Management tools
Thread poster: lien
lien
lien
Netherlands
Local time: 09:24
English to French
+ ...
May 6, 2004

Can the ones using a program to manage your clients, invoices,(the all-in-one type) etc. give their advice about it ? Is it worth while to buy one ? Is it very useful ? And most important : which one are you happy with ?

 
00000000 (X)
00000000 (X)
English to French
+ ...
Translation Office 3000 May 6, 2004

I bought it and don't use it because it has all kinds of bells and whistles that I don't need and none of the things that I need (a spreadsheet to keep track of my business expenses, for example).

Money totally wasted.

Esther, burned

[Edited at 2004-05-06 22:52]


 
bergazy
bergazy  Identity Verified
Croatia
Local time: 09:24
Croatian to Italian
+ ...
Annuaire May 6, 2004

Dear Lien
Annuaire could be an interesting tool for you

http://perso.club-internet.fr/belovak/

What the software Annuaire ?
Since 1997, Annuaire is a list manager freeware for Windows 9x/Me and NT4/2000/XP. This tool extracts and displays datas and BITMAP or JPEG images, if a list exists in text format (or a SQL query). (Présentation).
What can I mak
... See more
Dear Lien
Annuaire could be an interesting tool for you

http://perso.club-internet.fr/belovak/

What the software Annuaire ?
Since 1997, Annuaire is a list manager freeware for Windows 9x/Me and NT4/2000/XP. This tool extracts and displays datas and BITMAP or JPEG images, if a list exists in text format (or a SQL query). (Présentation).
What can I make with Annuaire ?
People use it to find datas quickly. For exemple, it can replace telephone repertory, rogue's gallery, directories of schools, cellars or prospective customer or HTTP links managers, quick help, SQL requetor, and so on...


Its great force is that each one can adapt it to its needs.

Can I take part at the Annuaire freeware ?
Of course! Annuaire is a free software. Its C++ sources are available on the site. Do not wait to transmit your improvements to make some profit the unit from the users, increasingly many. Send to us also your remarks by e-mail and we will try to hold account in the future versions.


Good luck!
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Harry Bornemann
Harry Bornemann  Identity Verified
Mexico
Local time: 02:24
English to German
+ ...
Office May 7, 2004

MS Access would be perfect for this task and I want to program the tool since long, but until then I will simply continue to copy the data from the analysis or the PO via clipboard to the calculator or Excel (for multiplication and addition) and insert the results into an old Word invoice for the same or a similar client. (The database for clients and invoices is the file system itself.)


 
Mats Wiman
Mats Wiman  Identity Verified
Sweden
Local time: 09:24
Member (2000)
German to Swedish
+ ...
In memoriam
Windows Explorer + WORD+Excel are super solutions for administering translation clients. May 7, 2004

Harry said:
"The database for clients and invoices is the file system itself"

Agree indeed. Our business is documents, clients and payments but no products, no stock, no ordering ledger etc. so I can only recomment MS Office.

Mats


 
Sonja Tomaskovic (X)
Sonja Tomaskovic (X)  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 09:24
English to German
+ ...
Translation Office 3000 May 7, 2004

I do not agree with Esther. In my opinion, TO3000 is a very useful tool.

It is not meant to be a book keeping software, but a software that keeps track of your clients, projects, invoices, payments, etc. I don't think that any software that was programmed for an international clientele should be able to handle such tasks as book keeping, as tax laws and regulations are different in every country.

BTW, you can export all data to Excel as it supports csv files.
... See more
I do not agree with Esther. In my opinion, TO3000 is a very useful tool.

It is not meant to be a book keeping software, but a software that keeps track of your clients, projects, invoices, payments, etc. I don't think that any software that was programmed for an international clientele should be able to handle such tasks as book keeping, as tax laws and regulations are different in every country.

BTW, you can export all data to Excel as it supports csv files.

You can download a 30-day-trial from their homepage.

