Michael GREEN Oct 31, 2012:

@ Tony Sorry if my comment above seemed critical - it wasn't meant to be. I agree with your remarks, and merely wanted to flag up the common use of the term in business circles generally. I'm sure you didn't need to be reminded that specialist fields like maths or theology have their own strange terminology, not to say beliefs ... and one might add "translation" to that list! But we are beginning to wander off-topic ...

Tony M Oct 30, 2012:

@ Daryo and Michael * sigh * I was just trying to be diplomatic / kind and suggest why people might be less familiar with this somewhat more restrictive meaning of the term.

Daryo Oct 30, 2012:

@ Tony "Business entertaining" is specific to corporate environment, but not so unusual. To get a taste of real "niche jargon" try maths, or even better theology. Many ordinary sounding words, but definitely not meaning what you would expect, and even more totally strange words.

Michael GREEN Oct 29, 2012:

@ Tony Yes - though I wouldn't consider "business entertaining" to be niche jargon (nice term!) insofar as it is a very common expression among English-speaking or international companies.
Whether at home or in a restaurant, it is still "entertaining".

Michael GREEN Oct 29, 2012:

@ Didier Le peu de contexte donné ne nous permet pas de savoir si le texte est extrait d'un document d'ordre général, ou d'un rapport comptable.
Dans les deux cas, on ne peut pas demander à la traductrice d'entrer dans des considérations du genre "quel plan comptable", car d'une part, il s'agit d'un document de langue anglaise, donc d'un pays où les plans comptables sont nettement différents, et d'autre part, elle n'est surement pas qualifiée pour ce faire.
AMHA, un terme tel que "invitations et réceptions" ou "frais de réception" convient très bien.

Tony M Oct 29, 2012:

@ MG Yes, I think the trouble is, the more basic EN > FR dictionaries only give the elementary meaning of 'to entertain', and 'recevoir' is not always mentioned. In any case, this business meaning is slightly different again, inasmuch as the person doing the entertaining probably isn't going to be entertaining their business guest at home ;-)

Even my big Robert + Collins misses out this more specialized business use of the term; I guess you have to have worked in an EN corporate environment to be familiar with the kind of terms used in this sort of 'niche jargon'.

Didier Fourcot Oct 29, 2012:

Quel plan comptable? Apparemment il s'agit de "caser" ces frais dans une catégorie comptable, selon que c'est pour la France ou la Canada (voir références de Sharon), la réponse peut être différente, sans parler de la Suisse ou autres pays francophones
La catégorie peut aussi influencer le terme choisi "dépense" pour des paiement effectués par la société, "frais" pour des paiements par les salariés ou les invités et remboursés par la société par exemple

Pour la France le compte 6257 "Réceptions" pourrait convenir mais les frais remboursés au personnel sont en 6256 (transport nourriture, logement) et la requalification en "Cadeaux prenant la forme de service" est possible (6234 Cadeaux à la clientèle)

Je ne crois pas à la piste des "divertissements", mais selon les exemples du Lefebvre comptable ça ne change pas grand-chose, une loge à Rolang Garros pour un client est un cadeau à la clientèle ou imputée au compte "Réceptions"

Michael GREEN Oct 29, 2012:

Indeed, Tony There seems to be some misunderstanding about the use of the word "entertaining" in EN - when my sister asked me recently, "Do you entertain very much?", she wasn't suggesting that I amused my friends or neighbours with the odd comedy act - she meant, "Do you have friends round to dinner very often?", and this of course is what is meant by "business entertaining" - inviting clients to lunch or dinner, or taking them to football matches ...

Tony M Oct 29, 2012:

Entertaining In answer to Asker's query, no, in this context, it specifically does NOT mean 'divertissement' — this has been discussed in earlier questions on the same term.

Michael GREEN Oct 29, 2012:

Entertaining Is a catch-all term for spending the company's money on meals and other expenses intended to make customers feel good.
In the days when I was employed by a multinational we called it "Invitations", but that may be because it was short enough to head up a column on an expenses sheet ...