Introduction
Every generated Purchase Order (PO) from a particular XTM Cloud project (Project Editor → Estimates → Costs) has the field labeled Minimal price padding.
Since not all of you might fully understand how this factor works and what exactly it calculates, this article is for you to read.
How does Minimal Price Padding work?
General information
The minimal price padding factor is related to three specific options in the user rate cards:
Minimum charge per language:
Minimum charge (per a single step):
Minimum charge per project:
IMPORTANT!
Keep in mind that the Minimum charge per language and Minimum charge (per a single step) fields are mutually exclusive, which means that you cannot apply them both at the same time in a single rate card. Once you enter a value in either of the fields, the other one will become unavailable (greyed out).
Minimum charge per language
Consider the following case:
You are using the Minimum charge per language factor in the rate cards for a single Linguist. The linguist is assigned to the entire project. You have an XTM Cloud project containing one workflow step (Translate) and two target languages, and rate cards for those target languages contain different values for the Minimum charge per language factor. For example:
English (UK) → Polish: 20 GBP;
English (UK) → German (Germany): 15 GBP.
In this case, minimal price padding will be calculated for each target language separately, according to the metrics/statistics taken from that language as well as the values set in the corresponding rate card. The formula is as follows:
Minimal price padding = Minimum charge per language - target language's metrics/statistics
Let’s say that the value from metrics/statistics for each target language is 5 GBP.
Taking everything into account, we can perform the following calculations:
Minimal price padding for Polish:
20 GBP - 5 GBP = 15 GBPMinimal price padding for German (Germany):
15 GBP - 5 GBP = 10 GBP
After summing up the values, the total minimal price padding for this project is 25 GBP, and as such will be displayed on the PO for the assigned Linguist.
IMPORTANT!
If the minimal price padding value is negative, it is not added to the PO at all!
Minimum charge (per a single step)
Minimum charge per step does not work the same way as Minimum charge per language.
Consider the following case:
You are using the Minimum charge per Translate step factor in the rate cards for a single Linguist. The linguist is assigned to the entire project. You have an XTM Cloud project containing one workflow step (Translate) and two target languages, and rate cards for those languages contain different values for the Minimum charge per Translate factor. For example:
English (UK) → Polish: 20 GBP;
English (UK) → German (Germany): 15 GBP.
In this case, minimal price padding will be calculated per step, according to the rate card, which means that even if there are many target languages, they need to be summed up and only then is this minimal price padding added. If rate cards for different languages contain different values for the Minimum charge per Translate factor (as in the example above), only the higher value is taken into account. In this case, the formula is as follows:
Minimal price padding = Highest minimum charge (per a single step) - total metrics/statistics
Let’s say that the value from metrics/statistics for each target language is, again, 5 GBP.
Taking everything into account, we can perform the following calculation:
20 GBP - 10 GBP = 10 GBP
The total minimal price padding for this project is 10 GBP, and so will be displayed on the PO for the assigned Linguist.
IMPORTANT!
If the minimal price padding value is negative, it is not added to the PO at all!
Keep in mind that in the example above Minimum charge (per a single step) is calculated only for the Translate step, after calculating all the costs for that particular step.
If you add, for example, the Correct step to your workflow, XTM Cloud will calculate the cost based on the Translate and Correct steps + Minimum charge for the Translate step. Next, the management fee value is added (if it exists). Then, on the basis of the outcome, XTM Cloud verifies if anything else should be added, to even out the value inserted in Minimum charge per project (if it is inserted).
Minimum charge per project
Minimum charge per project is also taken into account for Minimal price padding.
It works similarly to Minimum charge (per a single step), but it is triggered at the other stage of the cost calculation process.
What if the Linguist is using Minimum charge per language in a rate card for one target language and Minimum charge (per a single step) in a rate card for another target language, in a single XTM Cloud project?
Consider the following case:
You are using the Minimum charge per language factor in a rate card for one target language and Minimum charge per step in a rate card for another target language for a single Linguist. The Linguist is assigned to the entire XTM Cloud project. You have the project containing one workflow step (Translate) and two target languages, and rate cards for those target languages contain different values for the Minimum charge per language and Minimum charge per step factors. For example:
English (UK) → Polish: 20 GBP (Minimum charge per step);
English (UK) → German (Germany): 15 GBP (Minimum charge per language).
Let’s say that the value from metrics/statistics for each target language is, again, 5 GBP.
In this case, minimal price padding will be based solely on Minimum charge per step, as it takes precedence over Minimum charge per language, and so will be applied to the entire project (all of the project target languages).
That being said, XTM Cloud will follow the Minimum charge per step formula. Therefore, taking all the data above into account, the minimal price padding for this project will be 10 GBP.