Sonja
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00000000 (X)
00000000 (X)
English to French
+ ...
Question of size, number of clients May 7, 2004

Sonja Tomaskovic wrote:

I do not agree with Esther. In my opinion, TO3000 is a very useful tool.

It is not meant to be a book keeping software, but a software that keeps track of your clients, projects, invoices, payments, etc. I don't think that any software that was programmed for an international clientele should be able to handle such tasks as book keeping, as tax laws and regulations are different in every country.

BTW, you can export all data to Excel as it supports csv files.

You can download a 30-day-trial from their homepage.

Sonja


There's no tax on translation here in the U.S., so that's not what's bothering me.

I don't like, for example, to have to go through a list of *all* the countries that are members of the U.N. to locate one of the 2 countries that I ever need -- the alternative is to spend an afternoon deleting all the superfluous ones one by one.

I don't have hundreds of clients, and in most cases, I have worked for them for years, so I don't find it hard to keep track of them.

For someone who does a lot of one-time jobs in numerous countries, I guess Translation Office can be very useful.

Best,
Esther


 
aitteam
aitteam
Ukraine
Local time: 10:24
English to Ukrainian
Translation Office 3000 May 10, 2004

Esther Pfeffer wrote:

I bought it and don't use it because it has all kinds of bells and whistles that I don't need and none of the things that I need (a spreadsheet to keep track of my business expenses, for example).


Dear Esther,

It was a bit discouraging for me and our team members to read the post at proz.com but it is understandable that various users have various needs and only by continuously perfecting the product we can make it useful for most freelance translators.

I am pleased to tell you that the build available for download from today contains Office Expenses window (below Settings window, as it is not tied to the rest of the program) where you and other users can track all your expenses, which are not client-specific. We have received 2 more requests for this feature last month, from French and Dutch registered users. Also, there are several other new features in this build, requested by other registered and prospective users.

Esther Pfeffer wrote:

I don't like, for example, to have to go through a list of *all* the countries that are members of the U.N. to locate one of the 2 countries that I ever need -- the alternative is to spend an afternoon deleting all the superfluous ones one by one.


The need to choose a country from a long list arises only when creating new client from New Client Wizard. If you work only within your home country, you do not have to scroll through the list at all, as by default, country of user is suggested automatically, by default. If you work with several countries, it is easy to jump to necessary country by entering first letter(s) of the country in the scroll list. In any case, if you work with 2 clients only, you will have to go through the list of countries only twice (if these clients are not from the USA) during your whole history of work with TO3000.

Still, if you decide to delete them, you can click on Countries table and then use shortcuts D (delete) and Y (Yes) to quickly delete all countries in 5 minutes.

Long list of countries is available to users because we cannot predict the target clientele of our users, as our software itself is very international by nature, and is already used in 46 countries (with first registrations from Austria coming last week). Plus, countries names are tied to flag images.

We consider every registration a responsibility and would be pleased to hear your further suggestions for enhancements. We cannot promise 100% feature completion (otherwise the program would be overweighted with 'bells and whistles', which are actually a total of all users' requests) but when it adds to overall flexibility of the program or requested by several users, we implement new features as soon as possible. That's why we use 'Builds' between versions, which enable users not to wait until next version.

Do not hesitate to e-mail us your suggestions at [email protected] All suggestions are recorded into our version control system and used as a basis for further work on Translation Office 3000.

Kind regards,
Vladimir.
--------------------------------------------
Vladimir Pedchenko,
Translation Office 3000 Development Team
Accounting and Marketing Software for Freelance Translators
http://www.translation3000.com


 
Brandis (X)
Brandis (X)
Local time: 09:24
English to German
+ ...
I still find Practiline software to be the best May 10, 2004

Esther Pfeffer wrote:

I bought it and don't use it because it has all kinds of bells and whistles that I don't need and none of the things that I need (a spreadsheet to keep track of my business expenses, for example).

