TM Project: create, import, calculate price, margin & amount saved

Creating a new TM Project

TM projects in TOM are related to projects/offers, and to be more exact, to individual sub-projects within these.

TM projects are generally created from within a sub-project or offer item.(click tradosTM )
In a time-saving batch function TM analysis files can be imported and TM projects be created in one go during new project or offer creation (see SP-Assistant, only Trados Studio and Across)
In another batch function TM analysis files can be linked to existing sub-projects through Drag&Drop, with TM projects being created automatically in the background (see Sub-Project List features)
You can create more TM projects from within the TM screen once you have created one TM projects using the methods above:
In any TM window you will find all other sub-projects / offer items as well displayed in a popup box under .
Clicking on an SP entry in the list will either:
- create a new TM project with the related language combination, translator etc.
- navigate to that TM project if it exists already

 
Importing the TM analysis

After creating a TM project you will find client name and details, language pair and base price readily inserted in the project (the same is true for a translator, if selected in the sub-project). The next step is the data import from your TM system. The following file formats can be imported:

oTrados 2007 (old format) and MemoQ both generate csv reporting files
oTrados Studio (various versions) and Across generate xml reporting files.

 

Procedure

Click in the TM calculation window.
Choose between two basic formats to import (see above)
Set the options (only Trados Studio)
Select the csv or xml file.

The import result (including prices) is immediately displayed in a chart (to open the popup click ). If a translator has been selected for the sub-project before the import results will be automatically transferred to the translator section in the TM window.

 

Further processing of import results in TOM

 

Option: Calculate price by lines (instead of words)

TOM offers the option of converting the results into a Price by line scheme. This option can be preset in a client's profile. In order to calculate line prices three figures are required:

1.average no. of characters in a word (TOM extracts this value from the Trados log file)
2.number of characters per line (as per client profile)
3.extension factor (default = 1). Relevant in case you charge by the target language but in fact the analysis is based on the source language, which may be considerably different from the target language.

 

Option: Calculation as per 'weighted words' method

This method will re-calculate the number of words found in each match category rather than change the basic price according to the percentage given.  Of course, the total price will be identical in both methods, leaving aside minor rounding differences.

There are at least two benefits in this:

1. You can keep using a fixed word price on your client invoices. This is in a way simple and straightforward to understand even for non-experts.

2. You get an adequate picture of how big the job actually is: Just think of a project with 10,000 words out of which 9,000 are a Context Match. The number 10,000 gives a false picture of the job volume. Weighted words, on the contrary might be just 1,000 (depending on percentages assigned).

 

Some general notes:

The total number of weighted words is generally calculated automatically in the background; the value is displayed beneath the TM analysis.
Since the weighted number of words is a significant indicator of the project volume the value is automatically copied to the sub-project in the function. In the related sub-project, this value is stored in a separate field so that it can be evaluated side by side with the general number of units field used, e.g., in invoices.
It can then also be summarized to get valid figures of work done ("words translated") e.g. over any period, or in any particular target language.
Provided the option Calculate weighted words has been activated the number of weighted words will be copied to general number of units field in the sub-project (to appear on the invoice).

 

 

Refreshing prices, margin and savings

If you need to refresh the calculation after changing any of the parameters click refresh_blu to recalculate prices etc.

 

Copy total price to related sub-project

The simplest way to process the analysis result is to copy the total price to the related sub-project by clicking on . The figure is used as 'unit price' in the sub-project (with 'quantity' automatically set to '1'). As an additional information you could set the 'invoice basis' field to "as per TM analysis" (or similar).

Prices can be transferred separately for clients and translators.

 

Printing the analysis

see Reporting options