Translation Invoice Template

As an interpreter or translation professional, you may not be sure of the best, most efficient method for billing clients for your services. But with a service such as translation, a professional skill that freelancers dedicate much of their time and resources to developing, it’s especially important to maintain an accurate and clear invoice workflow for all parties involved.

Without a structured payment process in place, clients may be dissuaded from utilizing a freelancer’s services in the future, and freelancers will experience greater difficulty in securing payment from clients. 

Individuals who work on a contract basis use a freelance translation invoice to request payment from their clients for the service of translating written content or oral communication from one language to another. Depending on the format of a particular freelance translation operation, a translation invoice may be structured differently from freelancer to freelancer, but most include several core components.

With a standard translation invoice, there are a number of components that all standard translation invoices should have. For most typical invoicing scenarios, freelancers should include the following elements on their translation invoice: all services supplied; service rates; thorough and accurate descriptions of the services; and all pertinent payment information, such as accepted payment options, deadlines, and associated fees.

Through the utilization of an effective, clear, and descriptive translation invoice, freelancers will be able to more accurately bill their clients while also ensuring a communicative, thoughtful, and overall pleasant payment process for clients.

When clients experience a more positive user experience, especially when it comes to completing payments for products or—in the case of translation professionals—services rendered, payments are made more promptly, and the risk of late or missed payments is significantly reduced. Remember: it’s all about the user experience, which is why translation invoices must be as clear and complete as possible before being sent to the client for payment. 

At Indy, we understand how hard freelancing translation professionals work to improve the quality of their services—from learning a new language to strengthening complex linguistic concepts, translation freelancers do much to ensure their clients have access to a capable and accurate translation professional for all their interpretation needs. And as such, your invoices should reflect that hard, dedicated work. 

By including all relevant transactional information on your translation invoice, you ensure that your clients have access to all of the resources they need to pay you correctly and on time, every time. You also demonstrate your concern for your client relationships by practicing transparency throughout the invoicing and payment processes.

When your client is fully informed about the unique invoicing methods of your freelance translation business, he or she will be better prepared to complete the payment process successfully. By including all information relevant to the transaction, there should be no space for confusion, in turn reducing the likelihood of late or missing payments. With a clear and professional translation invoice, your clients will be more likely to return to you for interpretation services in the future.

The beauty of freelance work lies in your ability to choose how you operate your business, as well as how you bill for the work you do. As an interpreter or translation professional, understanding how to most effectively and accurately bill for your translation work is essential to ensuring prompt payments from your clients. 

As a translation professional, your freelance company should be operating on a services-based business model—as such, the process of gathering the payment details necessary to inform your self-employed invoices should be relatively simple.

To begin formulating your invoicing workflow for billing clients for translation work, you must start with establishing an hourly rate for your services that takes into account industry and market specific elements such as the availability of and demand for translators in your area, as well as the complexity of a given language and the involvement of a particular interpretation or translation service. 

By utilizing professional invoicing software by Indy, freelancers can streamline the cumbersome process of establishing an hourly rate for each service by using the time tracking functionality supported by the platform. To begin tracking the hours spent on a particular service—such as interpreting a meeting or translating a novel, for example—use time-tracking technology or a simple timer to identify how much time you spend working on various tasks associated with a client project. 

Regardless of the way your freelance translation service operation is structured—whether you are translating a piece of written content, such as a book or pamphlet, or are interpreting oral communication, such as a meeting or presentation, you spend countless hours ensuring your clients receive the high quality services they expect from an experienced freelance translation professional. 

By creating an invoice to bill your clients for your translation services, you provide the customer with all the essential transaction details necessary to ensure prompt and on-time payments for all your business interactions. 

To create your translation invoice, your workflow will vary depending on the program or software you use to create your financial materials. Fortunately, there are a number of tools and methods available for interpretation freelancers can utilize as they craft their translation invoices.

We understand the importance of representing the work you do to your clients accurately, especially when it comes to the invoicing and payment processes. However, by utilizing professional invoicing software, translation freelancers gain access to powerful tools capable of providing the greatest flexibility to clients as possible through integrated online payments, direct deposit or mailing options, and hour tracking. 

Some additional benefits of working with an all-in-one invoice management system include automated payment reminders, upfront deposits, and retainer management capabilities. With professional invoicing software by Indy, freelancers gain access to a collection of powerful tools that will make the entire invoicing process run much smoother. 

For programs without in-platform invoice creation tools, a helpful place to begin with creating your translation invoice is by identifying the required format of your chosen invoice management system. If your system requires a .xls (Excel) or .csv (plain text) file, for example, consider creating your invoice using either Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. For systems requiring .doc or PDF files, a program such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or Adobe Premiere Pro may be better suited for your freelance translation business. 

As you create your translation invoice, ensure the following components are included in the final document before you send the file to your client for payment:

• Business and contact information, including the name of your freelancing operation, your phone number, mailing address, and email address
• Client information, including the names and contact information
• Brand elements, including your logo and components such as your company color palette and font families
• Unique invoice elements, such as invoice ID numbers, invoice dates, and payment due dates
• An itemized list of translation services
• Thorough descriptions of the rendered translation services
• Payment totals and subtotals, if applicable
• Payment options and terms, including associated fees and deadlines

If you’re a beginner interpreter or translation professional freelancer who has yet to establish an hourly rate for your translation invoices, the task of placing value on the services you provide can feel overwhelming. However, your hourly rate is a necessary component of any translation invoice—and absolutely critical to ensuring you get paid for your services, on-time and completely. 

As you work to establish your hourly rate, there are a number of important factors to consider, each intricately connected to your freelance business operations plan, your unique payment process, and the type of work that you do as a freelancer interpreter. As you consider for how much your time and services are worth billing your clients, research some of the following elements:

• your credibility and accuracy as a translation professional
• competition within the translation professional field
• your bottom-line, or the figure you get after calculating how many resources (both time and money) you spend when fulfilling a project with a client before you make a profit

As you research your competition, you should take care to consider how much other translators in your area are charging for similar interpretation services. Avoid under- or overcharging your clients by learning as much as you can about job market competition and making adjustments to your hourly rate depending upon the nature of your freelance translation business and particular specialties, if applicable. Price yourself according to your competition to improve your position within the market both financially and professionally. 

The first step in deciding how much to charge for your translation services is to determine your hourly pay rate per service. As a translation professional, the services you provide may be slightly different than those being offered by your competition. Depending on your speciality—which may be written or oral interpretation, professional versus colloquial, or language-specific, for example—your hourly rate may also vary.

As you work to establish your hourly rate, it’s essential to keep your bottom-line and return-on-investment in mind at all times. To get this figure, calculate both the time and money you spend in order to fulfil your translation services, including the time spent traveling to a location, for example. Also keep in mind the complexity of a given language when determining your hourly rate, as well as translator availability and demand within your area of operation.

From there, you can begin to establish prices according to different services, if applicable. For example, consider the differences in effort required to translate a novel versus interpreting a professional meeting—the former service would likely require many months to complete, while the latter could be performed in a single sitting. Your hourly rate per service should reflect the complexity of the particular type of translation work that you do. 

For more complex, longer-form projects that take up more time to complete, such as translating a piece of written content, you will need to establish your billable hour. To do this, freelancers can utilize invoicing software with time tracking functionality to more accurately establish a billable hour per each translation service.