Money totally wasted.

Esther, burned

[Edited at 2004-05-06 22:52]
Hi!
I still find Practiline software to be the best. It is simple and does everything a freelancer might need. This office or TR3000 is probably good for agencies. For examle, Practicount does automatic word count (even including the embedded text in boxes) and does all popular formats, VAT calculation, takes up the weblink in the address field, gives a pre-analysed invoice figure ( you are free at this stage to undergo changes required by you) does repeat count also, and finally generates an invoice on a click. This can be electronically mailed from within the tool
Brandis


 
Klaus Herrmann
Klaus Herrmann  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 09:24
Member (2002)
English to German
+ ...
Translation Office 3000 May 12, 2004

I found Translation Office 3000 to be a real time saver. As to functions which I don't need, I do exactly the same as with Word's Kiswahili* spell-checker: I ignore them. They are inobtrusive. For the few things I can't do with this program, I'm using the CSV export. Also worth mentioning: the excellent support.

* Not one of my working languages.

[Edited at 2004-05-12 22:06]


 
Anjo Sterringa
Anjo Sterringa  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 09:24
English to Dutch
+ ...
Excel May 21, 2004

I find Excel very much all-in-one.
I have always stuck to the simplest of databases (KISS principle) and I have several - all in Excel.
I have a 'financial' db with invoices and three monthly overviews. There I also check if invoices have been paid. I send my invoices out in Excel (handy with the formulas)
A "translations" db with everything else: a breakdown of all translations (including the ones pending to be
... See more
I find Excel very much all-in-one.
I have always stuck to the simplest of databases (KISS principle) and I have several - all in Excel.
I have a 'financial' db with invoices and three monthly overviews. There I also check if invoices have been paid. I send my invoices out in Excel (handy with the formulas)
A "translations" db with everything else: a breakdown of all translations (including the ones pending to be invoiced), offers, general data to copy and paste (tax numbers, bank account etc.).

I am just a micro company, and I remember I worked in a 20x bigger company with projects, stock and engineers to be managed, which we managed OK in Excel and Word - where things started going horribly wrong after implementing a "tool" ....

I know how to work in Excel, not true, how to get by (there are many more possibilities I do not even use) and it works good enough for me.

MHO...
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Heike Reagan
Heike Reagan  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 04:24
German to English
I have used TO3000 Jan 28, 2008

for a bit over one year now and love it. It took me a while to familiarize myself with it (mostly because I never took the time to really read the instructions or play around with it). But after I did - boy, does it save me a lot of time. I used to use Excel spreadsheets, and invoicing was ... a bit more difficult than it is now with TO3000 to say the least.

The new version 8 still has some bugs and I'm thinking of downgrading back to version 7.

I did notice some probl
... See more
for a bit over one year now and love it. It took me a while to familiarize myself with it (mostly because I never took the time to really read the instructions or play around with it). But after I did - boy, does it save me a lot of time. I used to use Excel spreadsheets, and invoicing was ... a bit more difficult than it is now with TO3000 to say the least.

The new version 8 still has some bugs and I'm thinking of downgrading back to version 7.

I did notice some problems with TO3000 when I prepared my paperwork for filing US taxes last week (my biggest issue being the phantom payment feature, as it indicates the money as being received, but it should really be treated as a discount or loss), but now that I know about it, it's no problem either. I just enter it as an expense as soon as I post the phantom payment.

Also, the team at TO 3000 is really fast and (tries) to be very helpful when you have a problem. Try getting someone at Microsoft to create a custom report for you and send you the template free of charge within 24 hours!!!!

Love TO3000, it's the best translation investment I've made along with WordFast and Dragon.

Heike
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claude
claude
Thailand
Local time: 09:24
English to French
Frankly... Feb 21, 2010

Do free lance translators need software to manage invoices and clients ?

Please do not sponsor useless software vendors !!!


 


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