Suggest rates for precis-translation Thread poster: achisholm
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achisholm
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:11
Italian to English
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Hello. I've searched the forums but couldn't find anything on this topic. althugh I'm sure its not that rare.
I have been asked by a regular client to prepare English summaries from source files in Italian. This is not a difficult task, but I am unsure what kind of billing strategy to adopt.
Charging them per source word might seem unfair, so I thought that offering them a rate per target word produced by me might be a good solution. This would have the advantage for th... See more Hello. I've searched the forums but couldn't find anything on this topic. althugh I'm sure its not that rare.
I have been asked by a regular client to prepare English summaries from source files in Italian. This is not a difficult task, but I am unsure what kind of billing strategy to adopt.
Charging them per source word might seem unfair, so I thought that offering them a rate per target word produced by me might be a good solution. This would have the advantage for the client, that if my summaries were precise and snappy, they would pay less! Also, since the client is unclear about the level of detail they want in the summaries (and I see this might be a source of future problems) if they were unhappy and thought I was being too economical with the ink and wanted me to expand, they would understand that they would have to pay me more.
Does anyone have a billing strategy for jobs of this kind, and what do you think of my suggestion?
All opionions and contributions warmly received.
Cheers.
Sandy Chisholm ▲ Collapse
| | | | | charge per hour | Dec 12, 2007 |
Hi Sandy. I've done this kind of thing a few times, and I generally charge per hour for my time, since that is the only way to be sure that I'm getting paid fairly. (And it's also fair to the client.)
Good luck.
Yvette
| | | | achisholm
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:11
Italian to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Many thanks Yvette | Dec 12, 2007 |
I had actually thought of this, but my main drawback is that I tend to find calculating hours worked somewhat difficult as I am often working on several things at a time.
Out of interest, how do you calculate your hours worked on a job? Do you basically just sit down and work, noting the time when you start and finish then subtract any long pauses etc. Or do you have a more sophisticated method, perhaps using Word or some other software, such as Office journal, to keep a track of th... See more I had actually thought of this, but my main drawback is that I tend to find calculating hours worked somewhat difficult as I am often working on several things at a time.
Out of interest, how do you calculate your hours worked on a job? Do you basically just sit down and work, noting the time when you start and finish then subtract any long pauses etc. Or do you have a more sophisticated method, perhaps using Word or some other software, such as Office journal, to keep a track of the time youactally spend on a task?
I'm keen to know.
Sandy ▲ Collapse
| | | | Attila Piróth 
France
Local time: 00:11
Member
English to Hungarian
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Alexander Chisholm wrote:
Out of interest, how do you calculate your hours worked on a job? Do you basically just sit down and work, noting the time when you start and finish then subtract any long pauses etc.
Available here: http://www.syntap.com/products_timestamp.htm
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Attila
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Buck
Netherlands
Local time: 00:11
Dutch to English
Hi. If I am editing a job and I do it on screen, I make sure I only have the document open when I am actually working in it. If I am not working on it, even for 5 minutes, I close it. Word will keep track of the amount of time the document is open, thus giving you a calculation of the number of hours you can bill.
| | | | achisholm
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:11
Italian to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Many thaks Buck and Attila | Dec 12, 2007 |
Buck, when you say word keeps a track, how do you view this? Do you list the document among your office journal records, and so this keeps track, or does work have its own tracker?
Cheers
| | | | | Percentage of tot words to review | Dec 12, 2007 |
for invoicing, and proportional time for time-planning. Should be fair and reasonable, if the Client sets no fixed price.
Gennady
| | | | NMR (X)
France
Local time: 00:11
French to Dutch
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| I did resumes of newspaper articles | Dec 16, 2007 |
I had to summarize each article in less than 250 words. For the first four or five I was paid by the hour, afterwards the client and I agreed on a flat price per article.
It had be done from my first language in my second language, so I reversed my Wordfast TM (some months before, I did translations on the same subject in the opposite language pair). A quick look with Ctrl + Alt + C on a keyword gave me some sentences which could be used in the summary.
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achisholm
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:11
Italian to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Many thanks. | Dec 17, 2007 |
Incidentally, I suggested to the client they pay my target translation rate with a 25% markup or by the hour, and so far both methods are giving very similar results.
| | | | Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:11
German to English
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| Using Word to time it | Dec 20, 2007 |
Alexander Chisholm wrote:
Buck, when you say word keeps a track, how do you view this? Do you list the document among your office journal records, and so this keeps track, or does work have its own tracker?
Cheers
File > Properties > Statistics > Total editing time
That's the only way I can think of. I haven't checked exactly what it times, but I imagine it is what Buck was thinking of.
(I didn't see this thread until today - I hope this is useful to somebody, but presumably not for your original summarising job.)
Oliver
| | | | achisholm
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:11
Italian to English
+ ...
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