Multi-Language Document Generation

A business operating across language boundaries faces a document challenge. The invoice sent to a German customer should have German field labels. The delivery note going to a French recipient should read in French. The contract generated for a Czech-speaking customer should use the correct date format and terminology.

These aren't just cosmetic concerns — in many jurisdictions, commercial documents must be in the language of the transaction, and professional presentation in the customer's language builds trust.

Multi-language document generation handles this automatically.

Language Follows the Recipient

Each customer or contact record can have a language preference stored. When a document is generated from a record — an invoice, a contract, a delivery note — the platform uses the language preference of the associated customer to determine the document language.

The selection is automatic. The person generating the invoice doesn't need to remember which language this customer prefers or manually select a language at generation time. The setting on the customer record makes the decision.

What Gets Translated

Document translations cover:

• Field labels — "Invoice Number," "Due Date," "Payment Terms" in the appropriate language
• Section headers — "Bill To," "Ship To," "Payment Information"
• Standard phrases — "Thank you for your business," "Payment is due within 30 days"
• Date and number formatting — dates in the locale's format, numbers with the correct decimal and thousands separators
• Status labels — "Paid," "Overdue," "Draft" in the document language

The customer's actual data — their name, their address, the product descriptions they ordered — isn't translated, only the structural elements of the document itself.

Template-Level Language Settings

Document templates are configured with translation keys for all their text elements. Rather than hardcoding "Invoice Number:" into the template, the template references a translation key, and the platform substitutes the translated text at generation time.

Adding a new language is a matter of providing the translations for the relevant keys. No template duplication required; the same template generates documents in all supported languages.

Per-Document Override

While automatic language selection covers most cases, there are exceptions. A document can be generated in a specific language regardless of the customer's preference — useful for official copies, for situations where the customer has indicated a preference for a specific language for this transaction, or for testing a new translation.