Hello, Claire,

Interesting to see/meet you!

Could be great question and source for interesting improvements! Taking into account your limited need in advanced management software, I believe right choice here will be Lite. Since it already has all data (volumes, times, etc.), and you don't need more layers here (outsourcing, additional expenses/income, etc.), then it will be logical to use this data.

Yes, reporting in Team version provides all possible customization. However, Lite version also has some reports, but they are not customizable. I offer you to check existing reports and maybe provide some information what you're missing there. We can then improve reporting part in the Lite plugin and your task could be solved.

Answering your question about data move, yes, it's already possible. From the Settings screen, just click Export as JSON button on the toolbar. To import data to Team version, version 5.1 is needed, which is still not released (planned for upcoming days/weeks).

Hello Eugene,

Thanks for getting back to me. It would be great if you could tweak the Lite version to include some customisable reporting. I'd basically want it to show number of words/hours/income from specific clients over defined periods, which languages, what countries (mainly whether home (UK) or abroad, rather than a specific breakdown), and whether they are direct clients or agencies, but as long as I have the figures per client, it's not a problem to work the rest out myself.

Talking to other colleagues who already use the standalone freelancer edition (which I gather isn't offered any more?), I have the impression that it isn't possible to add other jobs that aren't in Studio? While most of my translation work does go through Studio, I do also do editing work for non-native speakers, or direct clients, that doesn't go through Studio, so it would be great to have the option to add non-Studio work too.

In the meantime, I'll download the trial version and see what I think. It would be good to integrate the functions of translating and project management, I must admit.

Many thanks,

Claire

Hello Claire,

Very great details, thank you! We'll discuss with colleagues about reporting and I'll write additional message here.

Claire Cox said:

Talking to other colleagues who already use the standalone freelancer edition (which I gather isn't offered any more?), I have the impression that it isn't possible to add other jobs that aren't in Studio?

It was true for previous versions, but not for the last one. Now it's possible to create custom projects and register any additional work which freelancer can do. It is described here:

https://community.sdl.com/product-groups/translationproductivity/business-manager/w/wiki/5072/project-editing-window

Also, new release is coming (today or few days), which will further improve working with custom projects. So, it's not an issue anymore

Claire Cox said:

In the meantime, I'll download the trial version and see what I think. It would be good to integrate the functions of translating and project management, I must admit.

Hi Claire Cox

Great post... and this is exactly what we want to see.  We are committed to making this the ideal solution for the majority of freelance translators using Studio.  We don't want this to become the more complex tool it was as it contained too many features that are only useful for the few.  But there are definitley things we can do that would be useful for the many and this is what we need to understand.

Your feedback matches that of a few other users I have spoken to so we will look at what we can do here.

Hi Eugene,

Thanks for your reply.

Having watched Nora's webinar on the program, I've just downloaded the trial and have a few queries! I've tried to set up my basic settings and then added a new project, which just happens to be one small file as this particular client likes me to invoice per job. However, I wasn't sure how to set the fuzzy scheme for this client (and lots of my clients, for that matter) as no discount. At the moment, although I've set up a project in Studio as usual, it has doubled the word count in BML and is showing me twice what it should be. I thought I'd set up a no discount fuzzy scheme, showing everything as 100%, but perhaps I haven't done it correctly? When I try and click Edit, I get the message "Please select matching fuzzy type for "exact" fuzzy code", and I really don't know what it means.

I also wondered how you add the specialisation when setting up the project in Studio. I had to add that in BML later. It might be useful to have the option to add with the client information, although for some clients, I do different specialisations/languages so it would be useful to add it at project level too.

One other point that occurs to me at this very early stage is that I usually invoice monthly, but set up individual projects for each job that comes in. Using BML would require me to send one invoice per job, which isn't how I work for most clients (there are exceptions!). Is it possible to bundle certain projects to make one monthly invoice? Otherwise I can see I'd have to create one project per client per month, and add the individual jobs separately to the project, but then again if I do multiple languages for the same client, that might not work either....

Sorry for asking so many questions! Looking forward to your answers.

Best wishes,

Claire

Hello, Claire,

Sorry it took so much time to answer.

Claire Cox said:

At the moment, although I've set up a project in Studio as usual, it has doubled the word count in BML and is showing me twice what it should be. I thought I'd set up a no discount fuzzy scheme, showing everything as 100%, but perhaps I haven't done it correctly? When I try and click Edit, I get the message "Please select matching fuzzy type for "exact" fuzzy code", and I really don't know what it means.

The logic is the following. We have fuzzy types. For fuzzy types, each CAT tool uses different 'codes'. So, to set match between Studio's fuzzy match and TBM's fuzzy type there is a Synonyms column, which could have multiple values. Example of partially-filled fuzzy types for Studio:

Then, we have fuzzy schemes. Fuzzy scheme contains set of fuzzy types (it could contain not all fuzzy types, which exist in a corresponding table).

Then, when TBM loads Studio's project, it takes default fuzzy scheme, reads information from analysis file and then searches for matching fuzzy types from default fuzzy scheme. If fuzzy type not found, a comment you mentioned is added to the Notes field. In this case, you have to make a project non-synced and manually select fuzzy types for each of such notes. When you make such selection, your choice will be saved for future use.

Claire Cox said:

Is it possible to bundle certain projects to make one monthly invoice?

Of course! Simply select all customer's jobs at the end of month and click Create invoice. You will get single invoice with all jobs. If you wish to include all fuzzy types and prices per each project, you're done. But if you wish to get shorter invoice (with one row with average volume), then before creating an invoice you have to open a project, make it non-synced, select all tasks and apply batch editing to get average volume for selected tasks. After that, invoice will contain not full fuzzy break-down, but just one single row with total amount.

Hello, Claire,

Sorry it took so much time to answer.

Claire Cox said:

At the moment, although I've set up a project in Studio as usual, it has doubled the word count in BML and is showing me twice what it should be. I thought I'd set up a no discount fuzzy scheme, showing everything as 100%, but perhaps I haven't done it correctly? When I try and click Edit, I get the message "Please select matching fuzzy type for "exact" fuzzy code", and I really don't know what it means.

The logic is the following. We have fuzzy types. For fuzzy types, each CAT tool uses different 'codes'. So, to set match between Studio's fuzzy match and TBM's fuzzy type there is a Synonyms column, which could have multiple values. Example of partially-filled fuzzy types for Studio:

Then, we have fuzzy schemes. Fuzzy scheme contains set of fuzzy types (it could contain not all fuzzy types, which exist in a corresponding table).

Then, when TBM loads Studio's project, it takes default fuzzy scheme, reads information from analysis file and then searches for matching fuzzy types from default fuzzy scheme. If fuzzy type not found, a comment you mentioned is added to the Notes field. In this case, you have to make a project non-synced and manually select fuzzy types for each of such notes. When you make such selection, your choice will be saved for future use.

Claire Cox said:

Is it possible to bundle certain projects to make one monthly invoice?

Of course! Simply select all customer's jobs at the end of month and click Create invoice. You will get single invoice with all jobs. If you wish to include all fuzzy types and prices per each project, you're done. But if you wish to get shorter invoice (with one row with average volume), then before creating an invoice you have to open a project, make it non-synced, select all tasks and apply batch editing to get average volume for selected tasks. After that, invoice will contain not full fuzzy break-down, but just one single row with total amount.