Estimates for translation services can be difficult to understand. We have simplified our estimates to offer more concise information about breakdown of gross costs and discounts offered due to translation memory technology. Our old estimate format had a lot of information, perhaps too much information! We typically broke out three different levels of translation memory matches, page production and proofreading. Sometimes this would lead to 8 line items per language. A 28 language quotation could have been 224 line items!

I am proud that we were willing to offer that level of transparency but it was definitely overkill.

Our new estimate is made up of two main parts. The first part is the  project description and relevant text based information as seen below:

The quotation clearly states the project description, the time line, project cost and deliverables.

The second portion presents the cost in a very visual way. The costs and discounts are all displayed numerically on one line item per language and a pie chart further illustrates the discounts and net cost of the whole project.

The format of the estimate offers the same level of transparency as our original estimate but in a more concise and easier to understand format. We can now illustrate the costs in much less space allowing our clients to better understand how we come up with a cost for our services in less time.

The new format compiles all of the data automatically from our project management system. The technology we are using also allows us to compile the data across the customer account for a given time period. This new ability allowed us to create our quarterly reporting system where we send each client a summary of the expenses and savings for all of their projects over the previous 3 months.

Please contact us for more information or to obtain a quotation.