Shadowing Practice: What is Accounting ? An Introduction to Accounting. - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hello everyone, Warren Buffett once said, accounting is the language of business.

But what is accounting?

This is what we would learn in this session.

What is accounting?

And why is it important to start by defining accounting?

Because eventually, as we add more concepts, theories about accounting, it's very important to understand the big picture,

which is what is accounting?

And in this session, we will explain a little bit more why accounting is considered the language of business.

Also in this session, we will discuss the users of accounting information.

We're going to break them into two major groups, external users and internal users.

And we will discuss the role and the uses of each group subject.

And we're going to focus, I'm going to tell you right now, about two specific groups of external groups investors and creditors

and you are going to see why

and we're gonna connect this concept to accounting as the language

of business stay motivated in this course let's go ahead

and get started before we proceed any further I have a

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Your success starts here. So what is accounting?

Well, accounting is a system.

That system could be a manual system or it could be a computerized system for information and measurement.

Simply put, accounting is a system that keeps track of certain information by measuring their activities.

When we say manual, it means we can keep track of this information with a pencil

and a piece of paper and physical books.

Now, obviously these days, no one keeps track of their books, of their accounting information manually.

You might have small businesses, mom and pop, that's possible.

But these days, most accounting systems are computerized.

You could have a software like QuickBooks.

You could have what's called enterprise resource management system.

You could have large software.

You could have small software.

You could keep track of things on an Excel sheet, that's considered computerized.

That system does three things.

The accounting system does three things.

It identifies, record, and communicate business activities,

the company's business activities to certain group of users.

So the purpose of accounting is to do what?

Whether you're doing accounting manually or on a computer system, computerized, we're going to assume it's computerized.

I just wanted to tell you that in the old days, we keep track of everything manually.

And this system looks at transaction, identifies the transaction, record the transaction, and communicate this transaction.

And in the process of communication, we can analyze and interpret the activities of the business to a specific group of users.

So the first thing I'm going to do, I'm going to illustrate each step in the accounting system separately, identifies, record, and communicate, starting with identification.

Identification involves recognizing economic event that is relevant to a business.

What does that mean?

It means when you have a business, you need to know what transaction and events that should be recorded.

Usually, which transaction and event are recorded?

Transaction and event are of financial nature where there's an exchange, some sort of an exchange.

Think of a bakery.

Think of a business of a bakery.

That's the organization.

That's the business entity.

What would the bakery do?

Well, the bakery will buy ingredient flour, sugar, eggs to make goods.

They will sell baked goods.

That's a transaction.

They will make payments to employees.

That's a transaction.

They will pay their utility bill, their water bill.

They will purchase a new oven, a new piece of equipment.

All these are what?

All these are transactions.

And the first thing we need to do is identify.

Okay, is this a transaction that is relevant to the business?

If the answer is yes, we identified it.

What do we need to do once we identify a transaction?

We need to record this transaction.

This is the second step.

Recording involves keeping a systematic and a chronological log of the identified transaction.

So when you buy ingredient, when you buy ingredient, you log it in.

You record this transaction chronologically, usually by date.

Now, this is done through either manually, if you're using a manual system, you'll manually, or automated.

So you could record the transaction automatically.

A case in point scanners in supermarkets.

When you go to a supermarket or to a shop and they scan your item when you are ready to buy it, that's part of the recording.

It identifies that the company made a sale and it recorded the transaction.

For example, in the example of a bakery, the bakery, what they would do is they will need to buy ingredient.

So let's assume they purchase $500 worth of ingredient.

This is a transaction.

We need to record this transaction.

This transaction will increase inventory or supplies or ingredient by $500 and will decrease cash, assuming we pay cash $500 dollars.

Now when the bakery turns around and sells 1 ,200 worth of baked goods, what's going to happen?

They will increase their cash by 1 ,200 and they will increase their revenue by 1 ,200.

Now don't worry about the increases, decreases.

Just for now, understand that the accounting system records these transactions.

They record them systematically and chronologically.

Systematically means there's a system that you will keep recording the transaction.

Now, some transactions might have to be inputted manually, but most transactions are recorded electronically automatically.

Now, after we identify records, the accounting information system, and this is the most important part, the end product, is communicate this information.

Communication involves preparing accounting reports such as financial statements

and specifically for our purposes for this course we would learn about the income statement where we would show revenues minus expenses.

We would look at the balance sheet where we will show assets equal to liabilities plus equity.

We would also take a look at retained earnings which is beginning retained earnings plus net income minus dividend.

Don't worry about all of those we're going to have a whole session explaining the financial statement.

But in the financial statements, we communicate.

We make a statement about the business, and we'll share the statement with users, sharing this information with stakeholders,

people who are, who wants this information, like the owners of the business, the managers of the business, investors, creditors.

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We're going to talk about the users shortly.

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So at the end of each month, the bakery prepares its financial statements.

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For example, to make this example simple, this bakery sold 1 ,200 worth of goods and the expenses were $500.

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We would know that this bakery made a profit of $700.

