Financial communications · 8 min read
What the translation actually depends on: the embargo, the number of correction rounds, and terminology that holds up across the management report and the sustainability section. With the calendar from November to April.
A bar chart with five phases: terminology in November, settled chapters from December to January, figures in February, revision from February to March, and approval and layout from March to April. From the figures onwards the whole project runs under embargo, and publication marks the end. Project calendar, 2027 reporting season Example for publication in early April Embargo Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr Terminology Settled chapters Figures Revision Approval and layout Publication Two correction rounds are built into the plan How the five phases relate to each other. From the figures onwards the team works under embargo.Most companies award the translation of their annual report in the autumn. Why that is, and which three causes account for most of the lost time in spring, is covered in Why the decision is made in September. This article is about delivery: the calendar, the staffing and the terminology work between the two parts of the report.
The plan below assumes publication in early April and English as the required version. It shifts as a whole if your date is earlier or later. What matters is the order, not the exact dates.
| Period | Phase | Output | Your decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| November | Terminology and translation memory | agreed term list, existing material prepared | settle the contested terms |
| December to January | Settled chapters | foreword, strategy, segments and sustainability section translated | release drafts, even unfinished ones |
| February | Figures | financial statements and notes translated | supply the final figures |
| February to March | Revision and two correction rounds | reviewed full version | set the review window, name one approver |
| March to April | Typesetting, galley proofs, online version | version ready for print and publication | provide the layout and access to it |
Further languages build on the approved English version, usually a week behind. With French and Spanish that is straightforward. For Asian languages, allow more room for typesetting, because line breaks and character widths change the layout. The order of the languages follows your publication plan rather than the word count.
Until publication the content is price-sensitive and sits under embargo. Three things follow for the way the project is organised, and all three are settled before the first document moves.
Named individually: project management, translation, revision, typesetting. Anyone joining later needs their own clearance. That is why the team is sized for the peak in March rather than the average.
One channel, not three. Whether through tolingo connect or a secure transfer folder, what counts is that no version goes out as an attachment to a mailing list.
What gets deleted after publication and what stays in the translation memory for next season is put in writing beforehand, not debated in April.
tolingo is certified to ISO 17100, ISO 18587, ISO 9001 and ISO 27001. For this part, the relevant elements of the information security standard are access rights, the named group and documented retention periods. How that works in practice is set out under quality and certifications. The non-disclosure agreement comes at the start, not between two deliveries.
One correction round covers the return of the comments, the edit, the check on the edit and the new version. For an English report version that usually takes three to five working days. Two rounds are in the plan. The third and fourth almost always come from the same source: comments that contradict each other.
What makes the difference is how the review is organised rather than how thorough it is. Three rules are enough:
A third round can be planned for if you expect it. It only gets expensive when it turns up unannounced in March and pushes the galley proof correction back.
Internally, the management report and the sustainability section are usually written by different departments. Translation is where they first meet, and that is where it becomes obvious that the same thing has two names. The usual candidates are segment names, definitions of performance measures, references to periods, and the naming of sites or legal entities.
With ESRS data points there is a further complication: the English and the local version of the framework are both in circulation. If the management report uses one term and the sustainability section another, analysts read that as two different things. This is not a translation question. It is a decision for the company, and translation only makes it visible.
The process for it is short. Last year's report yields a list of the recurring terms, we mark the twenty to thirty contested ones, and a 45-minute meeting settles them. The result is maintained in terminology management and then governs press releases, presentations and your corporate communications as well.
For notes with a high repetition rate, post-editing to ISO 18587 can be the right treatment; for the foreword and the strategy section, specialist translation is. That choice is made chapter by chapter and it affects the budget, see prices.
Project management, the translators for each language, the reviser and, once typesetting starts, the proofreader. The group is named and documented at the start of the project. It can be widened, but that takes time, because each addition is cleared and logged.
That follows the deletion plan you agree. The usual arrangement is that working files are deleted while the translation memory and the term list stay, because they reduce the effort next year.
Yes, and with a large volume that makes sense. It requires the shared term list and a revision that covers both parts. Without that bracket you get exactly the discrepancies that surface in spring.
Then that part comes out of the shared round and follows separately. What matters is that the term list is already settled by then, otherwise the discussion moves into the tightest phase of the project.
We are holding capacity for the 2027 reporting season. The backward plan, the document types and the booking form are on our annual report translation page. Last year's report is enough for a first assessment.
The team answers questions about the process under contact.