Chartered accountant Michael Brown is the founder and CEO of Double Entry Bookkeeping. He has worked as an accountant and consultant for more than 25 years and has built financial models for all types of industries. He has been the CFO or controller of both small and medium sized companies and has run small businesses of his own. He has been a manager https://www.bookstime.com/blog/5-hvac-bookkeeping-tips-you-need-to-know and an auditor with Deloitte, a big 4 accountancy firm, and holds a degree from Loughborough University. Double Entry Bookkeeping is here to provide you with free online information to help you learn and understand bookkeeping and introductory accounting. A debit balance is the remaining principal amount of debt owed to a lender by the borrower.

• Although each account has a normal balance in practice it is possible for any account to have either a debit or a credit balance depending on the bookkeeping entries made.
• We now offer 10 Certificates of Achievement for Introductory Accounting and Bookkeeping.
• This occurs because every transaction must have the debit amounts equal to the credit amounts.
• He has been a manager and an auditor with Deloitte, a big 4 accountancy firm, and holds a degree from Loughborough University.
• Such an account is said to be overdrawn, and so is not actually allowed to have a negative balance – the bank simply refuses to honor any checks presented against the account that would cause it to have a debit balance.
• A debit balance is an account balance where there is a positive balance in the left side of the account.

A debit balance is the amount of cash that a broker lends to an investor’s margin account to purchase securities, and which the investor must pay into the account before the purchase transaction can be completed. There are several meanings for the term debit balance that relate to accounting, bank accounts, lending, and investing. In accounting, a debit balance refers to a general ledger account balance that is on the left normal balance of accounts side of the account. This is often illustrated by showing the amount on the left side of a T-account. For this reason the account balance for items on the left hand side of the equation is normally a debit and the account balance for items on the right side of the equation is normally a credit. Harold Averkamp (CPA, MBA) has worked as a university accounting instructor, accountant, and consultant for more than 25 years.

Which set of accounts below would have a normal debit balance?

Such an account is said to be overdrawn, and so is not actually allowed to have a negative balance – the bank simply refuses to honor any checks presented against the account that would cause it to have a debit balance. Alternatively, the bank will increase the account balance to zero via an overdraft arrangement. Overdraft fees can be substantial, so account holders need to be aware of their remaining account balances before issuing checks. These accounts are contained within the liability and equity sections of the balance sheet, and the revenue section of the income statement. It would be quite unusual for any of these accounts to have a debit balance.

When an account has a balance that is opposite the expected normal balance of that account, the account is said to have an abnormal balance. For example, if an asset account which is expected to have a debit balance, shows a credit balance, then this is considered to be an abnormal balance. For reference, the chart below sets out the type, side of the accounting equation (AE), and the normal balance of some typical accounts found within a small business bookkeeping system. From the table above it can be seen that assets, expenses, and dividends normally have a debit balance, whereas liabilities, capital, and revenue normally have a credit balance. Although each account has a normal balance in practice it is possible for any account to have either a debit or a credit balance depending on the bookkeeping entries made. So for example there are contra expense accounts such as purchase returns, contra revenue accounts such as sales returns and contra asset accounts such as accumulated depreciation.

What is a Debit Balance?

The double-entry system requires that the general ledger account balances have the total of the debit balances equal to the total of the credit balances. This occurs because every transaction must have the debit amounts equal to the credit amounts. For example, if a company borrows $10,000 from its local bank, the company will debit its asset account Cash for $10,000 since the company’s cash balance is increasing. The same entry will credit its liability account Notes Payable for $10,000 since that account balance is also increasing. A debit balance is an account balance where there is a positive balance in the left side of the account. Accounts that normally have a debit balance include assets, expenses, and losses.

Examples of these accounts are the cash, accounts receivable, prepaid expenses, fixed assets (asset) account, wages (expense) and loss on sale of assets (loss) account. Contra accounts that normally have debit balances include the contra liability, contra equity, and contra revenue accounts. It should be noted that if an account is normally a debit balance it is increased by a debit entry, and if an account is normally a credit balance it is increased by a credit entry.

Debit Balance in Investing

So for example a debit entry to an asset account will increase the asset balance, and a credit entry to a liability account will increase the liability. Each of the accounts in a trial balance extracted from the bookkeeping ledgers will either show a debit or a credit balance. The normal balance of any account is the balance (debit or credit) which you would expect the account have, and is governed by the accounting equation. A debit balance is a negative cash balance in a checking account with a bank.