Editing 100%/95-99% TM match translations Thread poster: Sachiko Deguzman
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Hello! I have a question about the payment of this project with lots of 100%/95-99% TM match translations. This was assigned as Translation project, not Proofreading/Editing project.
The client came up with the new Term Base for this project, so I needed to edit lots of 100%/95-99% TM match strings because these had the old terminologies.
The total word count for 100%/95-99% TM match was about 3200 words. Other matches were about 2300 words.
I do not know the exact pe... See more Hello! I have a question about the payment of this project with lots of 100%/95-99% TM match translations. This was assigned as Translation project, not Proofreading/Editing project.
The client came up with the new Term Base for this project, so I needed to edit lots of 100%/95-99% TM match strings because these had the old terminologies.
The total word count for 100%/95-99% TM match was about 3200 words. Other matches were about 2300 words.
I do not know the exact percentage of each grid, but I was told the total weighted word count was 2640 words for this Translation project.
I assume that the percentage of 100%/95-99% TM match was 10-20%.
Since it took a long time to edit these 100%/95-99% TM match strings having the old terminologies, I wanted to charge by hourly rate instead of the weighted word count. I explained about this 100%/95-99% TM match strings' issues as well as other issues such as 1) there is no Style Guide, so I needed to search in TM, which was not helpful and 2) old Term Base still shows up, so I needed to check which one is new one or old one each time, etc.
However, I was denied for my request to get paid by hour because this translation agency got this project from this client on word count basis. They would pay me with the total weighted word count of 2640 words plus one hour worth of payment for the additional effort.
I realized it was my fault that I did not bring up this 100%/95-99% TM match strings' issues until I completed it. I should have asked them if I could get paid by hour instead of the weighted word count...
My questions are:
1. what do you do if you were in my situation? (I know I have no options except for accepting this payment although I would lose $.)
2. what should I do for the next time if I have this type of project again with the same agency?
FYI, I checked this forum whether similar topics were discussed and I found the following:
https://www.proz.com/forum/money_matters/1576-payment_for_100_matches_urgent.html
Thank you very much for reading I appreciate your opinions and thank you for your help in advance!
SD
[Edited at 2023-01-23 15:47 GMT]
[Edited at 2023-01-23 15:58 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Thayenga 
Germany
Local time: 19:13
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
There is only one way to pay for any editing work, by the hour. Of course the matches of the MT depend on the language pair, but I know that in German there are up to three different words for a single English word. This means that a match doesn't necessarily makes sense in the target language.
[Edited at 2023-01-24 11:02 GMT]
| | | | Sachiko Deguzman
United States
Local time: 13:13
English to Japanese
TOPIC STARTER
Thayenga, thank you very much for sharing your opinions. I agree with you about getting paid by hour for editing. Although this entire project was assinged as "Translation", too much of edting of 100/99% matches was involved, so I thought that I should get paid by hour.
I finally got the rate grid for TM matches for this project.
Repetitions 30%
100% 25%
95-99% 30%
85-94% 30%
75-84% 30%
50-74% 100%<... See more Thayenga, thank you very much for sharing your opinions. I agree with you about getting paid by hour for editing. Although this entire project was assinged as "Translation", too much of edting of 100/99% matches was involved, so I thought that I should get paid by hour.
I finally got the rate grid for TM matches for this project.
Repetitions 30%
100% 25%
95-99% 30%
85-94% 30%
75-84% 30%
50-74% 100%
No match 100%
25% weight for 100% matches was better than expected, but I was so suprised for this low weight for 85-94% and 75-84%. I have never seen such a low weight for these matches... This client has other projects and it has much better grid: 40% for 100%, 60% for 95-99%/85-94%, 75% for 75-84% and 100% for 50-74%/No match, so I did not exepct this low weight for this new project. Yes, I was dumb not checking with the agency. For future project, I will not accept their projects unless they change this grid.
[Edited at 2023-01-23 23:58 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Michael Newton
United States
Local time: 13:13
Japanese to English
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I would find another client, pronto.
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Jo Macdonald
Spain
Local time: 19:13
Italian to English
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| Talk to the client about it | Jan 24, 2023 |
Explain how to job requirements went beyond the job description and that you did extra work not covered by the PO.
Be professional and reasonable, they may not have realised how much extra work was required.
If you already agreed to a price it may be hard to get paid for the extra work but their answer will give you an idea of whether it was a mistake or not and whether you want to work with them again.
Bottom line, extra work should be paid extra, say a c... See more Explain how to job requirements went beyond the job description and that you did extra work not covered by the PO.
Be professional and reasonable, they may not have realised how much extra work was required.
If you already agreed to a price it may be hard to get paid for the extra work but their answer will give you an idea of whether it was a mistake or not and whether you want to work with them again.
Bottom line, extra work should be paid extra, say a couple of hours for editing the termbase. Next time check before starting or tell the client as soon as you realise a lot more work is required. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | You should have informed the client immediately | Jan 24, 2023 |
Not at the end of the job. It was a bit foolish to finish the job without even knowing if they were going to pay you for the extra time spent on it.
| | | | Sachiko Deguzman
United States
Local time: 13:13
English to Japanese
TOPIC STARTER | Agreed again | Jan 24, 2023 |
Thank you everyone for taking time to read my post and reply! I already explained about all the extra work I needed to do to PM, but she did not accept my request to get paid by hour. Instead she added one hour worth of payment for this extra work, but it was not enough to compensate the time it took to complete. That is why I came here to post this and ask for opinions.
