Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: How do you track your translation/interpretation projects? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How do you track your translation/interpretation projects?".
This poll was originally submitted by Isabel Zanella. View the poll results »
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I can’t keep it all in my head: I can have anything up to 10 small jobs scheduled for a single week or 1 big job lasting for months, so I have a simple spreadsheet template for every month containing: date of assignment, my reference number, client name, project reference, language combination, translation or edition, number of words or hours, deadline, invoice number and a column for observations, namely if there are any special requirements. I also print out the PO or the email and keep each... See more I can’t keep it all in my head: I can have anything up to 10 small jobs scheduled for a single week or 1 big job lasting for months, so I have a simple spreadsheet template for every month containing: date of assignment, my reference number, client name, project reference, language combination, translation or edition, number of words or hours, deadline, invoice number and a column for observations, namely if there are any special requirements. I also print out the PO or the email and keep each in a clear plastic folder in the correct date order on my desk. So far, it has worked fine as I have never delivered a job late, though I have very occasionally negotiated a new deadline... ▲ Collapse | | |
[Edited at 2020-10-02 15:22 GMT] | | | neilmac Spain Local time: 21:16 Spanish to English + ...
I'm not really sure I understand the question. Basically, I have a folder for each of my clients. Inside each folder, the jobs from each of them are organised chronologically in folders by year, month, week, day. I don't usually delete them very often, so I can consult the work I've received from them just by checking the relevant folders. | |
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Pre-booked projects go on a wall planner so nothing clashes (ho ho). Every incoming job goes into a spreadsheet with the due date and size/price etc for invoicing. It’s the exact same spreadsheet I created 25 years ago when I took on my first employee. If it ain’t broke... Manually transferring the data from Excel to our accounting software is a bit inefficient, but it’s only like 10 minutes a month. Otherwise I just track my workload in ... See more Pre-booked projects go on a wall planner so nothing clashes (ho ho). Every incoming job goes into a spreadsheet with the due date and size/price etc for invoicing. It’s the exact same spreadsheet I created 25 years ago when I took on my first employee. If it ain’t broke... Manually transferring the data from Excel to our accounting software is a bit inefficient, but it’s only like 10 minutes a month. Otherwise I just track my workload in my head. I mean, how many jobs could you possibly have on at any one time?! ▲ Collapse | | | Excel spreadsheet | Oct 2, 2020 |
Like Teresa and Chris, I've been using the same format for a long time. I just now checked, and it has been unchanged for 20 years. The sheet has numerous columns, ending with the amount actually received (which sometimes differs from the amount billed when I ask for extra consideration) and the date. When tax time rolls around, the record is completely up to date and I have no work left to do regarding my income and fees related to payment transactions. I can also easily do any number of calcu... See more Like Teresa and Chris, I've been using the same format for a long time. I just now checked, and it has been unchanged for 20 years. The sheet has numerous columns, ending with the amount actually received (which sometimes differs from the amount billed when I ask for extra consideration) and the date. When tax time rolls around, the record is completely up to date and I have no work left to do regarding my income and fees related to payment transactions. I can also easily do any number of calculations that strike my fancy. With long jobs, I also use an calendar. I enter a quota for each day, then the number of words actually translated, total so far, and words left to do/hours I expect they will take. This process allows me to sleep at night. Otherwise I'd be insanely anxious about the work still left to do.
