Setup estimations based on using LSPs
Note
Estimations can be created using any combination of users, LSPs, or dummy users.
Purchase orders can be created using any combination of users and LSPs.
Assign the LSP to a project's workflow steps.If necessary, repeat step 1 for each project that contains a unique workflow.
If necessary, repeat step 1 for each project that contains a unique workflow.
Tip
The purpose is to have all required LSPs assigned to all required workflow steps. This way the appropriate workflow steps will be made available to rate cards.
Create a rate card for the first LSP.
Repeat step 3 for each LSP.
Assigning linguists, LSPs and user groups to workflow steps
Open the project editor.
From the left hand side menu, click the workflow tab.
From the target language drop down, select the target language that the linguist belongs to.
From the workflow management section located just below, assign a linguist, user group or LSP to each workflow step, and for each file in this project.
Tip
When assigning a user group, the linguist within the user group which is assigned to the step is automatically determined using the logic described here.
When assigning an LSP, the LSP project manager determines which linguist to assign from their instance of XTM.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each language.
.
Add linguist/PM or LSP rate cards to estimate costs
Tip
For more information on rate cards, please click here.
Click on the Users tab located on the topmost menu in XTM Cloud.
Edit the user or dummy user whose rate card is being created, by double-clicking on their name in the User list.
Note
If this is an LSP then click the LSP tab, and edit the LSP by double-clicking on it.
From the left-hand side menu, click on Rate Cards.
At the top of the frame that just opened, select the Billing Currency from the drop-down.
Click on the green Add button that is now enabled.
Fill in the rate card name, description, active, language combination, and subject matter.
Tip
Refer to this field reference for notes on how to fill out these settings.
Select the Charging Type to choose whether linguists are charged by word or character.
There are three different ways of using rate cards to generate estimations. Item c can be combined with either item a, or item b. Click on the option below that best suits your needs for instructions:
Estimating costs based on percentage discounts (factors).
Note
Discounts for items like Fuzzy matches and repetitions etc. are made based on a % discount from a base price for each workflow step.
Estimating costs based on monetary discounts (actual price).
Note
Prices for discounted items like fuzzy matches and repetitions etc. are assigned a fixed cost for each workflow step.
Estimating costs based on fixed costs (i.e hourly rates, usually for project managers).
Note
Additional costs that are charged hourly can be attributed to Project Managers here.
Certain customized Linguist workflow steps such as DTP can also have hourly rates associated with them. These hourly rates can be assigned in combination with per-word rates for other workflow steps.
Assigning these costs to dummy users is ideal as these costs will become universal to any linguist that shares this dummy user's characteristics.
Repeat steps 5-8 to add multiple rate cards to the same LSP or user, each one representing a different language group and/or subject matter.
Rate card field summary - universal settings
Rate Card Name - Mandatory
Description - Optional
Active
When this check box is active this rate card is used to calculate estimations.
Language Combinations - Mandatory
The Language Combinations that apply to this rate card.
The Language Combinations available are those set for this user and those set in the overall language combination setup.
Selecting the All combinations set for this User check box selects all combinations set for this user.
Tip
It is highly recommended to use Language Groups, instead of Language Combinations.
When using Language Groups select the language group from the first drop down list box on the left, and select the same Language Group from the drop down just to the left of the word to.
Subject Matter - Mandatory
The Subject Matter Selected here needs to be configured in the subject matter section for this user.
Estimating costs based on percentage discounts (factors)
Note
Discounts for items like Fuzzy matches and repetitions etc. are made based on a % discount from a base price for each workflow step.
Find the Calculate using option located near the bottom half of the screen and select Factors.
Enter the Base Rate, Words or Characters per day, Minimum Charge Per Project, and Minimum Charge Per Language, using the following field reference guide for instructions.
Scroll to the bottom where the workflow steps appear and enter the appropriate discounted items in percent discounts for each entry as described in the field reference here.
Rate card field reference - estimating by percentage discounts (factors)
Note
These items apply to all projects and all workflow steps when selecting Factors as the estimation method.
