Why is the translation of the financial statements so important? And how can it be done? Who should you contact?
Companies that intend to expand their business abroad will have noticed that bodies or authorities in the destination country routinely require certified and official translations of a series of legal and non-legal documents.
Doing business abroad can be the right opportunity to gain more visibility at an international level. It means expanding your boundaries and abandoning yourself to another culture, another language, another target audience. Get in touch with customers, suppliers, investors and local representatives. It’s a good challenge, for sure. But let’s remember that the destination country, not being your own, must be known, understood and analysed. From a predominantly legal and juridical point of view, your business will have to undergo some necessary steps before making its entry.
There are several ways to enter the foreign and international market. Most companies prefer to physically move part of the production or management to foreign territory, so as to facilitate communications, organization and distribution. But regardless, whether you want to open a branch, a branch or rely on a representative office, at least you will be asked for the translation into English of the consolidated financial statements, consisting of the balance sheet, income statement and explanatory notes.
The certified translation of the financial statements
The translation of the financial statements cannot strictly be done by a self-taught person or by an acquaintance who speaks the language of your market of interest. Since it is an official document issued by a public authority, it must be treated as such. It must retain its original value in the translation, under penalty of risk of incurring civil or criminal sanctions.
Globalization has led to the need to simplify translations and presentation of the same for economic-commercial purposes through the standard principles IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) – until 2001 IAS – and IABS (International Accounting Standards Board). Nonetheless, relying only on this criterion of “uniformity” is not sufficient, if not harmful. Each budget, although subject to standardization and regulation, must be examined individually, due to the rules and regulations established by each country.
How to make an official certified translation
Given the numerous discrepancies and differences between the criteria for drafting the financial statements, the act of translation goes beyond the mere transposition of linguistic terms, but makes use of the text localization phase. Each item and each graphic element will respond in translation to the linguistic system of the country of reference. Just think how much the date format can change from Italian to American, or how different the acronyms and acronyms expressed in different languages are. The localization in this case will be linguistic, textual, semantic, graphic, and must reflect in content and structure what is required by the recipient country.
In the case of certified translation of financial statements, relying on an expert translator in the legal-commercial field is not only recommended, but almost mandatory. The translation of the financial statements is a very serious activity, which requires great professionalism and competence. LingoYou not only has a large pool of native speaker translators and interpreters, but great professionals specializing in their own language and sector, with years of training and experience behind them.
LingoYou Press Office
