Notes for Translators
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – To comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, as defined by EU law in May 2018, you will need to have read carefully, and consent to, our General Data Protection Regulation Confidentiality and Compliance policy which appears on page 2 of the PDF version of this document.
Check the original text – Please inspect each text as soon as you receive it. If you have any queries which are immediately apparent then please call us to discuss them. Do not make assumptions, it’s much safer to ask questions up front. Do not proceed with a translation unless we have sent you a purchase order. If there are any queries relating to our order form, e.g. rate of pay, word count, or delivery time, then please raise them before starting the job, and not after delivery.
Deadlines are imperative – If for some reason you cannot meet the agreed deadline, you must tell us straight away in order for us to have time to find another translator, if possible, to do the job.
Queries – You agree to promptly assess any queries that we may raise when proofing your translations and to make the necessary corrections of errors or omissions and/or grammatical, typographical or presentational amendments.
Confidentiality – You agree to treat as strictly confidential and not at any time for any reason to disclose or permit to be disclosed to any third party the contents of the original text and other associated material we might have shared as reference.
Liability – You undertake to comply with the Codes of Ethics laid down from time to time of the Institute of Linguists and/or the Institute of Translation and Interpreting.
Formatting – Please follow as best you can the formatting of the original document; if you’re having a problem then please tell us. For formatting of patent translations, please follow the format of the original document unless we have provided you with a template to overtype.
Certificates of accuracy – Where you have been asked to sign a Statement of Truth or a Verification Certificate, we will send you by post or electronically a template on our headed paper for you to sign and date. Please send it back to us unfolded in a hardback envelope by first-class post as soon as possible. Please note if there is a delay in receiving the certificate, you may miss a payment cut-off.
Swearing of affidavit – You may be asked to swear/affirm an affidavit before either a local Solicitor or a Notary Public – we will send you the affidavit printed on our ABC Translations letterhead. It is very important that we see your translation before you go to the Solicitor/Notary, so please send your translation to us by email in order that we can proof it. DO NOT proceed with the swearing until we confirm that the translation is okay. Please send the sworn translation back to us unfolded in a hardback envelope by Special Delivery.
How we pay you – Payments for translations are made by BACS on the 10th day of the month following that in which the job is completed: for example, a job delivered during January will be paid on 10th February. Please note the cut-off point is the last working day of the month. Please let us have your invoice with the job or, if you do more than one job a month, please let have a summary invoice by the end of each month. If you incur expenses during the course of an assignment, such as a Solicitor or Notary’s fee for the swearing/affirming of an Affidavit, Special Delivery postage, these will be refunded to you by ABC. VERY IMPORTANT – if you change your bank details YOU MUST TELL US, otherwise your payment will be at risk of going to the wrong account.
Keep in touch – Keep us aware of your availability: if you are tied up on a long job then please tell us. If you are going away on holiday then please tell us and always allow reasonable time for us to get in touch with you if we have queries post-delivery of a translation. If your contact details change, please tell us as soon as you can. You might miss out on a job if we can’t get hold of you!
