Translate a business plan in Word into English

What changes when a business plan goes into English

An English-speaking investor, lender or partner reads a business plan looking for financial terms they recognise at a glance. Literal translation from the source language rarely gives them that. From French, for example:

• Chiffre d’affaires becomes revenue, or turnover in British usage.
• EBE is close to EBITDA but not strictly identical, which an attentive reader may question.
• BFR becomes working capital requirement; German Eigenkapital or Spanish patrimonio neto becomes equity.
• Legal forms such as SAS, GmbH or S.L. usually stay in the original, sometimes with a short gloss.

The register shifts too. English business writing favours short sentences, the active voice and ‘we’: We expect to break even in year two rather than a nominal construction such as ‘Achievement of break-even is planned for the second year’. Coming from French, English text is typically 10 to 15% shorter.

Figures, dates and plurals: where the tables go wrong

Forecast tables are where small slips cost the most credibility. Many continental languages use the opposite separators and place the currency symbol after the amount:

• 1 250 000 € or 1.250.000 € becomes €1,250,000, or €1.25m in British text.
• 12,5 % becomes 12.5%, with no space.
• k€ and M€ become €k / €000 and €m.
• The accounting year is a financial year in the UK and a fiscal year in the US.

30/06/2025 reads correctly in Britain but a US reader expects 06/30/2025; writing 30 June 2025 removes the ambiguity. Decide on British or American English according to your reader, as it also affects spelling: organisation / organization, programme / program.

English has only two plural forms (one, other), but zero takes the plural: 0 employees, never 0 employee, even where the source language uses the singular.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not do

Your plan is handled by Métis, the engine specialised in finance. It translates:

• body paragraphs (executive summary, market analysis, strategy);
• tables: projected profit and loss, funding plan, assumptions. A merged cell, such as a ‘Year 1’ label spanning four quarters, is translated and charged only once;
• headers and footers, such as a ‘Confidential’ notice;
• text boxes.

The .docx is rebuilt text run by text run: fonts, sizes, colours, bold and italics, styles, numbering and table widths stay exactly as in the original. An automatic check compares the layout of the translated document with the original and flags any difference. You receive the file in its original format, plus a Word version, a PDF and the plain text.

What Manuce does not do: it does not recalculate your table of contents. Automatic fields (contents, cross-references) keep working, and updating the fields in Word after translation recalculates the page numbers. Manuce does not produce sworn or certified translations either: if an authority requires one signed by an accredited translator, you will need to use one.

Preparing the file and checking the result

Before uploading:

• Accept or reject tracked changes and delete comments, so you send the final version of the plan.
• Look for charts pasted as images (revenue curve, organisation chart). Text inside an image is not Word text and is not among the elements listed above, so rebuild those in Word or plan to replace them.
• Make sure your tables are real Word tables, not screenshots from a spreadsheet.

Use the free sample to see how your company name, product name or in-house acronyms are handled. After delivery:

• update the fields to refresh the table of contents;
• cross-check three or four key figures between text and tables (funding requirement, year-3 revenue);
• read the executive summary in full: it is often the only page an investor reads closely.

Because the English text is shorter, some cells and pages will look more spacious. That is expected, but check page breaks before a section heading.

In practice

1. Finalise the .docx: tracked changes resolved, comments removed.
2. Upload the file and choose English: the quote is based on the exact word count.
3. Review the free sample, especially financial terms and proper names.
4. Pay, then download the translated Word file, the PDF and the plain text.
5. Update the fields in Word and cross-check the key figures.