Float

In financial terms, the float is money within the banking system that is briefly counted twice due to time gaps in the registering of a deposit or withdrawal, usually due to the delay in processing paper checks. A bank credits a customer’s account as soon as a check is deposited. However, it takes some time to receive a check from the payer’s bank and record it. Until the check clears the account it's drawn on, the amount it's written for "exists" in two different places, appearing in the accounts of both the recipient’s and payer’s banks. The float is essentially double-counted money: a paid sum which, due to delays in processing, appears simultaneously in the accounts of the payer and the payee.