“Getting your Freelance Translation/Interpreting Business Organized for Beginners and Procrastinators”

This is a presentation about a basic way for freelance translators and interpreters to organize invoicing and accounting in a very simple manner. An ABC for beginners -or not so beginners- showing a very easy but useful way to get organized, especially for unorganized people who are not good at all with money matters.

This presentation is given by a person who hates accounting and getting organized. Who would rather work than collect her accounts receivable. A regular freelance translator and interpreter, with many years in the business, who had to learn how to run her business from scratch, and figure out the basics that seem to be so obvious to everyone. Someone who wishes somebody would have organized this for her years ago instead of having to go through so much trial and error. This presentation in no way attempts to substitute the information of the more knowledgeable people out there, or discourage anyone from learning from them!! This presentation is basically the equivalent to explaining how to boil water in a cooking course.

What this presentation offers is a simple way to organize your invoicing and accounts receivable in a specifically designed Excel sheet that will help you keep track of your client’s information and what they owe you. It will also explain how to set up a basic system of accounting, based on bank accounts, so you can easily know and control your income and expenses. It will show a system that will let you provide an accountant all the information needed for preparing tax returns. It will also give some ideas about invoices and agreements with clients. It will provide freelancers who are going crazy, a way to get organized, and remain organized, until their business grows so much that they need to hire a professional to do this work for them.

Heidi Cazes is a translator, interpreter and terminologist. She has a Graduate Diploma in Translation from EL Colegio de Mexico and a Master’s in Terminology from Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She is also a US Federal Court certified interpreter and an ATA certified translator. Heidi is a freelancer who works directly with clients and with some agencies. She also works as a contractor with the Puerto Rico Federal Court, the US District Attorney’s Office and the US Department of State as a translator and interpreter (court, liaison and conference). She has worked doing terminology research and as a lecturer in terminology, and is currently an instructor in the English version of the on-line Terminology Graduate Course given by IULA. She is a member of ATA, NAJIT and IAPTI. She is also a member of ASTM working on committee F43.01.