in the Bank Accounts header.
- Fill in the fields and click Save.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Name | Required, such as "Savings" or "Raffle Checking." |
| Institution Name | The bank or brokerage. |
| Last Four | The last four digits of the account number. |
| Starting Balance | The statement's ending balance. For an investment account, the statement's total account value. For checking, allow for uncleared checks and deposits, as above. |
| Starting Balance As Of | The statement's closing date. Required when the balance isn't zero. |
Then give the same amount to the fund it belongs to. Without this, Fund Reconciliation shows a difference.
- A new fund, such as "Investment Fund" or "Raffle Fund": choose Add Fund from the Funds card menu. Type the Name, then enter the same Starting Balance and Starting Balance As Of as the account. Click Save.
- A fund you already have: click it in the Funds card, click Record Adjustment, and enter the same amount and date. Click Save.
Move money between your accounts
Always record a bank account transfer. It isn't income or an expense, so it doesn't appear on the Profit and Loss Report. Add a fund transfer only when the money changes purpose.
- A regular draw (some locals call it a stipend) from the investment account into checking needs both. Record a bank account transfer from the investment account to the Operating Account. Then record a fund transfer from Investment Fund to General Fund, with the same date, amount, and memo.
- Moving General Fund money from checking into savings needs only the bank account transfer. The money still belongs to the General Fund.
On the Income & Expenses tab, use Record Bank Account Transfer in the Bank Accounts card menu and Record Fund Transfer in the Funds card menu. A transfer can't be dated in the future or edited. To fix one, void it and record it again.
For an investment account's value changes, see How to Track an Investment Account.
Reconcile on each statement date
- Each account's M2 balance matches its statement, after the uncleared checks and deposits.
- Fund Reconciliation says "Everything is accounted for: the fund total equals the bank account total plus untransferred funds."
See How to Reconcile Funds Against Bank Accounts.
Tips
- Don't enter years of past history as one large payment. That reports it as this year's income. The starting balance and the line-up adjustment already include it. Keep your own record of past amounts for your auditors.
- A missing fund transfer doesn't show on Fund Reconciliation. It shows as one fund too high and another too low.
Troubleshooting
M2 says "Date cannot be on or before" a starting balance date. For example: "Date cannot be on or before the bank account's starting balance date (09/30/2026)." That entry is already counted in the account's or fund's starting balance. If it happened after that date, correct the date.
Fund Reconciliation shows a difference. Something was recorded on one side only, such as an account adjustment without its fund adjustment, or a new account without its fund. Check that the amounts match, too.
The starting balance I typed changed after I saved. You typed a date on or after the account's earliest entry. M2 moved the date to the day before that entry and changed the amount, so the balance on your date still equals what you typed. See How to Fix a Starting Balance.
Related guides
- How to Manage Bank Accounts
- How to View a Bank Account Ledger
- How to Transfer Between Bank Accounts
- How to Create and Manage Funds
- How to View a Fund Ledger
- How to Transfer Between Funds
- How to Reconcile Funds Against Bank Accounts
- How to Track an Investment Account
- How to Fix a Starting Balance