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So this is the part of the communication.

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Now, this is basically a semi -income statement.

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There's a balance sheet.

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We'll look at the financial statements later.

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But the point is you would identify the transaction you would

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record the transaction now during the recording you keep sales separately you keep expenses separately

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so you can

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so you can prepare the financial statements then you communicate this

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information now from the communication part investors creditors owners they can

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analyze interpret the information now why is accountant important why is

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accounting important why do we learn accounting accounting is the language of business what does that mean this is an understatement.

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I mean what does that mean?

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It's an important statement.

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I think we should have even a more important term than the language of business.

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Think if you want to learn, if you want to go to France and live there

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or go as a tourist or you want to communicate with French people.

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You need to understand their language.

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That's the language, the French language.

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To communicate business information with other people you need to understand accounting because accounting is the language of business.

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When we use the term net income, net income is a well -known term.

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Any business owner, any investor, there's one definition of it.

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This is the language of business.

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When I say assets, when I say property, plant, and equipment, those are terms.

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Accounting is referred to as the language of business because it conveys data that helps in making informed decision.

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users of accounting information falls into two categories external users

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and internal users but before we proceed into external users

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and internal users I want to explain the importance of this language

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so let me explain the importance of accounting let's assume let's

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not assume anything we are all familiar with a company called

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Microsoft MSFT Microsoft most likely you are using their product there's a good chance you are using one of their product MSFT.

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Now, Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates.

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So Bill Gates had a great idea to start a software company.

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The best idea ever.

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That's great.

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Now, Bill Gates, he can produce, maybe he can write.

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maybe it's going to take him a year or two to write the software.

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Then it's going to take him another two years to produce and sell and market, because he's by himself.

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So it's going to take him four years to do so.

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Let's assume that's the case.

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Or Bill Gates go to investors and ask for, I don't know, $5 million,

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where he can hire other programmers, hire people to produce the software quickly, market the software up and running and expand and make this company worth $3 trillion.

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Now, when Bill Gates talks to investors, to people who are with the money, so you have people with idea.

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So you have ideas here, people with ideas.

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It could be Bill Gates, could be you and I, could be anyone.

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And we have people with money.

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The people with ideas, they need to communicate with the people with money.

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The people with money we're going to call for short investors.

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Now, how do they communicate with each other?

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They communicate with each other through the language of business, through accounting.

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So through accounting, Bill Gates can present his numbers.

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These are my profit, my balance sheet, my retained earnings, my projection for the future.

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This is how much money you can make if you invest with me based on these numbers.

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And these numbers, Bill Gates understand them and the investors understand them.

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Why?

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Because they're using the same language.

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Now, let's go back to users of accounting information.

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So who would use accounting information?

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We have two group of users.

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We have external users and we have internal users.

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Now when we say external, external in terms of the company, external to the company.

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Internal users, it means people who are inside the company.

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So we have external users, internal users.

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We're going to emphasize these two groups later on shortly.

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But you have to understand, when we are dealing with external users, we call this accounting financial accounting.

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It's a term called financial accounting, and this course is a financial accounting course.

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When we are dealing with internal users, we use the term managerial accounting.

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It caters to the needs of internal users.

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Let's talk about each group separately and explain the role.

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Internal users of accounting are individual within the organization as I told you, internal relative to the company.

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Why do they need this information?

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Well, they need this information to make decisions related to what?

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Operating the business, managing the business.

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Who are these people?

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Management, right?

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These users need detailed, timely, and often specific information to perform the role effectively.

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I cannot run the company if I don't know how much inventory I have, if I don't know what's in my pipeline, if I don't know how much ingredient I need to produce the product.

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So these groups are management, all level of management, lower level, mid level, higher level, marketing managers,

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production managers, they all need information, accounting information.

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Employees, they need accounting information, total sales, so they know how much to produce.

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Internal auditors, the company might have auditors that make sure everything is running smoothly, they need accounting information.

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Board of directors, people who are in charge, etc. So those are called internal users.

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Now, obviously, these are internal to the company.

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Obviously, external users are what?

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External to the company.

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External users are individuals or entities outside the organization who uses this information,

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who uses accounting information to make decisions related to their interests in the business.

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Usually, who are we talking about?

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We're talking about two groups of people.

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I already mentioned one of them.

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Those are the investors.

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Investors are also called shareholders, are also called stockholders.

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Obviously, investors, shareholders, stockholders, the same thing.

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And the other group are creditors.

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creditors are the people that lend money to the business they give you money

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but they lend you the money they want their money back

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investors they're in bed with you once you are an investor

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in a business that's it there's no way out they're part

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of the business they're the owners of the business these users generally required summarized information presented in the financial statements

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And this group consists of investors, creditors.

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So those two are the main users of accounting information.

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Why?

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Because those are the groups that provide the funding to the company.

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The investors are the owners.

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They invest their own money.

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That's how you become an investor.

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You buy stocks.

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You buy shares in the company.

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Creditors, they are lenders.

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Think about banks.

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Are these the only external users?

