Report functions

Jul 30, 2018

Whooshing Deadlines report view has been designed to support invoicing and work productivity monitoring. To open, click on the Create report button in the top left corner of the Calendar view (image on the right).

1. The span of the displayed jobs can be defined freely. To define the preferred start and end date, click on the calendar icon next to the appropriate box. Selected dates can be in the past or the future.

2. Select the status of jobs you wish to review with radio buttons: completed, in progress, completed and in progress, all non-invoiced, all completed non-invoiced. “All non-invoiced” helps to forecast your upcoming cash flow at a glance, while “all completed non-invoiced” facilitates invoicing. If the generated list does not contain the job you are looking for, check the status selection.

3. Report data can be filtered by customer, language pair and specialization. You can ask Whooshing Deadlines to display all non-invoiced jobs ordered by a specific customer and export the data to Excel or some other tool for invoice compilation. By selecting all jobs delivered and to be delivered to a specific customer in, for example, the past year, you are able to review customer-specific turnover and compare the ‘value’ of different customers to your client base. Selections related to language pairs and specializations allow you to compile lists of completed projects, which may come in handy for competitive biddings and in other situations where translation volume plays a role.

4. The Import header row into report checkbox allows you to determine whether the report you want to print will only display the job row data or also the column headers. In the example table below, the column headers are included but if the checkbox is not checked, jobs are listed immediately below the header.

5. Use these checkboxes to specify which columns are displayed in the Report view and exported to default program or copied to clipboard. When you start Whooshing Deadlines, all columns are selected. If changes are made, the app remembers the previous selections and opens a new report accordingly. The columns to display can be added or removed at any time. To change the order of columns, grab a column header and drag it to the desired location. You may also adjust column width by grabbing the vertical line between columns and dragging it in the desired direction. In Excel, the columns appear in the same order as in the Whooshing Deadlines Report view but all columns are the same width.

6. The Job list is created based on above-described selections and saved job data. With the Report view open, you can change job data in the Calendar view using the job edit window. The changes are updated directly to the Report view. Parts that do not fit on the screen can be viewed by scrolling the bar at the bottom of the page.

7. The total scope of jobs included in the report is shown at the bottom of the Report view in all selected units.

8. Mark all as invoiced button allows you to change the status of all jobs displayed in the report from non-invoiced to invoiced with one click. This feature is especially handy when you use Whooshing Deadlines to compile invoices and invoice multiple jobs from the same customer at a time. Alternatively, you can mark jobs as invoiced or return them back to a non-invoiced state at any time by checking or unchecking that particular job’s Invoiced box.

9. Use the bottom row buttons to copy Report view data to clipboard, save it to a .cvs file or open it with the default spreadsheet (in Windows computers, usually Excel). Job rows cannot be copied by clicking on them in Report view or by using the Ctrl + C command. This button bar is the only means available for exporting them from Whooshing Deadlines. Below is an example of a table exported to Excel.

10. To close the Report view, click on the button in the bottom left. If the window is left open, it closes automatically when Whooshing Deadlines is closed.

Tip:

Job tracker counts combined with total price data provide valuable information about the profitability of different customers, language pairs and specializations: to calculate your billable hourly earnings, simply divide the total price with actual working hours. The results will reveal what types of jobs and which customers are worth prioritizing!

Absences and Not available days

Jul 30, 2018

Whooshing Deadlines allows temporary adjustments to your daily or weekly working hours without having to constantly modify default settings in the Setup window. Long or permanent changes, however, are best to be made through the basic settings. There are two ways to flexibly modify your hours: weekly grid (1) and yellow figure (2).

  1. The weekly grid located at the top of the Calendar view, to the right of the clock, allows you to disable or enable entire working days on a week-by-week basis. By default, each week contains either 5 or 7 working days, i.e. Monday-Friday or Monday-Sunday depending on your basic settings. Other, non-working days are highlighted with a background colour and labelled “Not available.” To delete working days or add them to the week displayed in the Calendar view, simply check or uncheck the corresponding box in the weekly grid. Box with a checkmark means that the day is available for working, while an empty box signifies a day off.

If you want to change all the days of the week to working days, select the black checkmark icon next to the ‘Working days this week’ text. The 5-day grid is now replaced with a 7-day grid.

If you want to set all days of the week as non-available, check the red cross icon next to the ‘Working days this week’ text. The entire grid becomes highlighted with a background colour. This is a convenient way to mark whole holiday weeks and other longer absences.

To change a non-available day to a working day, check its box in the weekly grid or click on it in the Calendar view.

Tip:
You can change the status on individual days of the week after selecting the black checkmark icon or the red cross icon. If, for example, your only working day in a given week is Tuesday, you can first select the red cross icon (sets all days ‘Not available’) and then check Tuesday’s box. Tuesday changes back to a working day while all other days remain non-available.
  1. The Calendar view features a running yellow figure next to each day. Click on it, and the absence entry window appears. In the window, you can create either a full-day absence or a part-day absence and enter a short explanation. For part-day absences, you can set the duration of the absence in half-hour increments. The duration of the absence is then deducted from that day’s working hours.

In addition, you can select whether the absence is a one-off (only today) or a recurring event. If recurring absence is selected, the system saves it as a weekly recurring event until the set end date (end date selection). Both the full-day and the part-day absences can be recurring and cover the next 12 months. PLEASE NOTE THAT FOR TECHNICAL REASONS, RECURRING ABSENCES CAN ONLY BE MODIFIED OR DELETED ONE BY ONE. If, for example, you have created a two-hour absence for Wednesdays, but later want to change it to three hours, you need to open the absence separately in each week’s view and make the change. The same applies to deleting absences. Therefore, we recommend using recurring absences with care and creating them only for a few weeks or months at a time.