Base Rate: - Mandatory
The base currency value of each word or character.
Discounts will later be applied for each workflow step and other criteria from this value.
Minimum Charge Per Project: - Optional
Minimum charge for all languages combined in a Project.
This value is assigned if the estimation based on the word or character count is lower.
Note
The charging type configuration; whether per character or per word, determined whether costs are calculated by word or character.
Words Per Day: - Optional
Note
This may be displayed as characters per day depending on whether a charging type per character or per word was selected.
Maximum words or characters per day a linguist is expected to work on for a given workflow step.
Due dates can be configured within Projects and automatically calculated for each workflow step. This value is used in those delivery date calculations.
Minimum Charge Per Language: - Optional
Minimum charge for any individual language in a Project.
This value is assigned if the estimation based on a word or character count is lower for a given language.
Rate card field options - WWC (weighted word count) in percent or actual price per workflow step
No matching
For words that have no TM matches whatsoever.
Click on the blue arrow button to the right of the word Fuzzy Match, to enter values for all fuzzy match ranges.
Machine Translation:
Typically meant for correction or review steps.
Non-translatable:
Used for items such as in-line elements (HTML, custom variables, etc.) that a translator does not necessarily have to translate but does have to include in the translation.
Estimations can be generated using metrics or statistics (or both combined):
Note
The rates entered here only apply to estimations generated based on statistics.
For estimations generated based on metrics:
When estimating via metrics, there is no charge (DNT) or costs allocated to any modifications or any work linguists perform on non-translateable content.
For estimations generated based on Statistics:
The rate entered here is applied to the number of words or characters changed in a non-translateable .
There is no charge for any non-translateable items that are not modified.
Repeat:
For repeated strings that are not TM auto-filled.
Calculations for the number of repeated Strings do not take into context into account.
Repetitions can only be auto propagated by the linguist within the XTM Workbench application (CAT tool).
Auto propagated repetitions are not chargeable.
The rates entered here only apply to repetitions handled individually by the linguist.
Within XTM workbench, the linguist will see an 'r' beside any suggested translation for this term, along with a percent match. The linguist can uses this suggestion, however regardless of the translation that they enter they will charge the repetition rate.
Estimating costs based on monetary discounts (actual price).
Note
Prices for discounted items like Fuzzy matches and repetitions etc. are assigned a fixed cost for each workflow step.
Find the Calculate using option located near the bottom half of the screen and select Actual Price.
Enter the Words or Characters per day, Minimum Charge Per Project, and Minimum Charge Per Language, using the following field reference guide for instructions.
Scroll to the bottom where the workflow steps appear and enter the appropriate discounted items in currency amounts for each entry as described in the field reference here.
Rate card field reference - estimating costs based on monetary discounts (actual price)
Note
These items apply to all projects and all workflow steps when selecting Actual Price as the estimation method.
Minimum Charge Per Project: - Optional
Minimum charge for all languages combined in a Project.
This value is assigned if the estimation based on the word or character count is lower.
Note
The charging type configuration; whether per character or per word, determined whether costs are calculated by word or character.
Words Per Day: - Optional
Note
This may be displayed as characters per day depending on whether a charging type per character or per word was selected.
Maximum words or characters per day a linguist is expected to work on for a given workflow step.
Due dates can be configured within Projects and automatically calculated for each workflow step. This value is used in those delivery date calculations.
Minimum Charge Per Language: - Optional
Minimum charge for any individual language in a Project.
This value is assigned if the estimation based on the word or character count is lower for a given language.
Rate card field options - WWC (weighted word count) in percent or actual price per workflow step
No matching
For words that have no TM matches whatsoever.
Click on the blue arrow button to the right of the word Fuzzy Match, to enter values for all fuzzy match ranges.
Machine Translation:
Typically meant for correction or review steps.
Non-translatable:
Used for items such as in-line elements (HTML, custom variables, etc.) that a translator does not necessarily have to translate but does have to include in the translation.
