“Can you close that for me and launch the sales tracking report again?”

English Lesson: Can you close that for me and launch the sales tracking report again?

You're training a new employee at your company. You're showing him how to use one of the company's software applications. You've finished explaining one part of the application, so you ask him to move back to another part that you were showing him before.

Can you close that for me and launch the sales tracking report again?

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Can you (do something) for me?

This is a way of asking someone to help you:

Hey, can you get that for me?

Use it with people in your family, your close friends, and people who you have authority over like your employees or students.

With people you're not as close with, you can ask "Would you mind ___ing for me?":

Excuse me. Would you mind watching over my stuff for me for just a minute?

launch (a computer program)

"Launching" a computer program means starting it up. For example:

I tried launching Internet Explorer, but it crashed.

English speakers especially use the word "launch" for programs that start up slowly. The word "open" can be used for any program, whether it's fast or slow to start:

Open Excle, and then choose "File" and then "Create from Template".

the (something) report

In business, people create standard reports (documents with useful information) and give them names such as:

  • customer retention report
    (a report about how many customers stay and how many leave)
  • production tracking report
    (a report that keeps track of a production process)
  • spoilage report
    (a report that shows how much of a product or material is being wasted)

The specific names of each report will depend on the company and industry. However, they usally follow the pattern of:

(topic) (detail) report

The topic is something like "sales", "customer", "materials", "profit", "traffic", etc. The detail can include a variety of different things, but it usually takes the form of a noun like "tracking" (showing the current progress) or "billing".