Startup Idea: Automated Translation Memory-based Invoicing System
I am a project manager in the translation industry who works with dozens of clients purchasing translation services from my company. We are a growing company and expect our client base to grow significantly this year.
We use translation tools such as TRADOS that produce client-specific translation memory databases that save specific translations, phrases and other features of a client's translation orders that are unique to the clients. These memories can be reused from project to project for the same client and ensure nothing needs to be translated more than once. These client-specific databases are called translation memories (TMs) in the industry. They include all the jobs, documents, etc. a client has ever ordered, in the client's requested source and target languages (which can be more than two).
While the TMs are primarily generated by our translators as they work on translations in TRADOS, the TMs themselves become an important piece of invoicing information. As the person who creates client invoices in the company, I deal with this on a daily basis. There is statistical information in the TMs - e.g., word counts, repetitions, partial translations, etc - upon which our invoicing system is based. At this time, I have to manually extract the information for each client and each project from the respective TMs and enter them in our invoicing system, a convoluted system of Excel tables that was passed down to me from the previous person who had my job.
It would make my job significantly easier, faster and less error-prone if a program existed such as TRADOS that has an invoicing system for clients built into the way it handles and archives TMs. Such as, for examples, information fields that would automatically populate an invoice given client information or project numbers, once a project is complete. Even an add-on program that could run in conjunction with TRADOS to generate invoices would be great. Basically, anything that can be done to automate TM-based invoicing in the translation industry would make a lot of project managers and accounting personnel very happy. I would definitely pay for this software. I would pay for this kind of software out of my own pocket if my company refused to get it. Yes - as far as I can tell what I'm looking for doesn't exist yet. I've searched for it online with variations on "translation tool invoicing". Such searches always turn up tons of hits for invoicing tools marketed to translators, but none that I have found yet designed to work in conjunction with translation tools such as TRADOS to generate invoices for clients.
As described above, I currently don't solve the problem. I have to extract the information manually from one program and enter it into an in-house invoicing system, for every client, for every project.