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Not at all.

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You have regulatory agencies, you have tax authorities like the government, you have customers, you have suppliers.

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Many others, anyone that's outside the organization is an external user.

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Now, can you be an external and internal user at the same time?

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Of course, you can be an investor in a company and you could be working for the company.

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And most small businesses are owned by the people that found them.

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So they have the investors slash owners.

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so for example for hot lectures I am the owner

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and I am also I work for the company I'm an external

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and an internal user so that could that could happen

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but for the sake of illustration we have to understand we have internal users

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and external users

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and each part of these groups they're interested in some information

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for example the government is interested in collecting their taxes regulatory agency

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or agencies they are interested in making sure you are following certain rules and regulations.

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Customers, they want to know your financial health before they buy from you.

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Suppliers, same thing.

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Suppliers, they are outsiders to the company.

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Now suppliers could also be considered creditors because they lend you money.

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Now let's take a look at this multiple choice question from Farhatlectures .com to reinforce what we just learned.

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Which of the following is an example of an internal user of accounting information?

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Well, is it A or B, investors and creditors.

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Those are the main external.

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You need to know this.

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Those are external users and those are the people that invest money in the company.

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Government regulators, government is an outsider.

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Company managers, you guessed it.

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Company managers, they manage the company.

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Now, could you be a company manager and be an investor?

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Yes.

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Could you be a company manager and be a creditor?

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Yes, you can work for the company and also lend money to the company if you have, If you have money, why not?

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They will, if they need money, they would lend it.

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I would better off investing rather than lending if I'm working for the company, right?

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But the point is you need to understand the difference between internal users versus external users.

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Remember, external users, we use the term financial accounting or financial reporting.

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Internal users, we use the term managerial accounting.

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And both financial accounting and managerial accounting are courses you need to take as any business major.

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If you're an accounting major, you need to take more and Farhat Lectures will have course for financial accounting.

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This is the course that you are taking now and managerial accounting as well.

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Invest in yourself.

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Go to Farhat Lectures, look at additional MCQs to practice what you learned.

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Invest in yourself.

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Accounting is important.

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Good luck and stay safe.

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116 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “What is Accounting ? An Introduction to Accounting”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: accounting, user, transaction, external, investor. This video has 258 sentences and 2771 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:52. The speaker talks at a natural 155 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
investor noun	/ɪnˈvɛs.tə(ɹ)/	A person who invests money in order to make a profit.
creditor noun	/ˈkɹɛdɪtɚ/	A person to whom a debt is owed.
bakery noun	/ˈbeɪ.kə.ɹi/	A place in which bread (and often other baked goods such as cakes) is baked and/or sold.
ingredient noun	/ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/	One of the substances present in a mixture, especially food.
manually adverb	/ˈmænj(u)əliː/	By hand.
lend verb	/ˈlɛnd/	To allow to be used by someone temporarily, on condition that it or its equivalent will be returned.
computerize verb		To convert a manual function or system into a computer system.
managerial adjective	/ˌmænɪˈd͡ʒɪəɹi.əl/	Of or relating to a manager or management; involving management-like duties.
supplier noun	/səˈplaɪə/	One who supplies; a provider.
separately adverb	/ˈsɛp.ɹət.li/	In a separate manner; not together; apart.
auditor noun	/ˈɔːdɪtɚ/	One who audits bookkeeping accounts.
chronologically adverb	/ˌkɹɒnəˈlɒdʒɪkli/	In a chronological manner; with reference to time.
stockholder noun	/ˈstɑk.hoʊl.dɚ/	One who owns stock.
systematically adverb	/ˌsɪs.təˈmæt.ɪ.kli/	In a systematic manner; organizedly or methodically.
outsider noun	/ˌaʊtˈsaɪdəɹ/	One who is not part of a community or organization.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go ahead verb	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	To proceed with; to begin.
go back to verb		To stem from; to originate in.
turn around verb		To physically rotate (usually around a vertical axis) for a half turn (180 degrees), a whole turn (360 degrees), or an indefinite amount.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

You could have what's called enterprise resource management system.
What do we need to do once we identify a transaction?
We're going to talk about the users shortly.
I mean what does that mean?
Usually, who are we talking about?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if you're using a manual system, you'll manually · if they need money, they would lend
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is considered · are computerized · should be recorded
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	students who are · earnings which is · people who are

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 32 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shareholder /ˈʃɛəˌhəʊl.də(ɹ)/, projection /pɹəˈd͡ʒɛkʃən/, illustration /ˌɪləsˈtɹeɪ̯ʃən/, measurement /ˈmɛʒ.ə.mənt/
Long words — get the stress right: ingredient /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/, manually /ˈmænj(u)əliː/, managerial /ˌmænɪˈd͡ʒɪəɹi.əl/, chronologically /ˌkɹɒnəˈlɒdʒɪkli/, systematically /ˌsɪs.təˈmæt.ɪ.kli/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like investor, creditor, bakery.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: What is Accounting ? An Introduction to Accounting. - Learn English Speaking with Video

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