Translate a business plan into English

What changes when a business plan moves into English

Coming from French or other Romance languages, English text usually runs 10 to 15 % shorter, so summary tables, chart labels and forecast cells tend to gain room rather than overflow. The real work lies in the conventions.

• Figures. Many European languages write 1.250.000,50 € or 1 250 000,50 €; in English it is €1,250,000.50, with commas for thousands, a point for decimals and the symbol first. Abbreviations change too: 150 k€ becomes €150k, 2,4 M€ becomes €2.4m in British usage or €2.4M in American usage, and a billion is €1bn.
• Dates. 03/04/2026 is 3 April in the UK and 4 March in the US. In a funding timeline or repayment schedule, spelling out the month (3 April 2026) removes the risk.
• Financial year. A year label becomes FY2026; the UK says financial year, the US fiscal year.
• Tax mentions. Net and gross of VAT become excl. VAT and incl. VAT; American readers, used to sales tax, may need the term spelled out.
• Plurals. English has two forms (one, other), and zero takes the plural: 0 employees, 1 employee, 12 employees. Languages such as French put zero in the singular, so headcount tables are worth a glance.

Forecast vocabulary: false friends and terms with no direct match

This is where a business plan differs from an ordinary commercial document. National accounting systems produce notions that do not map neatly onto English:

• Sales figure (French chiffre d’affaires, German Umsatz, Spanish facturación): turnover in the UK, revenue in the US, where turnover first suggests staff leaving.
• Income statement: profit and loss account in British usage; operating profit in the UK, operating income in the US.
• Local performance measures: the French EBE is close to EBITDA but not identical. If readers will benchmark you against other companies, a short note on how the figure is calculated prevents confusion.
• Working capital: the French BFR becomes working capital requirement; capacité d’autofinancement has no standard equivalent and is rendered by a short explanation.
• Local institutions and legal forms: a public lender’s name such as Bpifrance stays as it is; a legal form like SAS or GmbH is kept, possibly followed by a gloss such as simplified joint-stock company.

Métis knows these notions, but an in-house term or internal acronym may be handled differently from what you expect: check it on the free sample, then on the delivered translation.

What Manuce delivers, and what it does not do

Your business plan goes to Métis, the finance-specialised engine. For a plan of around 7,000 words (25 pages), the translation is delivered within minutes and stays available in your client area.

• Accepted formats: Word, PDF, PowerPoint, Excel, plain text, Markdown, HTML, RTF and CSV. The file comes back in its original format, layout included: a Word plan stays a Word document with its tables, an Excel forecast stays a workbook, a PowerPoint summary stays a presentation.
• Instant quote on upload, based on the exact word count, plus one paragraph translated free at the level you choose before you pay. For a document going to investors, the Professional level, handled by the domain specialist, is the one intended for text ready to send.

What Manuce does not do:

• It cannot read scanned PDFs (images with no selectable text). A plan that was printed and scanned needs to be uploaded from the original file.
• It does not produce certified (sworn) translations. If a bank, authority or immigration service requires a translation certified by a sworn translator, you will need that professional.
• It does not take glossaries or terminology instructions: vocabulary choices are checked on the sample and on the delivered document.

Preparing the file and checking the English version

Before uploading:

• Send the editable source file rather than an exported PDF; forecast tables come through more faithfully.
• If your financial forecast sits in a separate Excel workbook, upload it as well: it comes back as Excel, so you do not have to retype figures.
• Check that text and tables agree: a revenue figure of 1.2m in the executive summary and 1,180k in the P&L will still disagree in English.
• If you want amounts shown in pounds or dollars, convert them yourself in the source file and state the rate and its date.

After delivery:

1. Compare key figures digit by digit (funding requirement, three-year revenue, break-even point): a misplaced separator turns 1.250 into one thousand or into one and a quarter, depending on the reader.
2. In the workbook, check that totals and formulas still return the same results.
3. Reread the dates in your timeline and the year labels (FY2026, FY2027).
4. Check the variety of English: organisation or organization, turnover or revenue. Mixing both in one plan is quickly noticed by a native reader.
5. Check proper names, brands and acronyms that must stay unchanged.

In practice

1. Upload the business plan (Word, Excel, PowerPoint or a PDF with selectable text): the quote appears based on the exact word count.
2. Choose a level and read the free sample: check one accounting term, one amount and one date.
3. Pay and receive the English version within minutes, in the same format.
4. Check key figures, totals, dates and consistent spelling before sending the plan out.