Translate an Annual Report into Simplified Chinese

What changes when an annual report goes into Chinese

Simplified Chinese is written in hanzi, with no spaces between words and full-width punctuation (，。：；). The text uses two to three times fewer characters than English or French, but each character is wider, so the space taken on the page changes little. Points specific to annual reports:

• Large numbers. Chinese counts in ten-thousands (万) and hundred-millions (亿). “USD 150 million” is commonly written 1.5亿美元. Check converted figures in running text; in tables, Arabic numerals with a unit header (thousands, millions) remain standard.
• Dates and financial years. 31 December 2024 becomes 2024年12月31日; “FY2024” is 2024年度 or 2024财年.
• No plurals. Chinese has a single plural category (“other”): “1 subsidiary / 12 subsidiaries” uses the same word with a measure word (12家子公司).
• No italics. Chinese typography rarely uses them; titles of reports or publications go in 《》, quotations in “”.

Financial statements, tables and charts

An annual report is as much tables as prose. Statement headings are short and standardised: balance sheet 资产负债表, income statement 利润表, cash flow statement 现金流量表, equity 所有者权益 or 股东权益 depending on convention. These usually fit narrow columns, but a long note heading may wrap: Chinese lines do not break at spaces, because there are none.

• Negative figures in brackets, thousands separators and note references (“Note 14” → 附注14) must stay aligned: check a few lines of each statement.
• Chart labels in PowerPoint or Word are translated when they are live text; a chart pasted as an image keeps its original labels.
• Latin fonts do not contain Chinese characters. If your brand guidelines specify a Western typeface, how the translation displays will depend on the fonts installed on the reader's machine. Plan a Chinese font for final formatting.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

Your file is translated by Métis, the finance-specialised engine, and returned in its original format: Word, PDF, PowerPoint, Excel, plain text, Markdown, HTML, RTF or CSV. For a report of around 15,000 words (about 60 pages), the price is based on the exact word count, with the ×1.6 coefficient that applies to Chinese. A typical document is delivered within minutes and kept in your client area.

• Simplified Chinese only on this page. It serves mainland China and Singapore. For Taiwan or Hong Kong, Traditional Chinese is a separate language to select.
• Scanned PDFs are not read. An image-only PDF with no selectable text cannot be processed: use the source file or an exported PDF.
• No certified translation. If a regulator, stock exchange or authority requires a translation certified by a sworn translator, Manuce does not provide it.
• Manuce does not take glossaries or terminology instructions: quality is checked through the free sample and then the delivered file.

Company names, accounting standards and acronyms

Annual reports are full of names that may or may not have an established Chinese form. Accounting standards have fixed names (IFRS → 国际财务报告准则), but your group may have a registered official Chinese name that differs from a phonetic rendering. In-house acronyms such as adjusted EBITDA, ROCE or segment names may be kept in Latin letters or translated, depending on what Chinese readers expect.

Pick a paragraph containing these elements for your free sample: the chairman's statement or the accounting policies note works well. You will see how the company name, subsidiaries and KPIs are rendered before ordering the full report.

Preparing the file and checking the result

1. Start from the most editable file. The Word or PowerPoint layout file gives better results than a printed PDF; statements in Excel keep their cells and formulas.
2. Replace images of text. A table pasted as a picture will not be translated: paste it back as a table or cells.
3. Cross-check figures in the narrative. Compare three or four amounts quoted in the management report with the tables, especially those expressed in 万 or 亿.
4. Check punctuation and dates: full-width commas ，, full stops 。, dates in 年月日 order.
5. Have a Chinese-speaking finance reader review the report before publication, particularly investor-facing statements.

In practice

1. Export the annual report as Word, PowerPoint, Excel or a PDF with selectable text.
2. Upload the file and select Simplified Chinese: the quote appears immediately.
3. Read the free sample on a paragraph rich in names and figures.
4. Pay, then download the translated report in its original format.
5. Check amounts, fonts and punctuation before release.