The Client (Tiba Company)
Tiba operates in the contracting and industry sector. Not every translation project reaches hundreds of thousands of words or hundreds of pages; most real projects are mid-size files, and the real question is whether a mid-size file gets treated to a lower standard than a massive one, or to the same method. This question matters just as much as accuracy on large projects, since most clients actually send files of this mid-size scale, not exceptionally massive projects.
The company commissioned Fast Trans to translate a 65-page financial interim-certificate file, with a five-day turnaround at a rate of 13 pages a day. The file is smaller than the massive projects that reach hundreds of pages, but it’s a financial document with certificates, line items, and precise values that can’t tolerate a lighter review just because it’s smaller. A financial certificate, however many pages it runs, is a document a payment or approval decision gets built on — and that alone is enough to earn it the highest standard of accuracy.
The Challenge
01 A mid-size file going through the same gates a massive file goes through. | 02 The risk in a financial interim-certificate document isn’t tied to the page count, but to the accuracy of every line item and every value in it an error in a 65-page certificate has the same impact on the client as an error in a 700-page document. The natural temptation with a mid-size file is to simplify the review procedures on the assumption that a smaller size means smaller risk — an assumption that’s simply wrong in financial documents specifically, since the value of any single line item has nothing to do with how many pages the file containing it runs to. |
03 And the relatively short turnaround — just five days at a rate of 13 pages a day — added extra pressure any attempt to speed up the work by easing one of the review gates would have produced a faster file, but a less reliable one. The real challenge here was maintaining a relatively fast delivery pace without that speed pushing any review gate to take a single step back. | |
What We Did
01 | Matching line items and values line by line between the source and translated versions, without skipping a single item no matter how simple or repetitive it looked. |
02 | A final review gate for numbers and dates before delivery, using the same procedure applied to larger files, with no shortcut in the number of items reviewed. |
03 | Dual editing during the work, followed by a single-reader proofread by a second reviewer who puts their name on their review, with no step of the usual review process shortened, and documented accountability for every page they approve. |
The Result, in Numbers
The Same Method Applied to the Largest Projects, With No Easing of Any Gate
We delivered the complete 65-page file within five days, using the same method applied to the largest projects, with no easing of any review gate. Every line item and value in the certificates was matched between source and translation, and every number and date passed the final review gate before the file reached the client.
65 pages | 5 days to deliver | 13 pages per day | 3 documented process steps |
What This Means for You
When your project is mid-size, the question to ask any translation office isn’t “can you get it done fast?” but “does it go through the same gates your bigger project goes through?” Many translation offices reserve their strict review procedures for large projects only, and simplify the procedure on smaller files — and that’s exactly what creates a quality gap that may not surface until after delivery, when a client discovers their smaller file didn’t get the same care another, larger client’s file did.
The same lesson applies to any mid-size company or subcontractor dealing with moderately sized financial documents: a smaller size isn’t a justification for a lighter procedure — a fixed method is what guarantees that any document, large or small, comes out to the same accuracy. Trust in a translation office isn’t built on the size of the largest project it has completed, but on how consistent its method stays across every size of project it takes on.
Do you have a financial interim-certificate file or any financial document, of any size, that needs accuracy and strict review? Get in touch with Fast Trans today to discuss your project.