Overview

In the localization business there are two elements which influence the project process: specifications and appropriateness. Having insight to that, you need to admit that one of the key elements of the translation process is a translation quote. Understanding of clients needs and what they require for a given project is fundamental. Before you even start working on the source documents you need to make an agreement what is the unit you want to charge the client for and what the unit price is. This part of the localization process allows you to save your and your vendors time, improve the quality and consistency of services, and, obviously, speed up the entire process. If you take a look at XTRF Platform's quotes you may ascertain how many aspects are important and which may impact your process, for example language combinations, workflows of your future projects, deadline to close your project, translation specialization. In XTRF Platform you have everything in one place with fully established communication with your client. Your client is informed about the offer you make and can decide whether accept it.

This article guides you in the process of preparing a quote and how to associate the financial aspect of the project by adding cost of the task. In XTRF Platform the cost of the task, with the calculation unit and price unit is called a receivable. You are going to create a quote with two tasks, one for each language combination, and add receivables to the created tasks. The last phase is while sending a quote for the client's acceptance.

I. Start Creating a Quote

The very first step of creating a quote is providing the basics for it necessary to trigger the whole process. To enter the basic information for your quote, follow the steps:

II. Select the Language Combination

Whenever you get files which are supposed to be processed you need to declare the target language. In other words, you need to specify the language combination in your quote: source and target language.  When you do that, one task will be created for one language combination. This allows you to easily manage the vendors' activities because the vendors declare the languages for which they are able to provide their services. 

III. Create a Task

To proceed the source files through the workflow steps in the future project you need to define tasks for it. Each task is associated with the language combination: source and target language.  To create a task for a given language combination perform the following steps:

 

 

Settings in the Quote Display

You can find the full descriptions of the configurable options in the following articles:

• Quote Display
  

IV. Add a Receivable

In case of creating a quote adding a receivable means that you estimate the amount of money you want to charge the client for the activity associated with a given language combination. If you create more than one receivable, of course, this amount will be a component of the final amount included in the quote sent to the client. To add a receivable for a given language combination, perform the steps:  

	On the left-hand side select a task which you want to add a receivable to. The selected item appears in boldface.
	Click the  icon.
	Go to the Receivables tab.
	Click the Add Receivable button. The Task Receivable pop-up window appears. Provide the following data: Select the Task Receivable radio button in the Receivable Type section. Select a service which you want to charge your client for. In the example, the translation job is selected. Select the unit to charge your client for the service from the Calculation Unit drop-down menu, for example the source word. Provide the number of your rate in the Rate Value field. Client's Price Profile If you already have configured the price profile of your client, this value is set up automatically. To learn more about the price profiles for your clients go to the  Managing the Client's Price Profile article. In the Quantity field provide the amount of material to be processed. You can do it as follows: Provide the number manually. Click the Import from... button to get the number from the file statistics. In the Discount/Surcharge section click the Edit button to define the discount or surcharge for your client.
	Click the Save button. The Task Receivable pop-up window closes.
	You have added the receivable for the given task. If you hover your mouse over the newly added receivable you can see all details about the financial entry.

V. (Optional) Copy the Task

If you need to process your files to more than one target language, you need to create a task which is associated with each language combination. The most suitable way of creating many tasks is copying the first one: this enables you to avoid providing the same pieces of information for each single task. In XTRF Platform you can copy a task wisely selecting which information should be copied from the previous task and which data should be specified for a newly created task. To copy a task, perform the following steps:

VI. (Optional) Add Receivables to the Tasks

Whenever you add a new task in your quote you should consequently add a receivable to the task. It allows you to charge your client for the service for each language combination separately. Next, you can send the global offer to your client with a sum-up of receivables for all tasks defined in the quote or only for these ones which you want to select. 

To add a receivable for a given task, follow the steps presented in the IV. Adding a Receivable section in this guide. When you finish adding the receivables to your tasks in the quote, go to the next section, VII. Sending a Quote

VII. Send a Quote

When you have prepared a proposal for the client with the details of the future project, you can submit it to your client sending the quote to the client's contact person.