Business Spotlight 08.2019

(Nancy Kaufman) #1
SKILL UP! 7

IN CONTEXT

WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE?
Financial English
In an income statement, the
bottom line is the final line that
shows total profit or loss. This
statement has the sales at the
top, as total revenue, followed
by all expenses. After reductions,
any net income is transferred to
retained earnings or issued to
shareholders as a dividend.
Business English
We use bottom line to refer
to the most important fact in a
situation: “The bottom line is he
stole from the company.”

Phrase Bank
For a list of all the key phrases used in
the dialogues, see pages 12–13 The SiTuaTion:
Ron and Sue discuss both
good and bad accounting
practices.


  1. Tell the truth
    Ron: Start-ups contact us because
    they need to raise funds. For every
    stage of funding — from seed cap-
    ital to IPO. Throughout, it is our
    responsibility to ensure that no
    statement is misleading.
    Sue: In my experience, it’s com-
    mon that small companies inflate
    earnings by recording normal ex-
    penses as capital expenditure. It’s
    an easy way to manipulate the bal-
    ance sheet. Window dressing, you
    might say.
    Ron: Any others?
    Sue: Serious accounting irregular-
    ities include recording unrealized
    revenues or even fake transactions.


inflate sth. , etw. aufblähen
window dressing , Schönfärberei


  1. Lessons from bankruptcy
    Ron: I saw that you also worked
    for a company that went bankrupt.
    What happened there?
    Sue: Bad management, too much
    inventory and low turnover. We
    went bust. Basically, excess inven-
    tory ruined the bottom line.


bottom line ifml. , Endergebnis; Saldo
bust: go ~ ifml. , pleitegehen

Illustration: Bernhard Förth

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