Costs & Metrics reports
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Description of Costs and metrics reports
- 2.1 Assignment and words
- 2.2 Costs and words per customer or custom field
- 2.3 Costs and metrics per Linguist
- 2.4 Initial metrics, assignment and costs
- 2.5 Metrics, custom fields included
- 2.6 Project cost, metrics per step
- 2.7 Project cost, metrics, and assignment per step
- 2.8 Words, time per Linguist, language and task
- 3 Correct ways to generate Costs & Metrics reports
- 4 Process of generating the Costs & Metrics reports
- 5 Correctness of costs generation
- 6 Inclusion of costs entries with WARNINGS in Costs & Metrics reports (since v.13.4)
- 7 How to choose the basis for costs when generating Costs & Metrics reports
- 8 Good to know!
Introduction
This article provides background information about using various Costs & Metrics reports and analyzing related problems.
To display Cost & Metrics reports, select Projects → Project list → Actions → (choose) → Reports → Costs and metrics. In this section, you can choose more specific forms that contain actual information.
Description of Costs and metrics reports
Assignment and words
DESCRIPTION | COLUMNS |
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The Assignment and words report lists all specified projects within which jobs are aggregated (grouped) by a specific source and target language combination. For example, if you have a project that contains two target languages, two source files, and two workflow steps to which you have assigned Linguists (you have four XTM Cloud jobs in total), and you include it in the report, the report will only contain two entries, each for a single source and target language combination. The report itself covers active, finished, and archived projects. Its purpose is to show user assignments, total word count and the total manual time spent on a particular source and target language combination, in a particular XTM Cloud project. This report is particularly useful to deep-dive into your vendor productivity metrics, because it enables you to compare the project scope against the expected due date and actual time spent on a task. Since this type of report does not contain any cost-related data, the report itself does not require generating costs, to be generated successfully. |
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Costs and words per customer or custom field
DESCRIPTION | COLUMNS |
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The Costs and words per customer or custom field report lists all specified projects and provides the total sum of costs generated, source words, and hours taken, per XTM Cloud project. For example, if you have a project that contains two target languages, two source files, and two workflow steps to which you have assigned Linguists (you have four XTM Cloud jobs in total), and you include it in the report, the report will contain only one entry (since it there is only one project in total). The report itself covers active, finished, and archived projects. Its purpose is to show the sum of costs generated, source words, and hours taken, per XTM Cloud project, as well as the total for the costs, word count, and hours, of all projects in the columns. This report is particularly useful whenever you want to have an overview of the project scope and costs across multiple customers. The real benefit of this report is represented by the grouping options, which enable you to flexibly divide the data in different sections, either based on customer or custom fields. |
There is also the Total row for the selected values for all projects in the columns, which shows the total sum of costs, source words, and hours. |
Costs and metrics per Linguist
DESCRIPTION | COLUMNS |
|---|---|
The Costs and metrics per Linguist report lists all specified projects and provides aggregated metrics/statistics/time (depending on the “cost type” selected upon costs generation) and related costs, per Linguist, target language, and type of workflow step. For example, let’s consider a project that contains two target languages, two source files, and two workflow steps (you have four XTM Cloud jobs in total). You have two Linguists and you assign the first one to all the TRANSLATE steps and just one CORRECT step, and the second Linguist only to the remaining CORRECT steps. If you include the project in the report, the report will contain three entries (since the report groups data per Linguist AND workflow step). The report itself covers active, finished, and archived projects. Its purpose is to show aggregated metrics/statistics/time (depending on the “cost type” selected upon costs generation) and related costs per Linguist, target language and type of workflow step. This report is particularly useful whenever you need an overview of your vendor costs and scope covered across multiple projects. |
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Initial metrics, assignment and costs
DESCRIPTION | COLUMNS |
|---|---|
The Initial metrics, assignment and costs report lists all specified projects and provides aggregated initial metrics, user assignment to workflow steps, and related costs, per target language in a particular project in XTM Cloud. For example, let’s consider a project that contains two target languages, two source files, and two workflow steps to which you have assigned Linguists (you have four XTM Cloud jobs in total). If you include the project in the report, the report will contain two entries (since the report groups data per target language). The report itself covers active, finished, and archived projects. Its purpose is to show aggregated initial metrics, user assignment to workflow steps, and related costs, per target language in a particular project in XTM Cloud. This report is particularly useful whenever you need to focus your cost and metrics analysis on the initial project metrics (coming from the first project analysis) instead of the most up to date metrics. You can use this report also to potentially compare the initial scope (initial metrics) with the current scope (current metrics reports). IMPORTANT! The Initial metrics here actually reference the most recent analysis event for the project. For example, imagine that you create a project with no matching segments at all, translate it and then reanalyze it. All segments will be assigned ICE matches and this will be reflected in the Current Metrics and the "Reanalysis" event in the Metrics history. Costs based on Initial metrics will be based on ICE matches. |
