ESL Podcast 332 – Profit and Loss

Dolores: Manuel in accounting¹ is supposed to help me with this report, but he called in sick today! I can’t believe my luck. He’s supposed to be training me in and he’s left me holding the bag.

Anton: Let me see if I can help.

Dolores: I’m supposed to use the information from this profit and loss statement to make some projections² about the company’s future performance for our report, but I’m not sure what I’m doing. I need to plug in some numbers here, but I can’t make heads or tails of this.

Anton: Well, if you look at the top of the statement, you’ll see the top line, which shows the revenue the company brought in in the third quarter of this year. Is that what you need?

Dolores: Yes, I think so, but I also need to know our net income.

Anton: Here is the bottom line. That takes into account all of the revenue and expenses during the third quarter.

Dolores: That’s great, but I also need to know the gross profits and operating expenses.

Anton: Those are in this column. See?

Dolores: I guess all the information is here. I just needed to know where to look. Thanks. I couldn’t have figured it out without you.

Anton: It’s not that complicated. Hopefully, Manuel will be back tomorrow.

Dolores: Manuel? Who needs him!


Script by Dr. Lucy Tse

1 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

2 projections   

预测( projection的名词复数 )； 投影； 投掷； 突起物

参考例句：

• Their sales projections are a total thumbsuck. 他们的销售量预测纯属估计。
• The council has revised its projections of funding requirements upwards. 地方议会调高了对资金需求的预测。