Yes, I was very foolish for not checking with PM about the extra work and payment as soon as I realized this is... See more Thank you everyone for taking time to read my post and reply! I already explained about all the extra work I needed to do to PM, but she did not accept my request to get paid by hour. Instead she added one hour worth of payment for this extra work, but it was not enough to compensate the time it took to complete. That is why I came here to post this and ask for opinions.
Yes, I was very foolish for not checking with PM about the extra work and payment as soon as I realized this issue. In the past, they always honored my request, so I assumed that they would pay me by hour for this project as well. Now I learned my lesson that I should not make such an assumption and I need to ask each time.
I also think it is unethical that PM did not disclose this significant change of the grid. I usually check their analysis is correct when I check out a project on memoQ. However, they used different tool for this project, so I totally forgot to check the grid/rate for each category. If I knew this low percentage of TM matches, I did not accept this project. I learned my lesson very well .... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 19:13
French to English
So they have offered an hour's worth of pay for the extra work, did it take much longer than that?
Looking at the wordcount, I doubt it can have taken you all that much more? I mean, given the wordcounts you mentioned, it wouldn't have taken more than a couple of days to translate the whole thing from scratch.
In your shoe, I would simply accept their offer and chalk my loss up as a learning experience. And then for future projects, you ask to be paid by the hour. Give them an esti... See more So they have offered an hour's worth of pay for the extra work, did it take much longer than that?
Looking at the wordcount, I doubt it can have taken you all that much more? I mean, given the wordcounts you mentioned, it wouldn't have taken more than a couple of days to translate the whole thing from scratch.
In your shoe, I would simply accept their offer and chalk my loss up as a learning experience. And then for future projects, you ask to be paid by the hour. Give them an estimate of the time it should take you, and round it up, then there's less chance of them getting a nasty surprise when you hand it in. And if ever you realise that it will take even longer, you let them know the minute you realise it.
I did a series of transcriptions of video sequences for a long-standing client, and for the first one, I realised that the transcription was going to take longer than I thought. I alerted the PM, who told me that he wouldn't be able to bill the client more. I thought I'd just have to write the loss off, but then for the subsequent translation, he billed them at a slightly higher rate, and told me to do the same, to offset the loss on the transcription. I thanked him, and he went on my very exclusive list of "PMs I will go the extra mile for".
For the next transcription, I estimated more time, but the video was much better quality and I ended up needing even less time than I would normally have estimated, so then the client had a nice surprise and everyone was happy. ▲ Collapse
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 19:13
French to English
S. D. wrote:
Yes, I was very foolish for not checking with PM about the extra work and payment as soon as I realized this issue. In the past, they always honored my request, so I assumed that they would pay me by hour for this project as well. Now I learned my lesson that I should not make such an assumption and I need to ask each time.
I also think it is unethical that PM did not disclose this significant change of the grid. I usually check their analysis is correct when I check out a project on memoQ. However, they used different tool for this project, so I totally forgot to check the grid/rate for each category. If I knew this low percentage of TM matches, I did not accept this project. I learned my lesson very well ....
Don't beat yourself up, I think it's really rather harsh to call you foolish when you had already admitted that you should have mentioned it earlier in your original post. And if as you say, they had always honoured previous requests, there was no reason to think this would be any different.
| | | | Sachiko Deguzman
United States
Local time: 13:13
English to Japanese
TOPIC STARTER
Kay, thank you so much for sharing your experience in the transcription/translation project. I am glad that it worked out well for you! It sounds like you have a great business relationship with the PM. It is awesome that your PM is one of the "PMs I will go the extra mile for"!
It did not take a couple of days to complete this project, but I was expecting $100 (2.5 hours of my work) more if I could get paid by hour instead of the word count using this incredibly low weighted grid. ... See more Kay, thank you so much for sharing your experience in the transcription/translation project. I am glad that it worked out well for you! It sounds like you have a great business relationship with the PM. It is awesome that your PM is one of the "PMs I will go the extra mile for"!
It did not take a couple of days to complete this project, but I was expecting $100 (2.5 hours of my work) more if I could get paid by hour instead of the word count using this incredibly low weighted grid. One of the reasons it took longer than normal 'translation' was that I was asked to make UI elements bilingual, meaning that I needed to copy English words and then put Japanese translation in brackets next to it. PM did not tell me about this from the beginning, so I needed to go back to some files and then redo these UI items. Since Out-of-Scope strings (101% matches) still had old TB, many QA warnings showed up stating about inconsistencies, so I needed to check these as well. There are other reasons for taking extra long for this project and I explained everything to PM, but one hour extra of payment was all I could get. Again now I know I should have informed this PM as soon as I noticed that it would take longer, so I will take one hour extra of payment and then use this experience as a good learning lesson.
Thank you so much everyone for sharing your opinions and helping me to cope with this situation!
[Edited at 2023-01-25 14:09 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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