Annual report translation. Year-end closing in four languages, on a fixed date

The annual accounts, the notes, the audit report and the annual report itself are published on a fixed date, in several languages. Corrext keeps the files in their format, with the accounting vocabulary of the Code of Obligations (CO).

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Each term, in the official text

Highlight an accounting term: CHnell shows its German version in the same official text, with its source.

comptes annuelsFrenchGerman1000+ results

Les comptes sont présentés dans le rapport de gestion. Ce dernier contient les comptes annuels individuels (comptes annuels) qui se composent du bilan, du compte de résultat et de l’annexe.

Die Rechnungslegung erfolgt im Geschäftsbericht. Dieser enthält die Jahresrechnung (Einzelabschluss), die sich aus der Bilanz, der Erfolgsrechnung und dem Anhang zusammensetzt.

SR-220 OR-CO-CO-CO - Source: fedlex.admin.ch - Data Set: Neur.on

Le rapport annuel, les comptes consolidés et les comptes annuels ainsi que le rapport de révision sont déposés au siège de la société afin que les associés puissent les consulter; ce dépôt se fait dix jours au plus tard avant la tenue de l’assemblée générale chargée d’approuver le rapport annuel, les comptes consolidés et les comptes annuels ou avant le vote par correspondance qui en tient lieu.

Spätestens zehn Tage vor der Generalversammlung oder der Urabstimmung, die über die Genehmigung des Lageberichts, der Konzernrechnung und der Jahresrechnung zu entscheiden hat, sind diese mit dem Revisionsbericht zur Einsicht der Genossenschafter am Sitz der Genossenschaft aufzulegen

SR-220 OR-CO-CO-CO - Source: fedlex.admin.ch - Data Set: Neur.on

Art. 29 Comptes annuels Les comptes annuels de la Banque nationale, composés du compte de résultat, du bilan et de l'annexe, sont dressés conformément au droit de la société anonyme et aux principes généralement admis en matière d'établissement des comptes.

Art. 29 Jahresrechnung Die Jahresrechnung der Nationalbank, bestehend aus der Erfolgsrechnung, der Bilanz und dem Anhang, wird nach den Vorschriften des Aktienrechts sowie nach allgemein anerkannten Grundsätzen der Rechnungslegung erstellt.

EFV FF20036205 Bundesgesetz-über-die-Schweizerische-Nationalbank-Nationalbankgesetz-NBG - Source: fedlex.admin.ch - Data Set: Neur.on

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Accounting vocabulary in four languages

Accounting items are named by Title 32 of the Code of Obligations, in its three official versions. These are the labels that the external auditor and the tax authorities find from one financial year to the next. The English column uses the translation published by the Confederation on Fedlex where there is one, which has no legal force, and common usage otherwise.

German	French	Italian	English	Reference
Geschäftsbericht	rapport de gestion	relazione sulla gestione	annual report	art. 958 CO
Jahresrechnung	comptes annuels	conto annuale	annual accounts	art. 958 CO
Bilanz	bilan	bilancio	balance sheet	art. 959 CO
Erfolgsrechnung	compte de résultat	conto economico	profit and loss account	art. 959b CO
Anhang	annexe	allegato	notes to the accounts	art. 959c CO
Konzernrechnung	comptes consolidés	conto di gruppo	consolidated accounts	art. 963 CO
ordentliche Revision	contrôle ordinaire	revisione ordinaria	ordinary audit	art. 727 CO
eingeschränkte Revision	contrôle restreint	revisione limitata	limited audit	art. 727a CO

Equivalents taken from official Swiss texts, published in German, French and Italian. In Corrext, each term opens in context in Fast lookup CHnell, with its source.

The acts an annual report cites every day

Swiss accounting law sits in the Code of Obligations, which sets the minimum structure of the accounts and the audit thresholds. Listed companies and collective investment schemes add their own disclosure obligations.

Code of Obligations (CO)

DEORFR · ITCO

Its Title 32 governs commercial accounting, the presentation of accounts and consolidation

FinSA

Federal Act on Financial Services

DEFIDLEG

It requires the prospectus and the information to be published for a public offer

CISA

Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes

DEKAGFRLPCC

It defines the periodic reports that funds must publish

DFTA

Federal Act on Direct Federal Taxation

DEDBGFR · ITLIFD

It makes the annual accounts the starting point for taxable profit

Translating an annual report, in practice

Translating a Swiss annual report means handling two things at once: a freely drafted management commentary, and financial statements in which every item has a name set by the accounting law of the Code of Obligations. The balance sheet, the profit and loss account and the notes have official labels in German, French and Italian, and publication binds the company.

Closing documents

Annual report
The narrative part is machine-translated first, then goes through a Full review: it is the most widely read and quoted document outside the company.
Annual accounts
The balance sheet, the profit and loss account and the notes use the labels of the Code of Obligations. Those are the labels that must appear, not their everyday equivalents.
Audit report
The external auditor's report follows very stable wording. The translation memory carries it over from one closing to the next.
Notes to the accounts
The notes cite rules and methods. A Light review is enough for an internal document, a Full review for publication.

What Corrext brings to this area

Excel tables

Files in .xls and .xlsx format are supported in the same way as Word and PowerPoint, with the table structure preserved. Up to 25 files of 50 MB per upload.

Consolidated accounts

Consolidated accounts add their own vocabulary. The concordancer lets you check each item in context, with its source.

Closing calendar

The review delivery time is shown before you approve the quote, so you can choose between review levels against a fixed date.

Before publication

An unpublished report is sensitive information. Highly sensitive content mode keeps storage and processing in Switzerland only.

Three constraints of the closing season

Company

A report to publish on a fixed date

The publication date does not move, unlike the text, which circulates until the last minute. Successive versions build on the translation memory, and only the changed passages go back for human review.

Fiduciary firm

Closing after closing, each one different

Each client has its own labels and its own notes to the accounts. CHnell's terminology resources can be specific to each client file, so the conventions of one company do not spill over into another.

Auditor

An audit report with stable wording

The wording varies little from one year to the next and from one client to another. The translation memory reuses it as it is, and review focuses on the passages that are actually new.

Frequently asked questions on translating financial statements

Are Excel tables translated without breaking the structure?

Yes. Excel files (.xls and .xlsx) are supported like other office formats and come back in their original format, with the table structure preserved. For a complex file, upload the native format rather than a PDF export.

Which accounting labels should I use?

Those of Title 32 of the Code of Obligations, which names the balance sheet, the profit and loss account and the notes in the three official languages. Market usage exists, but a published report is better served by the statutory vocabulary, which the concordancer shows with its source.

Is a report that is not yet published protected?

Storage is on Swiss servers in every case. For a report under embargo, Highly sensitive content mode also requires processing in Switzerland only, with no reuse of the content in a translation memory. Before anything is sent, engines hosted abroad display the Attorney-Client privilege notice, which reminds users of your organisation's policy.

Does everything need human review?

Rarely. The management commentary, which will be read and quoted, justifies a Full review. Highly standardised notes to the accounts can make do with a Light review. Even an Internal review by your teams may be enough: the project workflow estimates its time from the number of pages detected.

How do I save time from one closing to the next?

Reuse the translation memory built from projects in Standard confidentiality: unchanged passages are not retranslated, and the work focuses on what is new in the financial year. The memory stays reusable only by your organisation. The external auditor's report, which is very stable, benefits in particular.

In which languages can I publish?

German, French, Italian and English are native in every pair, which covers the needs of a Swiss report. The platform supports 30 languages in total for publications aimed at foreign investors. You choose the languages document by document in the project workflow.