English Learning Guide

Competency 2
Unit 5: Accounting
Workshop 4
Centro de Servicios Financieros- CSF
Name: Cohort: Date:
Training program: Instructor:

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTATION

This workshop attempts to enhance your accounting knowledge and it deals with basic accounting
documentation and reports, as with accounting-job-positions and functions.

Objectives: from the development of these activities, you will be able to identify the controller’s function in a
company and analyze accounting documents.

1. Answer the following questions

- What’s an accounting report?
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
- Who is the person in charge of analyzing the information provided in the accounting report?
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
- What do you think it is the main objective of analyzing accounting reports?
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
- What is the information used for?
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Vocabulary search
Look for the following words/expressions.

SPELLING MEANING/DEFINITION SYNONYMS

Outsource Interim CFO
Accounting Supervisors
Cost Accountants
financial management
cost
audit
merge
acquisition
outsourced

NAME: _______________________________________________
 English Learning Guide
Competency 2
Unit 5: Accounting
Workshop 4
Centro de Servicios Financieros- CSF

3. Skills practice: Do the following activities to practice the learnt vocabulary and English structures.

3.1. Listening practice: video about source documents for accounting.

Before watching the video, work in groups to answer these questions:

- What documentation do you know from the accounting processes?

- What do you understand for general entries?
- What are the source documents in accounting?
- Share your answers.

Look for the following vocabulary: Look up the synonym or meaning and share some examples in groups.

Word Meaning/ synonym

Cash
Invoice
Sales slip
Point of sale
Purchase
Receipt
Bank Advice
Keep on file
Goods
Accounting entry
Decrease

Watch the video “Source documents” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssZZSw6k9PI

Make some notes and mark the statements TRUE (T) or FALSE (F)

- The accounting department receives papers (source documents) from other departments ( )

- The auditors prove the documents have been prepared correctly and honestly ( )

- A Cash sales slip is not necessarily delivered to the customer ( )

- The sales invoice contains detailed information of the sale for the customer ( )

- Point of Sale summary is used for cash sales ( )

- Cheques are used for cash purchases, only ( )

NAME: _______________________________________________
 English Learning Guide
Competency 2
Unit 5: Accounting
Workshop 4
Centro de Servicios Financieros- CSF

Read the definitions below and write the concept (title) in each box according to the description.

Answer the following questions:

- What are source documents?

- Why are those documents kept on file?

3.2. Reading practice: Reading about source documents role.

Before reading the text, answer the following questions:

- What do you know about source documents now?

________________________________________________________________________________________

NAME: _______________________________________________
 English Learning Guide
Competency 2
Unit 5: Accounting
Workshop 4
Centro de Servicios Financieros- CSF
- Do you think photocopies or scanned documents are legal source documents?
________________________________________________________________________________________

Read the text and then complete the activities: Look up the underlined words if necessary.

Source Document Role in an Accounting Transaction 1

By Rosemary Peavler- Updated December 03, 2018

Each time a company makes a financial transaction, it generates some type of paper
trail. Accountants call this paper trail a source document or documents. If a small
business writes a check from its checking account for office supplies, for example, the
check and office supplies receipt become the source documents.

Importance of Source Documents: The source document is essential to the bookkeeping

and accounting process as it provides evidence that a financial transaction has occurred.
During an accounting or tax audit, source documents back up the accounting journals
and general ledger as an indisputable transaction trail.

You would keep source documents for your business just like you keep receipts for tax-
deductible items for your personal taxes. If your personal taxes are audited, the source
documents provide the proof that you've made those purchases. The same holds true
for your business, but in business, you keep original documents for every financial
transaction, not just charitable donations.

Important Data and Facts: A source document describes all the basic facts of the
transaction, such as the amount of the transaction, to whom the transaction was made,
the purpose of the transaction, and the transaction date.

Common source documents include:

o Canceled checks
o Invoices
o Cash register receipts
o Computer-generated receipts
o Credit memo for a customer refund
o Employee time cards
o Deposit slips
o Purchase orders
o Storing Your Documents

1
Adapted and retrieved from https://opentoexport.com/blog/a-guide-to-trade-documentation-financial-documents/

NAME: _______________________________________________
 English Learning Guide
Competency 2
Unit 5: Accounting
Workshop 4
Centro de Servicios Financieros- CSF

The source document's information must be recorded in the appropriate accounting journal as soon as possible
after the transaction. After recording, all source documents should be filed away in some sort of system where
they can be retrieved if and when needed. In certain instances, it may even be important to provide the chain
of custody to be able to determine that the source document in question remained under your control.

Originals vs. Photocopies: In most circumstances, photocopies of source documents are legally acceptable. The
Internal Revenue Service (IRS), for example, has accepted photocopies of receipts since 1997, so long as they
are legible, contain all the information present in the original, and, within the limits of the scanning process,
present that information in a format identical to the original.

A materials receipt that specified the objects purchased and the price paid, but that was scanned without the
name of the supplier would not qualify. A document that presented all the information in the original receipt,
but that had been retyped in Word or Excel format would also not qualify.

The IRS standard of complete, legible, and accurate reproductions of the original documents is also used by
many businesses and government agencies. Other institutions,
however, may add to these general requirements.

The University of Washington, for instance, only accepts, as

substitutes for the original document, photocopies scanned at a
minimum density of 300 dots per inch (dpi) and presented in either
PDF or TIFF formats; it does not accept JPEG photocopies.

If you plan to scan accounting or legal documents to facilitate

storage, check with the relevant institution to be sure they will accept the documents in the format you're
planning to use.

Work in groups and answer the following questions:

- What is the article about?

- What is the concept of source documents?
- What are the documents used for?
- According to The Internal Revenue Service, what are the requirements to accept photocopies of source
documents?
- Is it possible to scan accounting documents? Why?
- List some examples of source documents that are mentioned in the text and you have used before.

NAME: _______________________________________________
 English Learning Guide
Competency 2
Unit 5: Accounting
Workshop 4
Centro de Servicios Financieros- CSF

3.3. Speaking practice: Discuss in groups:

Watch the following video about the task controllers have and prepare an oral presentation taking into
account the following questions. Follow the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHGKl6olQ6c&t=7s

- Who is the controller in the accounting process?

- What does a controller do?
- What are the qualifications a controller must hold?
- What personal values a controller must have?
- Share your answers with the group.

3.4. Writing practice

• Create an infographic about a job position advertising for an accountant, as shown in the example:

NAME: _______________________________________________