Creating a new job

Nov 5, 2019

This guide describes how to create jobs in Whooshing Deadlines. The functions and features of the numbered elements shown on the left below are described next to their corresponding numbers.

Whooshing Deadlines offers two basic options for creating translation jobs: a) the New job button in the top left corner of the Calendar view, and b) clicking on the day or days of the week.

a) Clicking on the New job button opens a new window for entering assignment-related data. The default job start date is the current date and the deadline is set in seven days.

b) If you want to create a new job for Monday and Tuesday, for example, place the mouse cursor over Monday (in the example, over ’15 Monday’), drag it horizontally towards Tuesday until both days are painted and then release the mouse button. A Job entry window opens with Monday the 15th as the start date and Tuesday the 16th as the end date.

In both cases, you can modify the dates by clicking on the respective field (see No. 2 below).

1. You can name the job freely using, for example, a project number and a customer identifier, or copy it from the customer’s email, purchase order or similar.
Select the customer, the correct language pair and possible specialization from respective drop-down menus (menus are generated based on the data you have saved in basic settings).
Invoicing unit is the unit set as the default in the basic settings but you are free to change it from one assignment to the next.
To change the job’s colour code, click on the coloured square below the specialization. The job will show in this colour in the Calendar view.

2. Use the calendar icon and time fields to adjust the job’s start date and end date. To change dates, click on the date field and then the appropriate date on the calendar. For hours and minutes, use the plus and minus buttons to add or subtract (15-minute increments).
Remaining available working hours for the selected days is displayed below the dates. In the example, the time zone saved in Customer data is Eastern Standard Time (usually 7 hours behind the time in Finland). Agreed deadline is noon Eastern Standard Time. The correct end time is easy to enter using the time displayed by your computer’s clock as both the zones are shown simultaneously.

3. Enter the scope and price of the job. If the saved customer data contains a price for the selected language pair and invoicing unit, the system exports it to respective fields. Working speed is also automatically retrieved from the settings if defined for the selected language pair in the selected invoicing unit. Any data can always be supplemented or modified by keying in the correct information. The scope of job and the working speed are the only mandatory data and must be entered separately if they cannot be retrieved from the settings. Once entered, the Job completed checkbox appears (3a – see Editing and completing the job for more information).
You can set a difficulty level or a time factor for the assignment upon creation or as the work progresses. If you believe the job is more time-consuming than your average projects, use a time factor greater than 1. If you think you can complete the assignment faster than you normally do, use a factor starting with 0. The time needed to complete the job changes accordingly. The time factor can also be defined in the settings by specialization.

Click on the Calculate total price button and Whooshing Deadlines quickly calculates the total price for the job based on its scope and unit price. Calculate job scope button reverses the action: click on it, and the system calculates a weighted word count if the job is subject to translation memory discounts (total price divided by unit price).
If the customer has been set a minimum price, the Use minimum price button appears in the job creation window. If the price based on volume and unit price or time is lower than the minimum price agreed with the customer, clicking on the minimum price button imports the minimum price to the Total price field.

4. A More information field is available for any additional data you deem necessary or it can be left blank. To open the field, click on the down arrow or the More information text line. Any entered elements will appear in job data and reports. If the field contains no text, the system disregards it.

5. Whooshing Deadlines calculates the estimated total hours needed to complete the job and divides them by available working days within the defined period. Both calculations are displayed at the bottom of the New job window, as is the longest estimated working day in hours when all the assignments booked for the said days are taken into account. If the longest workday exceeds the daily working time specified in the basic settings, Whooshing Deadlines draws your attention to it with red overtime! text.

Finish by clicking on Accept, and the job appears in the Calendar view as a coloured block, the height of which corresponds to the daily worktime required by the translation over the chosen period. Faded block on Tuesday indicates that the job is scheduled to end that day. If there is no fade, the assignment rolls over to the next available working day.

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.