 What is a business process modeling notation? BPMN. Well, it's a graphical notation used to do what? To represent business processes, basically to draw those processes, but the drawing is in a standardized way, basically the same way. It's a common language and notation for describing the steps involved in this business process. So we could have company A and company B. They could have two different processes, but they're both using the same symbols, the same language, and drawing, and showing, and representing their business processes and the flow of information decision between those steps. And this system, the business process modeling notation, is used in business process management, and that's a topic you need to be familiar with on the CPA exam and workflow automation. It helped businesses understand, document, and improve their processes. Why? Because you are showing those processes in a visual representation, an easy way to see, to look easily understood by both technical and non-technical. And it's not only that, the language is the same. So as long as the individual understand the symbols, they'll be able to be able to read the processes, make sense of them and look for improvement. Obviously, we would look at an example using those symbols to illustrate the points. Before we proceed any further, I have a public announcement about my company, farhatlectures.com. Farhat Accounting Lectures is a supplemental educational tool that's going to help you with your CPA exam preparation, as well as your accounting courses. My CPA material is aligned with your CPA review course, such as Becker, Roger, Wiley, Gleam, Miles. My accounting courses are aligned with your accounting courses, broken down by chapter and topics. My resources consist of lectures, multiple choice questions, true-false questions, as well as exercises. Go ahead, start your free trial today, no obligation, no credit card required. As I mentioned, we use symbols and shapes. Well, and those are standard symbols and shapes that represent different elements of a business process. They include tasks, events, gateways, and flows. And this is a sample of them. This is what a task or activities look like. The diamond is a gateway and an event would look like a circle. Sometimes the circle will have a border that's bolded in black. It depends where we are in that process. These elements are connected by arrows. So you'll have arrows connecting those elements to show the sequence of activities and decision points in the process. The BPMN also include sets of rules. You don't only have the symbols, how you use those symbols, you'll have to follow a certain rule. That's why it's a standardized way, which ensure that the diagram are consistent and easy to read and easily understood by people who understand those symbols. So those rules will cover things like placement of the symbol where a symbol is placed. The use of colors could mean certain things, labels, and the meaning of different symbols. Now the best way to kind of give you an idea is to actually look at an actual example. And we'll look at an example for a payment process. For example, we're looking at the process and it starts with an event and the event is represented by a symbol that's a circle. Well, then we're going to go follow this by an arrow and we're going to have a task. What's the task to identify the payment method that the customer is presenting to us? Notice it's a rectangular with a rounded corner. So this is the step. This is where the customer selects the payment type. Then the next step is a diamond. Now the customer will have the option. The diamond means you have option in your payment method. Are you going to pay me cash or check or are you going to use your credit card? Then if you accept, if you want to pay in cash, you proceed, we'll accept the cash and we will deliver the product or we will process your credit card if you chase that option and we will prepare your product for delivery. Then after we deliver your product, we end the process. So notice the circle that has a solid black border is the end process. So this is a simple example, but our job is not to learn the business process modeling notation. All what we need to know, it's used by businesses that for sure we need to know this and you need to know it's what it is. It's a common language. It's a common language to do what? To draw business processes. When is it used for our purposes in the business process management, which is a topic you need to be familiar with for the CPA exam? Go to Farhat Lectures, look at additional resources that's going to help you understand this topic better. Good luck, study hard, and of course, stay safe.