A condensed financial statement showing the nature and amount of a company's assets, liabilities, and capital on a given date. Unlike the other financial statements, it is accurate only at one moment in time, not a period of time. A balance sheet is a listing of the items making up the two sides of the accounting equation: Assets = Liabilities + Owner's Equity.
The balance sheet is the core of the financial statements. All other statements either feed into or are derived from the balance sheet.