| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | A general format of counting the words while invoicing. Thread poster: Mrudula Tambe
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Mrudula Tambe 
India
Local time: 21:37
English to Marathi
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TOPIC STARTER In memoriam | Liebe Gerard, | Dec 24, 2008 |
Gerard de Noord wrote:
Hi Mrudula,
Always make perfectly clear to any customer how you've counted and how many words you've counted. Tell the customer in advance how much you'll invoice whenever possible. Only when you receive PDFs or other formats you can't count, or when you're negotiating with customers who prefer target word counts, you can tell them you'll do the final target word count in Word, Wordfast or any other tool you and the customer can agree on.
You're not making entirely clear if you'd agreed on a source word count beforehand. Never assume there is a golden standard for counting words, to answer your initial question.
If you're sure your customer is just being unfair/unprofessional, don't hesitate to use the mechanisms of this website to give him a bad rating, certainly when it's a ProZ.com Certified PRO. That whole system is meant for connecting reliable, professional business partners.
Regards,
Gerard
Thank you for your detailed guidance. I will certainly keep all the points that you mentioned in my mind henceforth.
Mostly, if customer is not related to the language field I do explain him/her the word counting and the concept of source word and the target word.
Also, usually I go for source word counting as if the translation is from English to any other Indian language, there are multiple shades of meaning for the same word. So I give synonym also in the blue letters so that client can choose whatever he prefers.
As far as your last paragraph is concern, truly the client is a PRO level member of this forum and I have sent him the link of this discussion and invited him for open discussion so that we could know his point of view as well. Let everyone has fair chance to express his / her views.
BTW I wish you a very happy Christmas.
| | | | Mrudula Tambe
India
Local time: 21:37
English to Marathi
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TOPIC STARTER In memoriam
milinad wrote:
Will the client be happy if you do not translate the pronounce etc.?
[Edited at 2008-12-24 05:00 GMT]
Its upto the client to be happy or not. My only prayer is that he should clear it first before hand while sending the document.
I guess, he must have sub-contract and may he also got cheated by his client but after all, business does not mean profit always and one must stick to his / her words even if one suffers unexpected loss.
| | | | Nigel Greenwood (X)
Spain
Local time: 18:07
Spanish to English
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| Have you posted a negative comment in Blue Board? | Dec 24, 2008 |
When things like this happen, isn't it wise and cooperative that we all take a few moments to post a negative comment in Blue Board, then we give the opportunity to our colleagues of deciding to work for this 'beligerant' type of outsourcer, or not.
Let's take advantage of all our strength as a united world-wide group.
Happy whatever you celebrate
Nigel.
| | | | | Holy multiple post! | Dec 24, 2008 |
Just a note: internet forums generally prefer a single post over multiple posts in a row from the same person.
If you're responding to several posts, you can open two browser tabs and use one to compose your message and copy quote-tagged text from the other.
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| The sad truth | Dec 24, 2008 |
Mrudula Tambe wrote:... I wrote 5-6 letters where letter writing was not much problem but choosing the gentle words carefully without using a single abusive word while writing was indeed very very difficult and time taking.
Definitely the hardest part, and brilliantly described!
| | | | | Never Part 2 (as to Laundry lists) | Dec 24, 2008 |
After seeing the original text, not only would a FULL word count be the only way to count the words, but the per-word rate should have been subject to a SUBTANTIAL surcharge.
Given the failure to have an ordinary, readable text and the lack of context, each word would take much longer to translate, and should not have been translated at any "ordinary" rate used for text.
This is a dictionary- a glossary, requiring intensive focussing on each and every word, and not merely a sentence ... See more After seeing the original text, not only would a FULL word count be the only way to count the words, but the per-word rate should have been subject to a SUBTANTIAL surcharge.
Given the failure to have an ordinary, readable text and the lack of context, each word would take much longer to translate, and should not have been translated at any "ordinary" rate used for text.
This is a dictionary- a glossary, requiring intensive focussing on each and every word, and not merely a sentence or two.
Reminds me of the accounting firms who ask "How much do you charge to translate thirty pages?", to which I reply, "I dunno. How much do you charge to audit thirty accounts? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mrudula Tambe
India
Local time: 21:37
English to Marathi
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TOPIC STARTER In memoriam
Nigel Greenwood wrote:
When things like this happen, isn't it wise and cooperative that we all take a few moments to post a negative comment in Blue Board
As I said earlier, I have sent him the link of this discussion and invited him for open discussion so that we could know his point of view as well. Hope that he will come up with some logical explanation soon.
Happy Christmas to you as well.
