| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | How should I charge administration costs? Thread poster: Şerife Arıöz
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I'm not even sure how much I should ask/how to calculate my administration costs, but I saw that most are around €15 euros. But should I charge them with every invoice? Or do I only ask for them once a month? What about returning customers?
| | | | Baran Keki 
Türkiye
Local time: 20:59
Member
English to Turkish
| What is an administration cost? | Sep 21, 2023 |
What is that?
| | | | Şerife Arıöz
Netherlands
Turkish to Dutch
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TOPIC STARTER | Administration costs: | Sep 21, 2023 |
It's the costs you ask from your customer to pay for the time to register them into your database and/or the time you spend on administration with taxes and other (daily) costs.
| | | | Tomasz Sienicki
Denmark
Local time: 19:59
Member (2007)
Danish to Polish
+ ...
| minimum fees | Sep 21, 2023 |
Administration costs are normally only charged when they exceed the profit from a given job. This is usually done through minimum fees. For larger jobs, you cover these costs yourself.
[Edited at 2023-09-21 09:39 GMT]
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Hayley Wakenshaw
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:59
Member (2018)
Dutch to English
| I didn’t know this was a thing... | Sep 21, 2023 |
What sort of things are you considering charging administration costs for? I’m really curious about this now because I’ve never come across it before in this business.
I don’t charge additional administration fees. I do have a minimum charge that would cover the time taken for communication and invoicing, but I don’t apply it. The only time I have charged the minimum fee was for a new client asking for a very short translation.
Otherwise, the cost of administrat... See more What sort of things are you considering charging administration costs for? I’m really curious about this now because I’ve never come across it before in this business.
I don’t charge additional administration fees. I do have a minimum charge that would cover the time taken for communication and invoicing, but I don’t apply it. The only time I have charged the minimum fee was for a new client asking for a very short translation.
Otherwise, the cost of administration is factored into my rates. I keep track of my administration time to make sure I’m still being paid enough to cover those hours, too. (Although my idea of ‘enough’ is probably a lot lower than that of many other linguists!) ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Administration costs? | Sep 21, 2023 |
I don’t understand what you’re talking about. My rates are inclusive of all administration costs (general expenses). The only exceptions are postal charges and certification fees in the case of sworn translations.
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italy
Local time: 19:59
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| priced into rates | Sep 21, 2023 |
Your general administration costs will have to be priced into your rates.
As Tomasz said, with minimum fees you'll cover costs
that exceed your profit on a small job, for example.
If you have agreed with the client to do additional work,
that's usually to be charged by your hourly rate.
| | | | | Administration costs? | Sep 21, 2023 |
Şerife Arıöz wrote:
I'm not even sure how much I should ask/how to calculate my administration costs, but I saw that most are around €15 euros. But should I charge them with every invoice? Or do I only ask for them once a month? What about returning customers?
Aren't they included in your price? It is up to you if you want to charge for every invoice, but what if the client refuses to pay? What do you do? You don't send him an invoice? How do you want to get your money then?
If you like or not, 'administration' is an integral part of the job.
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Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 20:59
Member
English to Turkish
What about all that secretarial work we do like emailing back and forth with PMs or MemoQ support in a foreign language (English) for hours, issuing and chasing invoices, sending reminders etc. Isn't all this supposed to be 'admin work'? I could probably do better things with the time I lose writing emails, trying to explain linguistic nuances or the glitches of that infernal thing called MemoQ. Aren't I entitled to some kind of compensation for my pains? Aren't we all selling our 'time'?
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Baran Keki wrote:
What about all that secretarial work we do like emailing back and forth with PMs or MemoQ support in a foreign language (English) for hours, issuing and chasing invoices, sending reminders etc. Isn't all this supposed to be 'admin work'? I could probably do better things with the time I lose writing emails, trying to explain linguistic nuances or the glitches of that infernal thing called MemoQ. Aren't I entitled to some kind of compensation for my pains? Aren't we all selling our 'time'?
It's all in the job.
| | | | IrinaN
United States
Local time: 12:59
English to Russian
+ ...
| Administrative costs | Sep 21, 2023 |
are the same as the overhead expenses, some of which are absolutely inevitable and simply can't be cut off or even down. This is your investment in your business and you must try your best to include it into the retail price of the sold goods, aka your rates, and get some return. Those are basic business rules. In other words, when this does not happen, one is in the wrong business. The fastest way to fail is not to pay attention to this simple math. Make sure that your rates are livable and pro... See more are the same as the overhead expenses, some of which are absolutely inevitable and simply can't be cut off or even down. This is your investment in your business and you must try your best to include it into the retail price of the sold goods, aka your rates, and get some return. Those are basic business rules. In other words, when this does not happen, one is in the wrong business. The fastest way to fail is not to pay attention to this simple math. Make sure that your rates are livable and profitable, unless translation is your supplementary income. However, "Hey, why don't you pay me for finding you, talking to you and issuing my invoice?!?!?" sounds a bit strange:-). The price of every loaf of bread you buy accounts for baker's salary, electricity, water, flour etc etc. No one will accept the charges for the time spent on sustaining your own business "in the pure form", so to speak.
