Calculating administration costs: time management/billing software? Trådens avsändare: Tom in London
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Tom in London
Storbritannien
Local time: 10:30
Medlem (2008)
Italienska till Engelska
How would you calculate the administration costs for a translation job even if you're working for free? e.g.
Time spent on admin only (from the first contact about the job, ongoing communication, invoicing and book-keeping etc.): multiply admin hours by an hourly rate (e.g., €30/hour).
Software Costs: divide monthly software fees (if any) by the number of jobs per month.
Overheads: allocate monthly expenses per job (rent, power & water, office furniture, consumables,... See more How would you calculate the administration costs for a translation job even if you're working for free? e.g.
Time spent on admin only (from the first contact about the job, ongoing communication, invoicing and book-keeping etc.): multiply admin hours by an hourly rate (e.g., €30/hour).
Software Costs: divide monthly software fees (if any) by the number of jobs per month.
Overheads: allocate monthly expenses per job (rent, power & water, office furniture, consumables, etc).
Training/learning/upskilling: include a proportion of these ongoing costs.
Example:
3 admin hours at €30/hour, €10 software, €15 overheads, and €5 training:
Total Admin Cost = 3×30+10+15+5 = 100EUR/job.
So in this example, 100 EUR would be the minimum the translator should charge **even if working for free**.
I begin incurring costs from the moment of the first contact about a job. This would normally be an email or a job offer; the clock starts ticking at that point.
Do you use time management/billing software to do this?
[Edited at 2024-11-18 09:43 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B 
Bosnien och Hercegovina
Local time: 11:30
Medlem (2009)
Engelska till Kroatiska
+ ...
The “send me your CV” clients should be charged too. Maybe if they were, there wouldn’t be that many of them around to waste everyone’s time. I contemplated this, €20 per 1 CV sent.
If you go to a lawyer, they’ll charge you to tell you they can’t work on your case.
[Edited at 2024-11-18 09:45 GMT]
| | | | Samuel Murray
Nederländerna
Local time: 11:30
Medlem (2006)
Engelska till Afrikaans
+ ...
Tom in London wrote:
I begin incurring costs from the moment of the first contact about a job. This would normally be an email or a job offer; the clock starts ticking at that point.
It's good to have a clock that ticks for such tasks, but you can't pass on the costs to clients directly. The clock is there for you to see how much time you're wasting and how much money you can save by working smarter.
Having administrative costs is normal for any business. You just have to raise your rates to the point that your monthly income makes up for the time that you spent doing work during that month.
You can't reasonably charge the client for administrative time, any more than you won't give a client any discounts for the administrative time that the client spends interacting with you. Administrative time is a "shared" expense on both parties, so in the long run it cancels out -- you don't pay for the client's non-billable time and he doesn't pay for your non-billable time, and instead the client just pays for the actual work that you do.
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italien
Local time: 11:30
Engelska till Tyska
+ ...
| It's priced into your rates | Nov 18 |
No client will be willing to pay _perceivable_ administration costs.
Generally, your rates cover administration, handling, customer acquisition and weak periods beside all costs and expenses, taxes, other professionals' fees (lawyers etc.), holidays, retirement arrangements, sick days, savings etc.
Let's say you need 2 hours a day for management etc. Your daily minimum target earning will be divided by 6 (the reamining working hours, assuming you'd work 8 hours/day). This will be you... See more No client will be willing to pay _perceivable_ administration costs.
Generally, your rates cover administration, handling, customer acquisition and weak periods beside all costs and expenses, taxes, other professionals' fees (lawyers etc.), holidays, retirement arrangements, sick days, savings etc.
Let's say you need 2 hours a day for management etc. Your daily minimum target earning will be divided by 6 (the reamining working hours, assuming you'd work 8 hours/day). This will be your hourly rate. From that, you'll calculate your per word rate. In times with less administration work you'll earn more, in administration intensive times the fair amount. ▲ Collapse
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Tom in London
Storbritannien
Local time: 10:30
Medlem (2008)
Italienska till Engelska
TOPIC STARTER | Poorly expressed myself | Nov 18 |
[quote]Samuel Murray:
What I meant to say: if you work for free, e.g. for a charity, you will still be incurring costs.
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italien
Local time: 11:30
Engelska till Tyska
+ ...
| still in your rates | Nov 18 |
[quote]Tom in London wrote:
Samuel Murray:
What I meant to say: if you work for free, e.g. for a charity, you will still be incurring costs.
If you work regurarily for a charity, these costs will be priced into your rates for regular clients too.
| | | | Tom in London
Storbritannien
Local time: 10:30
Medlem (2008)
Italienska till Engelska
TOPIC STARTER
[quote]Zea_Mays wrote:
Tom in London wrote:
Samuel Murray:
What I meant to say: if you work for free, e.g. for a charity, you will still be incurring costs.
If you work regurarily for a charity, these costs will be priced into your rates for regular clients too.
Fair enough, but if the job is a one-off?
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italien
Local time: 11:30
Engelska till Tyska
+ ...
Tom in London wrote:
Zea_Mays wrote:
If you work regurarily for a charity, these costs will be priced into your rates for regular clients too.
Fair enough, but if the job is a one-off?
Then it will be a sacrifice for the good cause. (Which is, after all, the basis of charity.)
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Tom in London
Storbritannien
Local time: 10:30
Medlem (2008)
Italienska till Engelska
TOPIC STARTER
Zea_Mays wrote:
Tom in London wrote:
Zea_Mays wrote:
If you work regurarily for a charity, these costs will be priced into your rates for regular clients too.
Fair enough, but if the job is a one-off?
Then it will be a sacrifice for the good cause. (Which is, after all, the basis of charity.)
But I'm not asking about charities.
To make my original post clearer: if someone who is not a charity asks me to work for free, I am still incurring costs. So I still need to charge them something.
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italien
Local time: 11:30
Engelska till Tyska
+ ...
Tom in London wrote:
But I'm not asking about charities.
To make my original post clearer: if someone who is not a charity asks me to work for free, I am still incurring costs. So I still need to charge them something.
If they are willing to pay for it, it's a matter of negotiation. But I think even cases like this would fall under what your rates for regular clients should cover.
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If I understand correctly, the problem consists of translating a project for free and charging for the time spent on administration. In 40 years of translation, I've never found myself in such a situation. Either the translation is free or it isn't! On the other hand, it seems to me that you've already done the maths: 100 EUR/job.
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