Pages in topic:   [1 2] >
Poll: How do you track your translation/interpretation projects?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Oct 2, 2020

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 »



 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 10:52
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Spreadsheet Oct 2, 2020

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


Ana Cravidao
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muhammad ali
Elena Feriani
Chris Foster
 
Rebecca Marsden
Rebecca Marsden  Identity Verified
Ireland
Local time: 10:52
Irish to English
+ ...
Oct 2, 2020



[Edited at 2020-10-02 15:22 GMT]


 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 11:52
Spanish to English
+ ...
Do what now? Oct 2, 2020

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.

Yetta Jensen Bogarde
Noni Gilbert Riley
Thayenga
Mariana Borio
expressisverbis
Philip Lees
JaneTranslates
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Combination Oct 2, 2020

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


Muriel Vasconcellos
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 03:52
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
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


Aline Amorim
 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:52
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


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 10:52
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Long jobs Oct 2, 2020

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…


Mariana Borio
 
Ali Sharifi
Ali Sharifi  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:52
English to Persian (Farsi)
+ ...
What translation? Oct 2, 2020

What translation?

Josephine Cassar
Kay Denney
 
Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 11:52
Member
English to French
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


Elena Feriani
 
Nina Khmielnitzky
Nina Khmielnitzky  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 06:52
Member (2004)
English to French
Two methods Oct 2, 2020

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
Aline Brito  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 07:52
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.


 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 07:52
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Excel Oct 2, 2020

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)
Philip Lees
Becca Resnik
 
Mr. Satan (X)
Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
Spreadsheet Oct 2, 2020

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.


 
Daniela Slankamenac
Daniela Slankamenac  Identity Verified
Serbia
Local time: 11:52
English to Serbian
Word Oct 2, 2020

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.

JaneTranslates
 
Pages in topic:   [1 2] >


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:

Moderator(s) of this forum
Jared Tabor[Call to this topic]

You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Poll: How do you track your translation/interpretation projects?






Wordfast Pro
Translation Memory Software for Any Platform

Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users! Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value

Buy now! »
TM-Town
Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business

Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.

More info »