[Here in India, since our country consists of different religions, paths we almost celebrate all the major festivals of all the religions but since there was a worst terrorist attack on my city, Mumbai recently, our Christians Brothers have decided to celebrate the Christmas with simplicity].
| | | | Mrudula Tambe
India
Local time: 21:37
English to Marathi
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TOPIC STARTER In memoriam
RichardDeegan wrote:
After seeing the original text, not only would a FULL word count be the only way to count the words, but the per-word rate should have been subject to a SUBTANTIAL surcharge.
Given the failure to have an ordinary, readable text and the lack of context, each word would take much longer to translate, and should not have been translated at any "ordinary" rate used for text. This is a dictionary- a glossary, requiring intensive focussing on each and every word, and not merely a sentence or two.
Its true that such kind of text requires more efforts and hence I gave maximum synonyms for each word to my client so that he could use the most suitable text.
Also, as far as rate is concern, I charged standard business rate in Indian Rupee though I am sure that such text job is usually for Tatoos and foreign clients usually pay for it in USD e.g. http://www.proz.com/kudoz/english_to_sanskrit/philosophy/2783786-inner_strength.html
Therefore, is it wrong to expect that client should pay atleast the amount decided according to word count and without the reminder letters?
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Mrudula Tambe
India
Local time: 21:37
English to Marathi
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TOPIC STARTER In memoriam | Liebe Janet, | Dec 24, 2008 |
Janet Rubin wrote: Mrudula Tambe wrote:... I wrote 5-6 letters where letter writing was not much problem but choosing the gentle words carefully without using a single abusive word while writing was indeed very very difficult and time taking. Definitely the hardest part, and brilliantly described!
Danke schön. Ich wünsche Ihnen ein glückliches Weihnachten.
| | | | Alberto Martinez
Malaysia
Local time: 00:07
Member (2008)
Spanish to English
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| Preposterous | Dec 24, 2008 |
I think if that person is really a member of Proz.com, the fellow just tried to avoid paying in full, he/she cant claim unfamiliarity with the industry. The only time I ever encounter such pretension was at my very beginnings, as student when an torve client refused to pay; but by a professional translator? It is just plain absurd
Merry Xmas and prosperous 2009
| | | | juvera
Local time: 17:07
English to Hungarian
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| Minimum charge | Dec 27, 2008 |
Dear Mrudula,
I know that strictly speaking this it is not an answer to what happened to you, because how to count words is the basic, essential question, but in this case it would have helped if you established a minimum charge for small jobs, like these.
Many translators have a minimum charge for up to 200-300 words, or even more, which would be the equivalent of their rate for the chosen limit. Anything over this limit would be invoiced in accordance of the actual w... See more Dear Mrudula,
I know that strictly speaking this it is not an answer to what happened to you, because how to count words is the basic, essential question, but in this case it would have helped if you established a minimum charge for small jobs, like these.
Many translators have a minimum charge for up to 200-300 words, or even more, which would be the equivalent of their rate for the chosen limit. Anything over this limit would be invoiced in accordance of the actual word count.
Those stating hourly rates often opt for one hour’s fee as their minimum charge.
For jobs consisting of less than the number of words you decide as your minimum charge, you would quote and invoice at that fixed rate.
If you choose your minimum rate at the level of the equivalent of 200 words, you would invoice for that amount even for a job consisting only a 10 words list.
That would compensate for the extra time you spend on administration and any other time consuming activity, like research or e-mailing. The time you spend on doing these for the short job can be as much as you spend on a medium size job of a few thousand words, therefore it is justified and good practice to have a minimum charge limit.
[Edited at 2008-12-27 00:43 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Parrot
Spain
Local time: 18:07
Spanish to English
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| I remember a similar case | Dec 27, 2008 |
The owner of a language school decided to offer translation services, but thought we were abusing if we charged for proper names which we didn't translate anyway.
So she had one person on her staff manually counting the proper names for a discount of, say, 50 cents, all the while she was paying this person a minimum wage of considerably more per hour.
Happy New Year!
| | | | Mrudula Tambe
India
Local time: 21:37
English to Marathi
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TOPIC STARTER In memoriam
Blingo wrote:
I think if that person is really a member of Proz.com, the fellow just tried to avoid paying in full, he/she cant claim unfamiliarity with the industry. The only time I ever encounter such pretension was at my very beginnings, as student when an torve client refused to pay; but by a professional translator? It is just plain absurd
It hurts more especially when such a thing is done by the senior translator from whom we expect guidance and business ethics.
In my view, an experienced senior translator should be like a guiding star which will show us exact direction when we are lost in the desert of translation business.
| | | | Mrudula Tambe
India
Local time: 21:37
English to Marathi
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER In memoriam
juvera wrote:
For jobs consisting of less than the number of words you decide as your minimum charge, you would quote and invoice at that fixed rate.
If you choose your minimum rate at the level of the equivalent of 200 words, you would invoice for that amount even for a job consisting only a 10 words list.
It never struck me that way. Indeed, it is a good suggestion and certainly I'd like to go for it. Thank you very much.
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