Additional Settings for the Vendor App

Overview

With the Vendor application, organizations can access cost detail reports and invoices, as well as manage vendor information. In the TMS, a vendor is a language service provider (LSP).

This page shows how organizations can set up additional settings in the Project application to maximize the features of the Vendor app.

Prerequisites

The following are prerequisites that have to be completed before adjustments are made to the Project Management app. Work with your support team to configure these settings.

  • Select the currency that will be used to manage finances in TMS. 

  • Assign your vendors to the desired workflow phases.
    Contact our Client Success team to start linking a vendor to your organization.

  • Be assigned a rate chart. Your selected vendors are in charge of creating and maintaining rate charts which will be used for billing purposes in the future.
    Rate charts are accessible on the Rate Charts page.

Enable financial management

After completing the prerequisites, you can now set up additional features in the Project Management and Vendor applications.

Add changes to your workflow

If you have not created any workflows, follow the steps on Workflow Templates to create a workflow. Note that to generate costs, the Vendor app requires workflows to include a Leverage TM phase.

If you want to update a Project Workflow template, note that existing documents will not be updated with new vendor assignments or mark the phase as billable. It will only apply to new documents. 

Make changes to the TM Leverage phase

To make the changes to TM Leverage, follow these steps:

  1. On the Projects page, select a project.

  2. When the Project Summary page opens, click the Project Workflow tab, and then click the Leverage TM phase.

  3. In the Rules section, click the Add Rule option to add a workflow rule with the following specifications:

    • Condition: leverage translation memory process completes

    • Action: generate quote

  4. Click Save.

Adjust billing details

To adjust the billing details of human translation and custom phases of a project, follow these steps:

  1. On the Projects page, select a project.

  2. When the Project Summary page opens, click the Project Workflow tab, and then select either a custom phase or a human translation phase.

  3. Set up the following information in the Settings section:

    • Name - Enter the name of the phase.

    • Description - Enter the description of the phase.

    • Allow task check-out - Select Yes to allow task check-out for the applicable workflow phase.

    • Assignments - in this table, enter the following details:

      • Source - Select the source locale or language.

      • Target - Select the target locale or language.

      • Vendor - Select the applicable vendor or language service provider.

      • Billable - Select whether the assignment is billable or not.
        If you select Default, the assignment follows your default configuration found in the Default row.

      • Billable Time Tracking - Select any of the following:

        • Default - Select this option to use your default configuration.

        • Use workbench time tracking - Select this option to use the workbench time for billing.

        • Manual entry on completion - Select this option to manually enter the billable time upon completion of the phase.

      • Assignee Groups - Click the groups link to open the Manage Assignment Groups window for an assignment.
        Default vendor - Select the applicable vendor.
        Note: If you select No Vendor Assigned from the Vendor list and your target vendor is Default Vendor, that target will have no assigned vendor.

  • If you add language pairs to a document that are not specified by the workflow, the system will assign that language pair to your Default Vendor with the Default Billable status.

  • The system identifies how a phase is billed according to the configured workflow rules and the rate chart in the Vendor app. Based on these two criteria, phases are charged according to either their billable hours or the the actual time spent to complete the phase.

  • If you don't specify a regional code for the source or target locales, the system automatically assigns tasks to use the general language code.

Mark phases as invoiceable

The system automatically scans workflow phases that are invoiceable to include them in an Invoice, which you can find in the Vendor app. Note that only billable phases can be marked as invoiceable.

Phases are invoiceable in two ways:

  • When the document that belongs to a phase has reached completion status.

  • When a billable phase is completed.

To mark phases as invoiceable, use the following rules on the phase:

  • mark phase as invoiceable

  • mark all previous billable phases as invoiceable

  • mark all billable phases as invoiceable

These rules are not required. They can be used to let vendors invoice when their part in the workflow is done or to prevent bottleneck phases from slowing down the invoicing process. If they are not used, billable phases will be marked invoiceable when the document is completed. 

You can apply these rules on the completed translation phases of the workflow if you wish to let the vendor bill once the target is complete. 

Review quotes in the Project Management app

You can review a quote for a document in the Amount column of the Documents tab.

Take note of the following details:

  • To view the quote in the Amount column, make sure to configure your columns in the document and targets list.

  • Phases billed by the hour will display the quoted cost using the quote settings in the matched rate chart. Those costs will be updated when the linguist or project manager enters the billable hours.

  • If you hover on a quote, you will see the cost information broken down by translation cost and project management fees.

  • Once a vendor runs an invoice report the phases in the report will be marked invoiced. The amount in the Cost column becomes bold and shows the final cost of the documents, targets, and phases. These phases will no longer show up in future invoices.

Edit vendor assignments

You can make changes to vendor assignments in a project workflow phase after documents are uploaded to the system.

To edit vendor assignments in the Project app, follow these steps:

  1. On the Project Summary page, click the Documents tab, and then click the target in the Targets column of the applicable document.

  1. When the Targets tab opens, click the vendor in the Vendor column to open the Vendor Assignment window.

  2. In Vendor Assignment, select the vendor you want to assign the phase to, and then click Apply.

Take note of the following details: