The amount remaining due from one person to another on a settlement of the accounts involving their mutual dealings; the difference between the two sides (debit and credit) of an account. A balance is the conclusion or result of the debit and credit sides of an account. It implies mutual dealings, and the existence of debt and credit, without which there could be no balance. Loeb v. Keyes, 156 N. Y. 529, 51 N. E. 285; McWilliams v. Allan, 45 Mo. 574; Thillman v. Shadrick, 69 Md. 528, 16 Atl. 138. The term Is also frequently used in the sense of residue or remainder; as when a will speaks of “the balance of my estate.” Lopez v. Lopez, 23 S. C. 269; Brooks v. Brooks, 65 111. App. 331; Lynch v. Spicer, 53 W. Va. 426, 44 S. E. 255. Balance sheet. When It is desired to ascertain the exact state of a merchant’s business, or other commercial enterprise, at a given time, all the ledger accounts are closed up to date and balances struck; and these balances, when exhibited together on a single page, and so grouped and arranged as to close into each other and be summed up in one general result, constitute the “balance sheet.”
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
com. law. The amount which remains due by one of two persons, who have been dealing together, to the other, after the settlement of their accounts. 2. In the case of mutual debts, the balance only can be recovered by the assignee of an insolvent, or the executor of a deceased person. But this mutuality must have existed at the time of the assignment by the insolvent, or at the death of the testator. 3. The term general balance is sometimes used to signify the difference which is due to a party claiming a lien on goods in his hands, for work or labor done, or money expended in relation to those and other goods of the debtor.