To modify or delete a part-day absence, click on it in the Calendar view. A new window appears (bottom image). Make the changes and confirm them by clicking on Done or delete the absence by pressing Delete note. If you want to exit the window without making any changes, press Cancel.

Customers

Jul 30, 2018

With Whooshing Deadlines, you are able to create customers and save language pair- and specialization-specific prices for each. To create customers, click on the Add new customer button located on the right side of the Setup window. A new window opens for entering customer data. All fields are optional and the extent of information provided totally up to you. You can edit the existing data at any time by clicking on Modify customer. Clicking on the Delete customer button removes all data, including the customer’s name. Up and down arrows allow you to organize your customer list: select a customer by clicking on the name and move them up or down in the list with the arrows.
Each customer can be uniquely identified by entering a name of your choice in the data input window. You can select the correct invoice currency from a list of the 20 most traded currencies and create a customer-specific minimum price. Time zone selection facilitates the management and scheduling of jobs for customers in different continents. If a customer is assigned a time zone other than the default one (zone displayed by your computer), deadlines are automatically displayed in both the zones, yours and the customer’s. Clicking on the New price button (bottom right image) allows you to enter customer-specific prices.
Language pairs and specializations are displayed in drop-down menus. Please note that you can only enter prices if you have saved language pairs and/or specializations in the Setup window! Check one or both boxes to the left of the drop-down menus to define prices for language pairs, specializations or their combinations. You can use any pricing units, that is, fill in the price boxes or leave them blank, as you please. In the adjacent example, the customer has been defined a price per page, word and hour in en-fi language pair.

When done, click on Save. You can continue entering prices in the Customer data window by selecting New price, modify previously entered data by clicking on Edit price or omit price data by selecting Delete price. Once finished, click on Done to exit the Customer data window. Remember to save the changes by pressing the Save button at the bottom of the Setup window, or click on Cancel to ignore them.

Tip:

If you and a translation agency, for instance, have agreed on a special price for specific specializations or end customers, start by saving the translation agency’s basic data and then the necessary specializations/end customers in Setup under Specializations. (End customer = ‘Specialization’!) Then, return to customer data by clicking on the customer’s name in Setup window and select Modify customer. In Customer data input window, click on New price and then check the Language pair and Specialization boxes on the left. From the displayed drop-down menus, select the correct language pair and specialization/end customer and enter the agreed price for the combination. All subsequent jobs created under this customer, language pair and specialization will automatically use the special pricing.

Specializations and topics

Jul 30, 2018

Specializations help you track how your work is divided by thematic area. By consistently defining the specializations of your assignments, you are able to gain valuable information for competitive bidding, grant applications or simply marketing your work (see Reports and tips below for more information).
Specializations are added and named similarly to the Language pairs. Click on the Add new specialization button center right of the Setup window. The view shown on the right appears. Enter a name of your choise for the specialization. You can also specify a level of difficulty or time factor (0.1–3.0) if your working speed in this particular specialization differs from the average in either direction. Texts belonging to a specialization that is easier and therefore faster to translate than an average text are assigned a time factor less than 1. If the specialization is more time consuming than your regular work, the factor is set to 1.1 or more. Whooshing Deadlines takes the time factor into account when calculating the time needed for the job, i.e. the bigger the factor, the longer the time. Thanks to the flexibility of the app, the time factor can be readjusted at any point when creating a job or even during the translation process by modifying the job data.

Save the specialization by clicking on Done or press Cancel to return to settings without saving the changes. Remember to save any changes by clicking on Save at the bottom of the Setup window before exiting.

Tip:
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Tip:
Specializations provide a handy tool for topic- or customer-specific pricing. If you have agreed on a higher or lower rate for translations falling under a particular topic or assigned by a specific end customer, create a corresponding specialization and set a unique price in Customer data.

Language pairs

Jul 30, 2018

Language pairs are created in the top right corner of the Setup window. The number of pairs is not limited and they can be named freely using abbreviations such as ES-EN or any other strings. Click Add new language pair to open the language pair view (displayed below). Name the pair and set your standard working speed. The speed can be set in all or any of the available invoicing units. (‘Minutes’ refers to program minutes in audiovisual translation. The unit ‘hour’ is not included here as an hour always lasts an hour!)

Enter your language pairs and click Save. The topmost (see below) view reappears. You can add additional language pairs, edit previously saved pairs, or continue to create other settings. After edits, always exit the Setup window by clicking Save at the bottom of the page or press Cancel to ignore the changes.

If you want to make changes to a language pair you have created or delete it altogether, select the appropriate pair from the list and click the corresponding button on the right side of the window. To change the order of the language pairs on the list, use the up and down arrows displayed below the buttons. To confirm all changes, exit the Setup window by clicking Save.

Please note that day in working speed settings refers to the number of hours entered in Whooshing Deadlines as the length of your working day. For example, if your working day is six hours and you translate from English into Finnish at an average rate of 400 words per hour, enter 6 * 400 = 2400 words in the Working speed field. Working speed is a mandatory data element the app needs to calculate the time required to complete a particular assignment. If you have not specified your working speed in language pair settings, you must enter it whenever a new job is created. If you are unsure of your working speed, use your best estimate when configuring your settings and then map the actual speed with Job tracker.

Tip:

You can create your own ‘language pairs’ for proofreading, editing and text creation, and assign them their own hourly working speeds. This way you can easily see the time estimate for each job and create unit prices in customer data.