Estimations can be generated using metrics or statistics (or both combined):
Note
The rates entered here only apply to estimations generated based on statistics.
For estimations generated based on metrics:
When estimating via metrics, there is no charge (DNT) or costs allocated to any modifications or any work linguists perform on non-translateable content.
For estimations generated based on Statistics:
The rate entered here is applied to the number of words or characters changed in a non-translateable .
There is no charge for any non-translateable items that are not modified.
Repeat:
For repeated strings that are not TM auto-filled.
Calculations for the number of repeated Strings do not take into context into account.
Repetitions can only be auto propagated by the linguist within the XTM Workbench application (CAT tool).
Auto propagated repetitions are not chargeable.
The rates entered here only apply to repetitions handled individually by the linguist.
Within XTM workbench, the linguist will see an 'r' beside any suggested translation for this term, along with a percent match. The linguist can uses this suggestion, however regardless of the translation that they enter they will charge the repetition rate.
Estimating costs based on fixed costs (hourly)
Note
Rate Cards are used for estimating the costs associated with a translation job.
Some of those costs can be attributed to workers whose job is charged hourly, such as project managers, or to workers such as linguists whose job can sometimes be charged both hourly (e.g DTP) and per word or character.
Enable the hourly rate card option for project managers or both project managers and linguists.
Enable hourly rates in the appropriate workflow.
Edit the user or dummy user whose costs are being estimated and select the Rate Card option.
If hourly rates and fixed costs are charged on an overall project, language, file or % of overall costs basis then:
Scroll down near the bottom of this window. On the left-hand side look for the text General Fixed Price.
Expand the General Fixed Price option by clicking on the blue arrow just beneath these words.
Enter the values for the appropriate fields.
If hourly rates are specific to a given workflow step then:
Scroll down to the workflow step section located near the bottom.
Look for the words fixed price.
Expand the fixed price option by clicking on the blue arrow just beneath these words.
Enter the values for the appropriate fields using this field guide.as a reference.
To add additional workflow steps for cost estimations click here for instructions.
Note
The workflow steps that appear in the rate card by default are those assigned to this user in all projects.
When a new workflow step is assigned to this user in any project, then it will need to be added here as well.
To copy values from one workflow step to another, click on the bigger blue arrow buttons located at the bottom of each workflow step.
Enter the estimated amount of hours that users are expected/estimated to work on each project.
Important
This is done prior to a project starting. Once a project starts then the amount entered here will be used for invoicing.
Rate card field options per workflow step
Rate card field options per workflow step
Note
All of the rates entered here are defined per workflow step in the Rate Card.
Tip
All fields indicated here are the same whether using Actual Costs or Factors
Fixed price per project.
This value overrides all estimates based on words or characters and applies to the total cost ofall languages and all files in any given project that this user or dummy user is involved in.
Fixed price per language.
This value overrides all estimates based on words or characters and applies to the total(sum) cost of a single language in all projects that this user or dummy user is involved in.
Fixed price per file.
This value overrides all estimates based on words or characters and applies to the total (sum) cost of any given file in all projects and for all language combinations that this user or dummy user is involved in.
Warning
The three aforementioned fixed price items can only be used individually and can't be used in combination. (I.e use only one of the three)
Management fee (%).
This is a standard fee in a currency amount that is applied to each workflow step.
Rush job premium (%).
Enter a value in here for Rush jobs premium.
Note
This value is always applied to the estimation, of whether or not a rush job exists or not. Therefore this is not meant as a permanent value, but only to be used when a rush job actually occurs.
The end-user themselves internally determine if the job being estimated is a rush job.
Minimum charge.
If all other charges combined (including fixed and per word/character) are less than this minimum value, then the value entered here will apply.
Price per hour
The hourly rate is charged against the time entered in the user's time card.
The user time card is in the project's workflow section. A value is entered in each workflow step, beside the translator name.
Note
Pre-Requisite: hourly rate card options need to be enabled.