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How do you keep agency rates and requirements straight?
Thread poster: Good Locker
Good Locker
Good Locker
Ukraine
Local time: 14:22
New user
Ingiriisi to Russian
+ ...
Sep 18

Genuinely curious how people handle this once you're working with more than a couple of agencies. Each one tends to have its own rate, its own mileage rules, sometimes a minimum, and its own way of wanting things invoiced. Some of that probably becomes second nature over time, but I'd imagine keeping it all accurate — especially when something changes — takes some kind of system.
Do most people track this in a spreadsheet, or somewhere else entirely? And does that system tend to hold u... See more
Genuinely curious how people handle this once you're working with more than a couple of agencies. Each one tends to have its own rate, its own mileage rules, sometimes a minimum, and its own way of wanting things invoiced. Some of that probably becomes second nature over time, but I'd imagine keeping it all accurate — especially when something changes — takes some kind of system.
Do most people track this in a spreadsheet, or somewhere else entirely? And does that system tend to hold up well once you're juggling five or more agencies, or does it start breaking down?
What does your system actually look like — one sheet, several, something else?
What usually causes it to fall out of date or get messy?
Has an agency ever changed a rate or requirement and you found out later than you'd have liked? ▲ Collapse
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 13:22
Member (2006)
Ingiriisi to Afrikaans
+ ...
I use a tree manager Sep 18

Good Locker wrote:
Do most people track this in a spreadsheet, or somewhere else entirely?

I use a tree manager, and I use a free one called Cherry Tree. You create a node for each client, and in the node you write all the agency's requirements etc. Then whenever you do a job or send invoices, you check the node text.

https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/

Or if you want to spend $100, try MyInfo, the successor to the original Treepad.
https://www.myinfoapp.com
https://www.myinfoapp.com/blog/download-treepad

[Edited at 2026-09-18 18:00 GMT]
 
Zea_Mays
Zea_Mays  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 13:22
Ingiriisi to German
+ ...
oh! Sep 18

ConquerorWorm's brother!

Jennifer Levey
 
Li-Hsiang Hsu
Li-Hsiang Hsu  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 13:22
Faransiis to Chinese
+ ...
Everything is stored in my head 05:04

Unfortunately, I don't have that many rates, agencies, projects, or workflows to handle. If an agency or a company assigns me with 15k words to translate each month, another 10k words and so on, that already takes up nearly half of my working time. It’s impossible to do more, even though I would like to.
 


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How do you keep agency rates and requirements straight?







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