What are decent Trados Rates, please? Thread poster: José Porfírio
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Dear colleagues:
Although I've been using Trados for more than 3 years now, my usual clients have their own payment systems which have nothing to do with Trados. However, a new entity that is interested in my work asked me what are my Trados rates. I have no experience with that. I would like to give them a reply that wouldn't beggar me but that would not scare the prospective client away. The language pair, by the way, is English to Portuguese.
I've previously posted t... See more Dear colleagues:
Although I've been using Trados for more than 3 years now, my usual clients have their own payment systems which have nothing to do with Trados. However, a new entity that is interested in my work asked me what are my Trados rates. I have no experience with that. I would like to give them a reply that wouldn't beggar me but that would not scare the prospective client away. The language pair, by the way, is English to Portuguese.
I've previously posted this message on the Help with Trados forum, but it is problably more appropriate here?
Can you help me, please?
Thank you.
José
[Edited at 2009-03-19 17:34 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Whatever you do, do not give anything away without charging for it. I give a decent discount for exact matches and repetitions, but I do charge for them. I might make an exception when an external TM is delivered and I am told not to touch the exact matches, but then again, I do not take any responsibility for the material that is not translated by me.
And... every fuzzy match below 85% goes for the full rate in my case.
| | | | José Porfírio 
Local time: 04:35
English to Portuguese
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TOPIC STARTER | Please give me an example | Mar 19, 2009 |
Wolfgang Jörissen wrote:
Whatever you do, do not give anything away without charging for it. I give a decent discount for exact matches and repetitions, but I do charge for them.
And... every fuzzy match below 85% goes for the full rate in my case. [/quote]
Could you give examples, please?
Thank you.
| | | | Andrea Riffo
Chile
Local time: 23:35
English to Spanish
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Wolfgang Jörissen wrote:
I give a decent discount for exact matches and repetitions, but I do charge for them.
I charge my usual edition rates for exact matches and repetitions; i.e., 30% of my full rate.
My rates scheme is usually as follows:
0 - 74% matches = 100% rate
75 - 99% matches = 60% rate
100% matches and repetitions = 30% rate
Obviously, this scheme is not written in stone and the percentages may vary depending on what the proposed "full rate" is (and, needless to say, I refuse rebates below a certain threshold).
Greetings
Andrea
[Edited at 2009-03-19 20:24 GMT]
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José Porfírio
Local time: 04:35
English to Portuguese
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TOPIC STARTER
Thank you very much, that helps a lot.
| | | | Attila Piróth
France
Local time: 05:35
Member
English to Hungarian
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| Repetitions and 100% matches | Mar 20, 2009 |
While it is quite usual that repetitions and 100% matches are charged alike, this is justified only in the case when the TM is created from your previous work alone. In that case, your CAT tool proposes your previous translation (from the same project) for a "repetition" segment, while it proposes your previous translation (from an earlier project) for a 100% match. If the TM contains translations made by others, their previous translations proposed for a 100% match. You may need to edit that --... See more While it is quite usual that repetitions and 100% matches are charged alike, this is justified only in the case when the TM is created from your previous work alone. In that case, your CAT tool proposes your previous translation (from the same project) for a "repetition" segment, while it proposes your previous translation (from an earlier project) for a 100% match. If the TM contains translations made by others, their previous translations proposed for a 100% match. You may need to edit that -- which usually takes more time than than it would take to validate your previous translation (repetition).
Therefore repetitions aside, the sliding scale you should apply for fuzzy matches depends on the quality of the TM. You should see it before agreeing to any pricing structure.
For example, if you agree to 30% for 100% matches, it practically means a 30% word price for editing. If the translation is of poor quality, that is certainly too low.
Kind regards,
Attila ▲ Collapse
| | | | | No discounts for third-party material | Mar 20, 2009 |
As Attila pointed out, it only makes sense to apply TM discounts where the material in the TM is your own or is of a quality equal or better to your own work. I allow match scales to be applied only under such circumstances; in most cases I find legacy TMs offered by customers to be useless except perhaps as a guide to preferred terminology. I constantly find 100% matches written by careless translators who leave out negatives or completely misunderstand the source text, and agencies and ... See more As Attila pointed out, it only makes sense to apply TM discounts where the material in the TM is your own or is of a quality equal or better to your own work. I allow match scales to be applied only under such circumstances; in most cases I find legacy TMs offered by customers to be useless except perhaps as a guide to preferred terminology. I constantly find 100% matches written by careless translators who leave out negatives or completely misunderstand the source text, and agencies and end customers eager to "save" money are often too negligent to perform the necessary QA to correct these deficiencies. This disease is prevalent among large brand-name companies in my host country who often now want to refuse to pay for full matches, because these are already "validated". Like Hell they are. Every time I see this sort of thing I add another company to my personal blacklist - I will neither translate their trash nor buy their products. If a company cannot be bothered to check and improve the quality of safety and maintenance instructions, I want to see that company's directors in the stocks in a public square with eggs and rotten fruit being thrown at them.
With my own TM material as the basis for analysis, I generally charge 30 to 40% of my base rate for very high matches and repetitions, depending on various factors, including the incidence of tags. Often there are "100% matches" that are in fact not and require so much tag fiddling that it would have been faster to translate the sentence from scratch.
It is often useful to emphasize that the use of CAT technology is a quality measure, and it is not necessarily any faster - indeed, the work in slower in some cases. Not for most of my projects, certainly, but when dealing with direct clients at least, I make it clear that any discounts for leveraged material will be scaled according to the actual effort involved. Everyone seems to understand this and find the solution fair enough, and if the final invoice is lower than the initial quotation, the customer is probably not upset. And the more I deal with the occasional technical nightmares of these technologies, the more I am inclined to deal with my agency customers in the same way. I will decide what discounts will apply after the work is done and perhaps surprise the client in a pleasant way.
[Edited at 2009-03-20 11:04 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | José Porfírio
Local time: 04:35
English to Portuguese
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TOPIC STARTER | Wonderful advice | Mar 20, 2009 |
Kevin Lossner wrote:
I will decide what discounts will apply after the work is done and perhaps surprise the client in a pleasant way.
[Edited at 2009-03-20 11:04 GMT]
That's also splendid advice. Thank you very much.
I'm certainly learning a lot here.
Cheers,
José
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| Hang 'em high | Mar 22, 2009 |
Kevin Lossner wrote:
If a company cannot be bothered to check and improve the quality of safety and maintenance instructions, I want to see that company's directors in the stocks in a public square with eggs and rotten fruit being thrown at them.
I could not have said it any better myself. I appreciate you keep up good traditions in Germany. Personally I give the customer a choice; I can accept all 100% as they are for 10% or I can check and edit them for 40%.
PM
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