One of the two standard components of a financial statement, on which are shown the assets (what is owned) and the liabilities (what is owed) by the organization. An organization is most unlikely to find the assets and the liabilities exactly equal, so a third category of entry makes the sheet “balance”: a line entitled “profit” or “loss.” When assets exceed liabilities, the line shows a profit; when liabilities exceed assets, the line shows a loss. Since most hospitals are nonprofit, a line called “profit” would be inappropriate (although even a hospital could not survive if, over time, it owed more than it owned). Thus, most nonprofit organizations long ago abandoned the term “profit” and in its place adopted a euphemism such as “fund balance.” A profit, then, would be called a “positive fund balance”; a loss would be called a “negative fund balance.”