ESL Podcast 232 – Business Bookkeeping

#ESL Podcast 232 – Business Bookkeeping##GLOSSARY**on the side –** extra; in addition to one’s regular job*Janice works as a science teacher at the high school, but she offers privateclasses for younger students on the side to make extra money.**accounting –** the study or job of keeping correct records of money spent andreceived by a business or organization*Kareem is detail-oriented and he’s very good at math. Has he considered acareer in accounting?**bookkeeping –** keeping correct records of money that a business ororganization spends or receives*Shelly and her husband run a small business together. She is responsible formarketing and sales, and he is responsible for bookkeeping.**cash flow –** having enough cash for a business to pay its bills*The company had a problem with cash flow last month, and the owners had torequest a bank loan to pay their employees.**ledger –** the book or computer file in which a business or organization recordsmoney that it spends and receives*Years ago, ledgers were written by hand, but today, they are usuallycomputerized.**debit –** money that is spent by a business or organization; money that should besubtracted or taken away; payments*These records don’t look right. Did you remember to record the debit after wemade that big product purchase?**credit –** money that a business or organization receives; money that should beadded*She was happy to see that there were more credits than debits in her accountlast month.**break-even point –** the point where a business’s revenues (money received) areequal to its total expenses (money spent)*When the business finally reached its break-even point, the owners had a partyto celebrate their success.**asset –** something that has value or is worth money and is owned by a business,organization, or person*Miyung doesn’t have very much money in the bank, but he does have otherassets: a big house, an expensive car, and a new boat.**liability –** money that a business, organization, or person owes to someone else*The bills that a company needs to pay should be listed as liabilities on itsfinancial statements.**administrative expense –** cost of operating a business, such as telephone bills,secretary salaries, and paper for the printers and copiers*Every time we hire a secretary, our administrative expenses go up. Are yousure you need another assistant?**budget –** a plan for how a business, organization, or person will spend money*When the price of gasoline increased, the bus company had to make changesto its budget.**accounts payable –** money that a company owes; bills that a company has notyet paid*Bills are sent to the accounts payable department, where employees enter theinformation into a computer and print a check for payment.**balance sheet –** a document that shows how much money and other assets(things that are worth money) a company has and how much money it has paidover a period of time*Before investing in a company, it is always a good idea to study the balancesheet to learn more about its financial position.**expense –** money that is spent or will need to be spent in the future; cost*College students’ expenses include tuition, books, housing, and food.**receipt –** a piece of paper that is received when one pays for something; proofshowing that a person has paid money for something*The landlord says that I still need to pay him $100 for last month’s rent, but thisreceipt shows that I already paid the rent in full.**to audit –** to look carefully at a business’s financial records to determine if theyare correct*When the company was audited last year, the auditors discovered that theaccountant had been stealing money.**IRS –** Internal Revenue Service; the agency that collects taxes in the U.S.*If you are honest about your finances and pay your taxes regularly, you don’thave any reason to be afraid of the IRS.##COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS1. Why is Magdalena talking to Rolando about accounting?a) Magdalena is