Pricing of services
If you'd like to know how much a translation done
by ATS will cost, please send us an e-mail or write to
us, enclosing the document you'd like translating,
ideally in an editable electronic form. The types of
files we can process are listed here.
To get in touch with us, just click here.
If you just need a rough idea of how much your
translation is going to cost, ask us for an
estimate.
If you'd prefer to know the price quickly or your
purchasing department needs some hard figures before
you can place your order, we can make you a
binding quotation, which will fix the cost of
the translation before the project has actually
started. This will be based on the length of the source
file plus or minus a certain amount to account for the
usual "growth" or "shrinkage" of the text in the target
language.
In general, our invoices reflect the actual
length of the translation. Being a
German company, we charge customers in a customary
German way, i.e. per line rather than per word, with a
line consisting of 55 keystrokes, which includes
spacing and punctuation.
Binding quotations are generally estimates of the
cost of the translation. In other words, we estimate
the length that the translation is likely to be, which
is done using factors determined from our past
experience of handling different types of texts in
various languages.
In contrast, the cost of editing is based on the
actual amount of time required for the
task. This is why we don't usually make binding quotes
for this service, but estimates.
How much time we're likely to need to edit a text
largely depends on how well (or badly!) the source text
is written in the first place. It also depends on the
complexity of the text (you can check a commercial
letter much faster than an academic article or a legal
contract) and on its purpose and readership.
In the case of software localisation, we invoice
the number of words in the source
text, i.e. the original files. If any graphics need to
be localised (i.e. they contain words in the source
language), we will charge you for this service on an
hourly basis.
Factors that affect prices
The rates we charge for translations vary due to a
number of factors: the source and target languages, the
type of text to be translated, the rate of sentence
repetition (in technical texts, in particular) and how
quickly you require your translation doing.
- Target languages
English translations of German texts and vice versa
are favourably priced, whereas Scandinavian
translations, for example, are relatively
costly.
This is mainly due to supply and demand in the
countries where our translators live and work.
- Types of texts
Translations of contracts or patents are more
expensive to translate than commercial letters or
marketing texts.
The cost partly depends on the complexity of
the language used in a source text and
partly on the degree of specialisation and
expertise needed to produce an accurate
translation.
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- Repetitions in texts
If a technical document such as an instruction
manual or a help file for a program contains a
considerable amount of sentence repetition, we may be
able to charge you a lower rate for translating the
identical sentences (see below for more
details).
If we use certain software tools (called "CAT
tools") to process the source document, then we can
reproduce identical sentences automatically with
them. This saves us time during the translation
process, and we can pass this benefit on to the
customer by lowering the rate paid for such identical
sentences, providing they match the context each
time.
NB This is only possible if the
source document is suitable for CAT processing and we
employ a translator for the assignment who owns a
software licence for such a program. (Not every
translator does.)
- We frequently charge a surcharge for rush
jobs. This is because the whole translation
process has to be speeded up and compacted. The extra
charge makes up for longer working hours and
shortened weekends or holidays a little, like being
paid for doing overtime.
Saving money
You can save money on translations and editing if
you bear these points in mind:
- (a) you're investing your money, not wasting
it!
By getting ATS to translate a document for you,
you'll be investing your money rather than throwing
it out of the window! You'll get a high-quality
translation first time round, not a poor one that
needs to be edited or even re-done by someone else at
extra cost (not to mention the loss of time). We
believe in giving you value for money.
- (b) high-quality texts are easier to
edit/translate
Editing assignments can be done more quickly if the
quality of the text is good in the first place; a
poorly written text will take a lot of correcting and
therefore be relatively costly. Remember to run a
spelling check on your text before submitting it to
us.
If you aren't used to writing in English or don't
speak or write it very fluently, then it might be an
idea to get us to translate the text for you in the
first place instead of asking us to edit your own
translation.
- (c) discount for prompt payment
We normally offer corporate customers 2% discount on
payment within 7 or 10 days of receiving our bills,
depending on the payment conditions we agree on. So
you can save money by paying us quickly (which is
only fair anyway).
- (d) regular custom
Regular customers are granted more flexible terms of
payment than occasional clients.
- (e) repetition in texts
As we have noted above, long texts like instruction
manuals or help files for computer programs often
contain a lot of repetition. In some cases, we can
employ special software tools to speed up the
translation process by automatically inserting
translations of identical sentences throughout your
document.
If we can process your documents this way, we can
offer you special low rates for repetitions, which
reduces the overall cost for you.
Get in touch and ask us how much your translation
project is likely to cost. We'll name you a fair price
for our services.
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