> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.lead.bank/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Core Balances: Where Your Program's Money Sits

> What a core balance is, which figure to use for what, and how it relates to the account, transactions, and account numbers.

A core balance is the balance position within a core account. It is where the money actually is: posted funds, holds, sweeps, overdraft, and interest, with a derived spendable figure. Lead creates it with the account. You read it.

## Which figure to use

* `spendable` to decide whether a payment can go out. It is the figure Lead's own authorization uses.
* `cash_available` for anything customer facing, such as a treasury dashboard, because it shows real cash without borrowed or swept funds.
* `posted` to reconcile against the Daily Balance report and against the sum of core transactions.

<Warning>
  `spendable` may include overdraft capacity. A balance with `cash_available` of zero can still show a positive `spendable` if the account has an overdraft limit. Do not present `spendable` as cash on hand.
</Warning>

[The Core Balance Object](/products/core-balance/core-balance-object) defines each figure and the formulas behind the derived ones.

## How core balances relate to the rest of the model

* **Core account.** `core_account_id` names the parent. A balance normally carries the same status as its account. See [Core Balance Statuses](/products/core-balance/statuses).
* **Core transactions.** Every core transaction names the `core_balance_id` it affected.
* **Account numbers.** On a `direct` account, account numbers attach to this balance, so an incoming payment to one of those numbers lands here.

## What you can do

List and retrieve your core balances. Both operations are read only. Each request reads Lead's core directly, so the figures reflect the ledger at the time of the request.

## What you cannot do

* Change a balance directly. Money moves only through payments and Lead's own core activity.
* Subscribe to webhooks today. Poll the retrieve endpoint at the cadence your use case needs. See [Banking Infrastructure](/products/banking-infrastructure/overview#lead-manages-you-read) for what is planned.

## In this section

* [The Core Balance Object](/products/core-balance/core-balance-object)
* [Core Balance Statuses](/products/core-balance/statuses)


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