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Metrics, custom fields included
DESCRIPTION | COLUMNS |
|---|---|
The Metrics, custom fields included report lists all specified projects and provides aggregated metrics per target language for an XTM Cloud project. For example, if you have a project that contains two target languages, two source files, and two workflow steps to which you have assigned Linguists (you have four XTM Cloud jobs in total), and you include it in the report, the report will contain two entries (since there are two target languages in the project). The report itself covers active, finished, and archived projects. Its purpose is to show aggregated metrics per target language in the XTM Cloud project. This report is particularly useful whenever you want to analyze the current project scope by language. Custom fields can further help you categorize the relevant projects to spot interesting trends. Since this type of report does not contain any cost-related data, the report itself does not require generating costs, to be generated successfully.
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Project cost, metrics per step
DESCRIPTION | COLUMNS |
|---|---|
The Project cost, metrics per step report lists all specified projects and provides aggregated costs and metrics/statistics/time (depending on the “cost type” selected upon costs generation) per type of workflow step and target language for an XTM Cloud project. For example, if you have a project that contains two target languages, two source files, and two workflow steps (you have four XTM Cloud jobs in total), and you include it in the report, the report will contain four entries (since there are two target languages in the project, each containing two distinct workflow steps). The report itself covers active, finished, and archived projects. Its purpose is to show aggregated costs and metrics/statistics/time (depending on the “cost type” selected upon costs generation) per type of workflow step and target language of a XTM Cloud project. This report is particularly useful whenever you want to analyze cost and scope trends based on the type of task performed by your vendor (workflow steps). For example, you could analyze DTP costs over time or understand how your post-editing costs have changed across projects. |
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Project cost, metrics, and assignment per step
DESCRIPTION | COLUMNS |
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The Project cost, metrics per step report lists all specified projects and provides aggregated costs and metrics/statistics/time (depending on the “cost type” selected upon costs generation), and user assignment, per type of workflow step and target language for an XTM Cloud project. For example, if you have a project that contains two target languages, two source files, and two workflow steps to which you have assigned Linguists (you have four XTM Cloud jobs in total), and you include it in the report, the report will contain four entries (since there are two target languages in the project, each containing two distinct workflow steps). The report itself covers active, finished, and archived projects. Its purpose is to show aggregated costs and metrics/statistics/time (depending on the “cost type” selected upon costs generation), and user assignment, per type of workflow step and target language for an XTM Cloud project. This report is particularly recommended if you use machine translation and are measuring edit distance. This report gives you insights into project cost, scope and edit distance calculation, along with the vendor cost discounts based on edit distance. |
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Words, time per Linguist, language and task
DESCRIPTION | COLUMNS |
|---|---|
The Words, time per Linguist, language and task report lists all specified projects and provides information about the total number of words and words that have already been translated/processed, per Linguist, source file, target language, and type of workflow step. For example, if you have a project that contains two target languages, two source files, and two workflow steps to which you have assigned Linguists (you have four XTM Cloud jobs in total), and you include it in the report, the report will contain eight entries (since there are two target languages in the project, each containing two source files and four distinct tasks). The report itself covers active, finished, and archived projects. Its purpose is to provide information about total words and words that have already been translated/processed, per Linguist, source file, target language, and type of workflow step. This report is particularly useful if you want to analyze the effort actually invested by your internal linguists (excluding subcontractors) on different projects.  What also sets this report apart from the rest is that it can only include internal projects, and tasks assigned to internal Linguists. Unless you select any restrictions in the popup, all currently active tasks will be included. If the Include only unfinished tasks option is not selected, finished tasks will be included as well. Unlike the other reports in this Costs and metrics section, this report can also be used to generate a report based on either source statistics or target statistics. |
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Correct ways to generate Costs & Metrics reports
Method 1 | Method 2 |
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Process of generating the Costs & Metrics reports
XTM Cloud checks if costs have previously been generated in a specific project (you can check this in the Project editor → Estimates → Costs).
