Money

Banks might give an interest on some types of accounts or deposits individuals or companies have. People have their savings accounts, and they can withdraw money from the ATM in order to pay their bills, the school fees, or to go on holidays. The money they spend depends on their own budget, if they overspend they might become broke!

Another way to pay for a purchase is to issue a bank check. But sometimes the money you have in the account might not be enough to afford, for example to buy a house. In this case, the bank gives you a mortgage, which is a loan they give you so that you can acquire your house and you keep paying the money back in different instalments, which means that you will be making payments at successive fixed times.

Read the following conversations. The first is a telephone conversation and the second takes place at the bank.

In this telephone conversation, a customer wants to pay a bill for the acquisition of some products. Her first intention is to pay through credit card, but the assistant offers her an alternative.

This conversation takes place in the bank. A customer has tried to use the ATM machine to make some transactions, but unfortunately it does not work. Subsequently she enters the bank to see what is wrong.

Most banks offer the possibility of performing banking transactions through the Internet. The banks provide a username, passwords and security codes to prevent fraud. Customers can pay their bills or check their account balances.

See the following online bank statement:

Grammar: The Present Perfect

The present perfect simple

Prepositions For and since:

• For + period of time: for two hours, for one month, for ten years, for a long time
• Since + point in time: since three o’clock, since yesterday, since I was 10, since 2010

Adverbials of time commonly used with the present perfect:

(*) Some of these adverbs need an explanation:

• Just is used to say that the action has finished very recently. It means ‘acabar de’ + verb. Examples:
  • I have just met Mr Bramwell (M’acabo de trobar el Sr. Bramwell).
  • He has just gone (Acaba de marxar).
• Yet is only used in questions and negative sentences. We usually place it at the end of the sentence. Examples:
  • Have you started the course yet? (Has començat ja el curs?)
  • We haven’t met Mr Bramwell yet (Encara no hem conegut el Sr. Bramvell).

The present perfect continuous is composed of three elements: the auxiliary verb have + the past participle of be (been) + the gerund of the verb.

The table shows the forms of the present perfect continuous of the verb to work:

The present perfect continuous is used in the same cases as the present perfect simple, but sometimes there is a difference in the emphasis on the continuation of the action.

1) The following sentences have the same meaning:

• I have worked in this company for 20 years
• I have been working in this company for 20 years
• (Porto 20 anys treballant en aquesta empresa)

But we can only use the present perfect simple in:

• I have been a worker in this company since 1998 (He estat treballador d’aquesta empresa des de l’any 1998).

It is wrong to say: I have been being a worker in this company since 1998. Remember that there are some verbs that are not used in the continuous forms.

2) In the following sentences, the difference is in the emphasis on the duration of the action:

• The street is wet because it has rained all night (El carrer és moll perquè ha plogut tota la nit).
• The street is wet because it has been raining all night (El carrer és moll perquè ha estat plovent tota la nit).

With the present perfect simple, we explain what has happened to explain why the street is wet, the action is finished and it has given a certain result. In the present perfect continuous, we emphasize the duration, not the action itself. With the present perfect continuous, the idea is that it has been raining all night and it is still raining at present.

Finance department

Accounting is one of the key functions for almost any business; it may be handled by a bookkeeper and accountant at small firms or by finance departments with dozens of employees at larger companies. Companies use financial statements to control their performance. Typically, they are the balance sheet, the income statement and the cash flow statement.

The balance sheet reports a company’s financial position based on its assets, liabilities, and equity at a single moment in time. A standard company balance sheet has three parts: assets, liabilities, and ownership equity. Assets are all the things the business owns. This will include property, tools, cars, desks, chairs, machinery, and so on.

Liabilities are the company’s legal debts or obligations that arise during the course of business operations. They include loans, accounts payable, mortgages, deferred revenues and accrued expenses. For example, the outstanding money that a company owes to its suppliers would be considered a liability. Current liabilities are debts payable within one year, while long-term liabilities are debts payable over a longer period.

The account form consists of two columns displaying assets on the left column of the report and liabilities and equity on the right column. They are also called debits and credits. The debit accounts are displayed on the left and credit accounts are on the right. It is called a balance sheet because the two sides balance out. That is, a company has to pay for all the things it has (assets) by either borrowing money (liabilities) or getting it from shareholders (shareholders’ equity).

See the translation of some words from the text:

There are some collocations from the text:

Invoices

An invoice is a document that a supplier sends to a customer detailing the cost of products or services supplied and requesting payment. All invoices should include five components:

• An invoice number
• A date
• Business contact information
• Descriptions of goods and services
• Payment terms

See an example of an invoice:

Invoice template

You can find an invoice template, in this link:

Invoice Template ( 41.8 KB )

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Describing trends

In the English-speaking business world you may have to discuss the information on graphs. See different types of graphs in the table below.

Taula: Types of graphs

Graph	Description
	A pie chart is a special chart which uses “pie slices” to show relative sizes of data. Pie charts are generally used to show percentage or proportional data.
	A bar graph or bar chart is a graphical display of data using bars of different heights.
	A line chart or line graph is a type of chart which displays information as a series of data points called ‘markers’ connected by straight line segments. It depicts changes over a period of time, showing data and trends.

How to describe trends:

There are four basic trends: upward movement, downward movement, no movement or change in direction. Read the following statements describing some of these movements:

Upward movements

• Sales of music equipment went up in 1995 and continued to rise steadily until 1996.
• There was a sharp increase in raw materials prices.
• The number of temporary contracts has increased drammatically.
• Prices of basic commodities have gone up over the past months.
• As the costs of energy and raw materials skyrocket, everybody is talking about ‘going green’.
• The profits soared and the industry flourished like never before.
• There was a dramatic rise in sales in the last term.
• The successful business’s profits continue to grow.

Downward movements

• The sudden collapse in share prices has surprised everyone.
• The economy is in a downswing.
• The ratio for wheat is forecast to plummet to 20% this year.
• In the future, the rate of mortality is expected to decrease.
• The objective is to reduce costs.
• The recession is over and unemployment is declining.

In these examples we have used verbs and nouns to describe upward and downward trends. See some more in the table below:

Taula: Verbs and nouns describing trends

Upward movement Verbs	Nouns	Downward movement Verbs	Nouns
be/go up	(an) upswing	collapse	(a) collapse
boom	(a) boom	cut	(a) cut
expand	(an) expansion	decline	(a) decline
grow	(a) growth	decrease	(a) decrease
increase	(an) increase	drop (off)	(a) drop
jump	(a) jump	fall (off)	(a) fall
peak	(a) peak	go down	(a) downswing
progress	(a) progression	plummet/plunge	(a) plunge
rise	(a) rise	reduce	(a) reduction
skyrocket	(a) jump	slump	(a) slump

To describe graphs which depict no movement, we can use verbs such as:

• keep or remain stable
• hold or stay constant
• stabilize
• Nouns such as: stability or balance

Food prices have stabilized recently	Els preus dels aliments s’han estabilitzat recentment
Inflation will remain stable or even drop slightly	La inflació romandrà estable o fins i tot caurà lleugerament

Expressions to indicate changes of direction are:

• level off
• flatten out
• stop falling/rising
• change
• stand at
• start rising

The volume of export will start rising after the construction of the new harbour	El volum d’exportació començarà a augmentar després de la construcció del nou port
Stocks leveled off after early losses	Les existències es van anivellar després de les pèrdues inicials