Reporting season 2027: a schedule for the English version

The 2027 deadlines at a glance

The table applies the statutory deadlines to a financial year that matches the calendar year. If your financial year ends on another date, the dates move accordingly.

In the Prime Standard, the English annual financial report is due at the stock exchange on the same day as the German one: no later than four months after the end of the financial year. That is Section 51(2) of the Exchange Rules of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (BörsO FWB). Quarterly statements are themselves a Prime Standard requirement; outside the Prime Standard, the Exchange Rules require neither them nor the English versions.

The statutory filing under the German Commercial Code is in German (Section 325(1) HGB) and uses the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF): the report as an XHTML file, with IFRS consolidated financial statements also marked up in machine-readable tags (Section 328(1) HGB, ESMA).

Annual General Meeting: what has to be available once it is convened

Listed companies have to make the following available on their website as soon as possible after convening the meeting (Section 124a AktG, Section 175(2) AktG):

• the notice convening the meeting, with the agenda

• the documents for the meeting, including the annual financial statements, the management report, the report of the Supervisory Board and the proposal for the appropriation of profits; for parent companies also the consolidated financial statements and group management report

• the documents on the remuneration system or the remuneration report, if the meeting votes on them

• the total number of shares and voting rights and, where applicable, the forms for casting votes

The Exchange Rules do not require these documents in English. In the Prime Standard, however, the financial calendar that gives the date of the meeting has to be published in German and English.

Sustainability reporting: status in October 2026

Not everything has been decided for reports on 2026. This is the status as set out, with all sources, on our page Sustainability report translation:

• EU. Amending Directive (EU) 2026/470 has been in force since 18 March 2026. It limits the obligation to companies with an average of more than 1,000 employees and net turnover of more than EUR 450 million. Member states have until 19 March 2027 to transpose it (European Parliament).

• Germany. The act transposing the CSRD has not been passed (Bundestag). Until it enters into force, the German Commercial Code still contains the rules on the non-financial statement (Section 289b HGB).

• Standards. The European Commission adopted revised ESRS on 3 July 2026 (C(2026) 5010). Unless Parliament or Council object, they enter into force on 10 November 2026 and apply to financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2027. For financial years beginning in 2026, companies may already use them and then state which version they apply.

• German terminology. For the German version of the revised ESRS, DRSC and AFRAC sent the Commission a reviewed list of German technical terms on 26 June 2026.

For the English version, that means one job comes before the first sentence is translated: record which framework and which version the report follows, and what the section is called in German, Nachhaltigkeitserklärung or Nachhaltigkeitsbericht. The terminology depends on it, and in English the terms come from the ESRS original. Our guide to translating a CSRD sustainability statement explains how.

Checklist: preparing the English version

The steps below are not in any law. They follow from the way a report gets made. When each one falls due depends on your editorial and typesetting schedule. Work backwards from the publication date.

Before work on the report starts

1. Agree the scope. Which documents need an English version: annual financial report, sustainability statement, remuneration report, AGM invitation, quarterly statements, press releases, presentations? And which parts are translated and which are adapted, such as the letter to shareholders or a magazine section?

2. Put the English version into the schedule. As its own column in the editorial and typesetting plan: handover, queries, approval and layout corrections for each chapter.

3. Settle terminology. Go through last year’s report and your termbase and agree new terms: new segments, KPIs, programs, changed names. And decide who in your company approves terms.

4. Settle style. British or American English, number and date formats, the English names of your Management Board and Supervisory Board. Whatever is in the style guide is one question nobody has to ask.

5. Share the material. Last year’s report in German and English, style guide, glossary, current presentations, contacts in finance, legal and sustainability.

While the report is being written

1. Hand over chapters in batches. As soon as each chapter is approved, not once the whole report is done. Narrative sections are often final before the figures are.

2. Mark your changes. Track changes or a version comparison. That way only what has changed gets reworked, and nothing slips through.

3. Agree review rounds. Who checks the English version for content, by when and in what form? Collect queries and answer them together, not one at a time.

4. Check the figures. After every change to the numbers, compare the tables and text of the English version with the German original.

Before publication

1. Read it in layout. Check the English version as typeset: line breaks, hyphenation, tables, page references, charts with text.

2. Sort out the files. Who produces the English version for the website and the stock exchange, and when does the text have to be final for that? If there is an English ESEF file too, the same question applies.

3. Watch the deadline. In the Prime Standard, the deadline applies to both language versions. The English one gets no extra time.

After publication

1. Carry the terminology forward. What was agreed for the annual report still applies: in the quarterly statement, in the AGM invitation and remuneration report, in the half-year financial report.

2. Take five minutes to look back. What went wrong? A paragraph is enough, and next year’s plan will be better for it.

How we work during this phase is described under Annual report translation. Our German-English annual report translation guide covers terminology and the questions to ask a translation provider, and the glossary explains terms such as annual financial statements, management report and quarterly statement.

Last updated: October 2026