Recording cash, savings and more than one bank account

You may not need this at all

A charity with one current account never has to come here. Every figure already counts as that one account, and the account question never appears on Spending or Income.

Add an account only when there is genuinely a second pot: a deposit account, a cash tin somebody holds, a second current account.

Adding one

Press Add an account. Give it a name, say what sort it is, and put in what was in it on a particular day. The start of your financial year is usually the easiest date to use.

Anything dated before that day is treated as already inside the opening figure, so it is not counted twice. Nothing you have already entered moves - it all stays in your main bank account.

Once you have one, Income and Spending start asking which account the money went through. Leave it blank and it means the main bank account.

Banking the cash

Use Move money. Out of the cash tin, in to the bank, with the amount and the date.

A move changes what is in each account and not what the charity has altogether, so it is never counted as income and never as spending. It appears on the statement of both accounts and changes no total on your cashflow or your management accounts.

Recording it as income instead is the mistake that makes a year look twice as good as it was.

Checking against the bank

Each row has a Statement link. It lists every movement on that account in date order with a running balance, which is what you hold next to the bank's own statement when you reconcile.

The quick buttons for This month, Last month and This financial year use your own year end, not the calendar year.

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• Next: Your charity financial year and opening balances
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