When translating financial documents like balance sheets or cash and flow reports, we always check if we should adjust the numbers as well since there may be differences in how to indicate multi-digit numbers in different countries.
In the course of our work, we’ve developed a short checklist for localizing numbers. Feel free to use it if you’re up to writing some multi-digit numbers according to the Russian tradition.
Use Groups of Three
Just like in Europe and the US, multi-digit numbers are united in groups of three digits.
Pick Spaces instead of Commas
Where there are commas, there must be spaces. It’s that simple.
Pick Commas instead of Periods
Use a comma as a decimal separator. Maybe that’s what is most important to know to localize the numbers right into Russian.
Also please keep in mind that using full numbers instead of abbreviations is way more common - and easier to understand in Russia.
The table below contains some examples for you to look at.
| Source numbers | Russian numbers |
|---|---|
| 1,000.00 | 1 000,00 |
| 10,000.00 | 10 000,00 |
| 100,000.00 | 100 000,00 |
| 1,000,000.00 | 1 000 000,00 |
| 1,000,000,000.00 | 1 000 000 000,00 |
| 100M | 100 000 000 |
| 5K | 5 000 |