Translate an annual report into English

What changes when an annual report moves into English

An annual report combines three registers: the narrative (chair's statement, strategy, highlights), sustainability reporting and the financial statements. English-speaking readers, whether investors, lenders or overseas shareholders, know the conventions of each.

• Accounting vocabulary: the local term for sales becomes revenue (or turnover in British usage); bottom-line profit is net profit in the UK and net income in the US; shareholders' funds are equity; the reporting period is a financial year (UK) or fiscal year (US).
• Section headings: Chairman's statement or Letter to shareholders, Highlights, Strategic report, depending on the audience.
• Non-GAAP measures: local indicators are often rendered as EBITDA or adjusted operating profit, even when definitions differ slightly; the note defining the measure must follow.
• Plurals: English has only two forms (one, other), and decimals and zero take the plural: 1.5 tonnes, zero accidents.
• Length: English usually runs shorter than French and other Romance languages, often by 10 to 15%, so columns and boxes tend to gain white space rather than overflow.

Figures, currencies and dates: the English-specific traps

In an annual report, a wrong number format does more damage than an awkward sentence. Check the following:

• Separators: if your source uses a decimal comma (French, German, Spanish, Italian…), 1.234,5 or 1 234,5 must become 1,234.5.
• Milliard: milliard, Milliarde or mil millones is a billion in English. The French or German billion means a thousand times more: never carry it over.
• Currency shorthand: €1.2bn, €350m, with the symbol before the figure.
• Percentages and points: 12% with no space; a margin gain of three points is up 3 percentage points, not up 3%.
• Dates: 31 December 2024 in British English, December 31, 2024 in American English; 12/31/2024 is US-only. Pick one variety and keep its spelling throughout (organisation or organization, labour or labor).
• Negative amounts: English-language statements often show them in brackets, (1,250); whichever convention your source uses, keep it consistent.

Writing the narrative the way English reports do

Many source languages favour noun-heavy phrasing and the passive voice in corporate reporting. Financial English prefers direct verbs and shorter sentences:

• The Group proceeded to the acquisition of X reads better as The Group acquired X.
• An increase of 8% in revenue was recorded becomes Revenue rose by 8%.
• In respect of the financial year 2024 becomes In 2024 or For FY2024.

Typography shifts too: British reports usually capitalise the Group and the Board, and use sentence case for headings (Strategic report, not Strategic Report). Subsidiary, brand and programme names generally stay as they are: check them in the free sample and again in the full translation.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not

Your report is handled by Métis, Manuce's finance-specialised engine. Accepted formats: Word, PDF, PowerPoint, Excel, plain text, Markdown, HTML, RTF and CSV. The file comes back in its original format with the layout intact: a Word report stays a Word document, an Excel appendix stays a workbook.

For a report of around 15,000 words (roughly 60 pages), the quote appears as soon as you upload, based on the exact word count; English is charged at the base rate (×1 coefficient). One paragraph of your own file is translated free at your chosen level before you pay, and the translated file stays available in your client area.

What Manuce does not do:

• No sworn or certified translation: if a regulator or bank requires a translation certified by a sworn translator, you will need one.
• No scanned PDFs: a scanned page with no selectable text is not read.
• No client glossaries: Manuce does not take glossaries, translation memories or terminology instructions. For an in-house term that must stay unchanged, check the free sample and then the translation.

Preparing the file and checking the English version

Before uploading:

• Send the source file (Word, PowerPoint) rather than an exported PDF where you can; if you only have the PDF, make sure the text can be selected.
• Look for charts and tables pasted as images: without selectable text, labels such as revenue by region may stay in the source language.
• Decide whether your readers expect British or American English.

For the free sample, pick a paragraph full of figures: it shows terminology, number format and spelling variety at once.

After delivery:

• Compare table totals with the source, figure by figure for the key aggregates.
• Check cross-references: see Note 12 must still point to the right note.
• Review the contents page and page numbers, which can move as the text gets shorter.
• Read the chair's statement aloud: it is the part English-speaking shareholders read first.

In practice

1. Upload the annual report (Word, PDF with selectable text, PowerPoint…): the quote appears based on the exact word count.
2. Choose a level and read the free sample, ideally a paragraph with figures.
3. Pay, then download the English report in its original format from your client area.
4. Check tables, note references, contents page and chart labels before publishing.