1.1. If costs have not been generated before, XTM Cloud forces their generation when it generates the report.
1.2. If costs have been generated before, XTM Cloud checks if they were generated correctly (without warning or error messages).
1.2.1. If the most recent generated costs are correct, XTM Cloud will move them to the Costs & Metrics report.
1.2.2. If the most recent generated costs are incorrect, XTM Cloud will start checking costs that were generated earlier.
1.2.2.1. If any of the previously generated costs are correct, XTM Cloud will move them to the Costs & Metrics report.
1.2.2.2. If none of the previously generated costs are correct, XTM Cloud will force a new costs generating for a specific project.
What are the possible costs generation results when generating a Costs & Metrics report (1.1 and 1.2.2.2)?
If the costs are generated correctly → information about the project will be included in the report.
If the costs are generated incorrectly → the project involved will not be included in the report.
Correctness of costs generation
Correct costs generation is defined as generation without warning or error messages. In Project editor → Estimates → Costs, warning or error messages are represented by a yellow or red icon on the right-hand side of a particular row. When you hover over this tooltip, you will see information about what needs to be reviewed and improved so that the costs can be generated correctly (see Costs generation – most common issues & troubleshooting for more information and troubleshooting guidelines).
Inclusion of costs entries with WARNINGS in Costs & Metrics reports (since v.13.4)
By default, projects with incorrectly generated costs (yellow or red) are not displayed in Costs & Metrics reports. However, it is possible to include costs entries with WARNINGS (yellow) as well. For this purpose, we can first decide if such a possibility is to be selected by default, in the XTM Cloud UI (Configuration → Data → Estimates → Costs settings → Costs settings → Include costs with warnings in Cost and metrics reports). Administrative privileges are required!
The following reports include an additional option, which you can select if required: Include costs with warnings in Cost and metrics reports.
Costs and words per customer or custom field,
Costs and metrics per Linguist,
Initial metrics, assignment, and costs,
Project costs, metrics per step,
Project costs, metrics and assignment per step.
When you select this option, the following will occur:
Reports will always have a new Project cost warnings column containing YES or NO value.
If costs are correct (blue mark), the column will say NO.
If costs have warnings (yellow mark), the column will say YES, and the report will contain data for the project, including incomplete costs.
For costs with errors (red mark), there will be an attempt to generate costs again. If the generated costs are correct or with warnings, they will be listed in the report. If the costs still have an error, they will be skipped.
How to choose the basis for costs when generating Costs & Metrics reports
Costs can be generated on the basis of metrics (initial/current), statistics (source/target) or manual time tracking. To select the basis for generating costs and Costs & Metrics reports, select Configuration → Data → Estimates → Cost settings → Cost settings → Default cost type.
Good to know!
In the case of any other issues involving generating Costs & Metrics reports, make sure that you have read the article below. It describes and provides troubleshooting tips for the most common causes for incorrect cost generation: Costs & Metrics reports - most common issues & troubleshooting.