What is a bank balance?
Monday, June 27, 2011 at 3:42PM A bank balance is the ending cash balance shown on a bank statement for a bank account, or at any time when an inquiry is made regarding the bank's record of the cash balance in the account.
This figure is used by a company's accounting staff in its monthly bank reconciliation, where the staff isolates all differences between the bank's and the company's records regarding a bank account through a bank reconciliation procedure, which may (and usually does) require some journal entries in the company's accounting records to record such items as interest income and service fees.
When a company engages in a daily bank reconciliation, the bank balance is the ending cash balance appearing on the bank's website for the relevant bank account for the preceding day. The accounting staff will then use this figure as part of its daily bank reconciliation procedure.
The ending date on a bank statement (and the corresponding bank balance) does not necessarily coincide with the last day of a month, since a company may request a different ending date for its bank statements.
Similar Terms
The bank balance is also known as the balance per bank.
Related Topics
Bank reconciliation procedure
What is a bank statement?
What is a book balance?
What is a deposit in transit?
What is not sufficient funds?
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