account balance
An account balance is the single net number that summarizes everything that has happened in one account up to a point in time. An account, like Cash, may have dozens of debits and credits piled up in it; the balance boils all of that down to one figure: how much, and on which side. It answers the everyday question 'how much do we have in this account?' in one number.
To find it, total the debit side and total the credit side of the account, then subtract the smaller from the larger. The leftover sits on the side with the bigger total. If Cash has debits adding to 11,000 and credits adding to 1,200, the balance is 9,800 on the debit side — a debit balance of 9,800. Most accounts settle on the side that is their normal balance: assets and expenses on the debit side, liabilities, equity, and revenue on the credit side.
Account balances are the numbers that everything visible in accounting is built from. List every account's balance and you have a trial balance; group those balances into assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses, and you have the financial statements. A balance is always 'as of' a moment — it changes the instant the next transaction touching that account is posted — so a stated balance only means anything when paired with its date.
An Accounts Receivable account has debits totaling 5,000 (amounts billed to customers) and credits totaling 2,000 (amounts collected). Its balance is 3,000 on the debit side, meaning customers still owe the business 3,000.
Net the two sides; the difference, on the larger side, is the balance.
A balance is a snapshot at one moment, not a flow over time. The Cash balance tells you how much cash there is now, not how much came in or went out during the period.