[Edited at 2020-10-02 10:13 GMT] ▲ Collapse | | | Dan Lucas United Kingdom Local time: 20:16 Member (2014) Japanese to English Put the information in the folder name | Oct 2, 2020 |
neilmac wrote: I'm not really sure I understand the question. Basically, I have a folder for each of my clients. Like neilmac, I use folder names to provide key project information at a glance. All my project folders follow a strict naming convention, like this: A _ 2020-10-05 0900 JST _ 2020-10-02 1100 JST _ Agency name, PM name _ order number, end client name _ document type _ 2831 All the necessary information is contained in the structure of the name of the folder itself. The underscores in the name separate the different items of information, so you can see there are seven "fields" contained in the folder name. The first date/time in the folder name is the deadline and the second date/time is when the project was received. The rest of the items should be self-explanatory, except the figure at the end, which is volume in Japanese characters. So at one glance I can see when something is due, which agency it's for, the name of the contact person, what it's about, what kind of document it is, and the amount of work and time involved. If I sort the these folders by name, everything ends up listed in the order of the deadline date/time, which is why I have the due date at the beginning of the folder name, and not after the received date. As an additional visual cue, my file manager (Directory Opus) displays active jobs in red, scheduled jobs in blue and completed jobs in a light grey. After I have invoiced the jobs, I move the project folders out of the "current projects folder" to their respective client folders for long-term archival. The other nice feature about this system is that you can programmatically extract the fields from the folder name and use the information to estimate things like revenue for the month, share of revenues for each client, and so on. Dan | | |
Muriel Vasconcellos wrote: With long jobs, I also use an calendar. I enter a quota for each day, then the number of words actually translated, total so far, and words left to do/hours I expect they will take. This process allows me to sleep at night. Otherwise I'd be insanely anxious about the work still left to do.
[Edited at 2020-10-02 10:13 GMT] I do exactly the same and I become childishly happy every time I happen to exceed my quota… | |
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Ali Sharifi United States Local time: 15:16 English to Persian (Farsi) + ... What translation? | Oct 2, 2020 |
What translation? | | | Minority report | Oct 2, 2020 |
All-inclusive paperless Translation Office 3000 since 2005, after several years of home-brewed Excel spreadsheets with formulas and stuff. Currently 2853 job records, 547 invoices and 52 customer files at my fingertips since my relocating to a different country 10 years ago, arranged in a self-generating and meaningful folder tree. Every table can be sorted and filtered as I wish. And I enter data only once. Philippe | | |
My main client has a software to manage translation requests. It's a hub in which internal clients put their translation requests and which the coordinator uses to dispatch the assignments within the team members. I receive emails when there's a new task, retrieve my job from that hub, work, then put the translation back and send it to the next person, be it a reviser or the client. For my other clients, I use the star system in my email to flag the jobs and my memory. | | | Aline Brito Brazil Local time: 16:16 Member (2020) English to Portuguese + ... Not sure what the question means | Oct 2, 2020 |
Do you mean current projects I have to complete or all the work I've ever done? When things are slow I use my own memory; sticky notes when there's more than 2 or 3 jobs involved - I love sticky notes (and notes in general), couldn't live without them. The only thing I keep from past projects are emails and files (if the client doesn't specifically ask me not to, of course), and only when I think they might be useful in the future. | |
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Mario Freitas Brazil Local time: 16:16 Member (2014) English to Portuguese + ...
There is no software in the world better than Excel to do all controls, statistics, etc. I'm gald to see the most of us realize that and do not pay extra for a ready-made system that will never have everything you need and in the way tou want it, which you can easily do in Excel to perfection. It's not hard to learn how to use Excel and its resources, and note we only need the basic ones for this purpose. Just take a little time to learn it and stop spending money with systems made by those who ... See more There is no software in the world better than Excel to do all controls, statistics, etc. I'm gald to see the most of us realize that and do not pay extra for a ready-made system that will never have everything you need and in the way tou want it, which you can easily do in Excel to perfection. It's not hard to learn how to use Excel and its resources, and note we only need the basic ones for this purpose. Just take a little time to learn it and stop spending money with systems made by those who took some time to learn and are making money on it now, thanks to those who don't want to learn it. ▲ Collapse | | | Mr. Satan (X) English to Indonesian
I make monthly work schedules using LibreOffice Calc. I note down the client's name, the project name, date received, set deadline and the completion status. Once the job is done, I would set the status as "Completed" and color the row in green. Also, I make folders for each project with the date included in the folder's name. Also also, the invoices and monthly financial reports. | | |
I make a table in Word for each year. Every row contains the name of the client, the name of the project, the number of words/hours and the date of delivery. | | | Pages in topic: [1 2] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Poll: How do you track your translation/interpretation projects? Trados Business Manager Lite | Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio
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