You should be able to write off certain percentages of your costs as business expense - light bills, home office, consumables etc.
Good luck! ▲ Collapse
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Baran Keki wrote:
What about all that secretarial work we do like emailing back and forth with PMs or MemoQ support in a foreign language (English) for hours, issuing and chasing invoices, sending reminders etc. Isn't all this supposed to be 'admin work'? I could probably do better things with the time I lose writing emails, trying to explain linguistic nuances or the glitches of that infernal thing called MemoQ. Aren't I entitled to some kind of compensation for my pains? Aren't we all selling our 'time'?
Of course you're entitled to compensation for that. You factor it in to the time you will spend on the project. So if I estimate I'll need 10 hours to translate and know that this client needs a lot of handholding or has a very complicated billing process, then I'll add another 2 hours for that work and calculate my rate for the job based on 12 hours, not 10. The client will be billed for 12 hours or however many currency units per word/line/page, but my price for those words are based on the 12 hours I'll need in total for the project. Sometimes an issue pops up (usually chasing down payment) that takes hours to resolve that I didn't anticipate and my hourly rate ends up being a bit low on that project. But then there are others that go more smoothly than predicted and it all evens out in the end.
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IrinaN
United States
Local time: 12:59
English to Russian
+ ...
| This is exactly why | Sep 21, 2023 |
Baran Keki wrote:
What about all that secretarial work we do like emailing back and forth with PMs
All my life I worked exclusively via agencies:-) I would close the file or my mouth and the work day would be over and I'd be free as a bird. Their margin was hardly higher than 30-40% of my unpaid time to be devoted to all that mess. At least this number is what many colleagues here claimed to be real. 2-10 minutes to discuss a new assignment, another 10-30 - to assess the job and say Yes or No, and 10 minutes to populate the invoice template afterward.
| | | | | Those are your costs, to be borne by your exclusively | Sep 21, 2023 |
Şerife Arıöz wrote:
It's the costs you ask from your customer to pay for the time to register them into your database and/or the time you spend on administration with taxes and other (daily) costs.
What you charge to a client is for what you do for that client (translation, editing, proofreading, or whatever). Depending on your jurisdiction, of course you must also add such things as VAT, sales taxes, and so on, but that's it: entering the client in your database, calculating your own taxes, creating and sending your invoices, etc. is work you do for yourself, in order to have an ongoing business.
It's up to you to factor in your rates how much money you need to cover your overhead.
If, for example, I assigned a 1,000 word translation to you and, we agreed on a rate of USD 0.15/word, I would expect to pay USD 150. Unless I had agreed beforehand to pay for extra services (a rush rate, maybe, or similar), I would not pay more. If your invoice read something like:
Translation: 1,000 words @ USD 0.15/ word = USD 150
Administrative costs: 2 hours @ USD 15/hour = USD 30
Total = USD 180
I would first enquire why you added those administrative costs, and after learning that they were for the time you spent entering me in your database, or whatever, I would refuse to pay more than USD 150.
[Edited at 2023-09-21 21:32 GMT]
[Edited at 2023-09-21 21:33 GMT]
| | | | Jessica Noyes
United States
Local time: 13:59
Member
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Tell it to the Airbnb people | Sep 22, 2023 |
The point is being made that these costs should be included in our rates, and I couldn't agree more.
However, recently here in North America we are often asked to cover what I'd call administrative costs when we make a purchase. One egregious instance is Airbnb, where a low nightly rate gets jacked up by as much as a third for "cleaning fees". It is obvious, really, that cleaning is just part of the cost of running any lodging establishment. (Note that bona fide hotels an inns unde... See more The point is being made that these costs should be included in our rates, and I couldn't agree more.
However, recently here in North America we are often asked to cover what I'd call administrative costs when we make a purchase. One egregious instance is Airbnb, where a low nightly rate gets jacked up by as much as a third for "cleaning fees". It is obvious, really, that cleaning is just part of the cost of running any lodging establishment. (Note that bona fide hotels an inns understand this and bill accordingly.)
Another instance is for on-line ticket buying. We decide we'll pay the required price, and when we get to check-out, there is a hefty additional fee.
So a younger person, who experiences these extra fees at every turn, may well consider them to be normal. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Pages in topic: [1 2] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » How should I charge administration costs? | Trados Business Manager Lite | Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio
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