This article is for Agency Account Owners, Translation Resource Managers, and Translation Resources.
Fuzzy estimates indicate how large a Job is and are a useful way to understand how much you will earn for a translation Job. Account Owner and Project Manager users can generate the same information to help them understand how much the Job will cost. It is a prediction of a job’s final word-count totals and cost if the job were to be translated at the point when the estimate is run. It's based on the appropriate fuzzy profiles and rate cards.
You can generate a fuzzy estimate for all workflow steps you have access to. A fuzzy estimate can be generated for a step as soon as content is in that step. If a step does not have a Fuzzy Match Profile associated with it, the estimate will simply display the Word Count for that step. Estimates will not include content in the Published step.
You can get a fuzzy estimate for a translation Job in the Jobs Dashboard.
Content must be in a Job to generate a Fuzzy Match estimate.
Creating Fuzzy Estimates from the Jobs Dashboard
Go to the Jobs Dashboard by logging into Smartling, or if already logged in, click the Smartling logo on the top left of any page within the platform.
- From the Jobs Dashboard, find the Job you want to run a fuzzy estimate on
- Click the ellipsis (three dots) on the right-hand side of the page (next to the Assign/View Details button)
- Click Fuzzy Estimate
- This opens the Estimate Details dialog, where you can view a full breakdown per locale of source words, source characters, and weighted words, by fuzzy tier, along with repetitions and SmartMatches.
- To download the estimate locally for invoicing, click Download CSV
- If you need an updated estimate, click Refresh Estimate to generate a new fuzzy estimate
Understanding estimate differences by role
Fuzzy estimates can display different totals depending on your role in Smartling. This is because the estimate is calculated differently for content owners (Account Owners and Project Managers) and agency users (Agency Account Owners, Translation Resource Managers, and Translation Resources).
Agency Account Owner estimates
For Agency Account Owners, the fuzzy estimate reflects the actual current state of the content at the time the estimate is generated. Strings are only counted in the workflow step where they currently reside. This means the estimate shows the work remaining and work in progress, rather than the full projected cost of the job.
Because the agency user estimate reflects the live content state, it is normal for it to show a lower total than the content owner's full job estimate. As content progresses through workflow steps, the distribution of weighted words across steps will change. You can refresh the estimate at any time to see the latest figures.
Content owner estimates
For Account Owners and Project Managers, estimates show the total projected cost of the job across all workflow steps. Each string is represented once per workflow step where it is expected to appear (or has already appeared), along with the applicable rates for that step. This means that if a workflow has two steps — for example, Translation and Edit — each string will be counted in both steps.
Example
A job contains 223 source words and uses a workflow with two human steps: Translation and Edit. After running TM leverage, 9 of those weighted words are SmartMatched directly into the Edit step, skipping the Translation step entirely.
| Workflow step | Content Owner estimate | Agency Account Owner estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Translation | 123 weighted words | 123 weighted words |
| Edit | 132 weighted words | 9 weighted words |
Why the difference? The content owner estimate counts every string in every step it is expected to pass through, giving the full projected cost of the job. In this case, it shows 123 weighted words in Translation and 132 weighted words in Edit — reflecting the total cost if all content passes through both steps as expected. The agency estimate counts each string only in the step where it currently sits. Right now, 123 weighted words are in the Translation step and only the 9 SmartMatched words have reached the Edit step, so that is all the agency estimate shows.
Refreshing estimation details
By default, estimations are given for unauthorized content if it will be translated in the Project Default workflow. There might be times when you would like to regenerate a cost estimate. Some use cases may include:
- Content has been removed from a Job that was in progress, and you'd like to get a new cost estimate.
- Content has been added to the Job that is in progress, and now you'd like to get a new cost estimate.
- You want an estimation based on workflows other than the Project Default. Note, content still needs to be unauthorized before an estimation can be regenerated for a specific workflow.
- If you add content to an existing Job, and the word count reaches over one million words, you will need to refresh the estimate to get an accurate cost estimate for the Job in its new state.
Estimated page count for Desktop Publishing (DTP)
Desktop Publishing (DTP) is the post-translation process of formatting translated files to create a professionally designed document in the target language.
DTP typically invoiced per page. For supported file types and workflows, Smartling includes the estimated page count for DTP in your fuzzy estimates.
The Totals card of the job estimate displays the total number of pages in all supported files, across all target locales using a Desktop Publishing workflow that your agency is assigned to.
Expand the estimate details for each target locale to view the estimated page count per locale and workflow.
Supported file types and workflows
In order for the estimated page count to be displayed, the workflow that your agency is assigned to needs to include a Desktop Publishing step, and the job needs to contain one of the following file formats:
- DOCX (Microsoft Word)
- PDF (Portable Document Format)
- IDML (InDesign Markup Language)
- INDD (Adobe InDesign Documents)
- PPTX (Microsoft PowerPoint)
Smartling takes into account the total page count of each file - even if parts of a page, or entire pages, are excluded manually from translation. However, for Microsoft PowerPoint files (PPTX), hidden slides are excluded from the page count if the relevant file directive is applied upon upload to Smartling to exclude hidden slides from translation.
How the page count is calculated
The fuzzy estimate always displays the full page count of the entire document.
This is the case even if only minor edits are required to a document that has already gone through the DTP process before. If a job includes a document that has already gone through DTP and only requires some rework, we recommend clarifying the estimated cost directly with your customer, as this type of work is typically billed by the hour, and the total page count displayed in the fuzzy estimate does not apply.
Exporting a DTP estimate
When exporting a fuzzy estimate in a CSV format, the estimated page count for DTP will only be included if the export is performed while the content is in the Desktop Publishing step of the workflow. If the estimate is exported while the content is in any other step of the workflow, it will not contain the estimated page count.