Quoting and Production of extra Services for Software Customers

Some Software customers require extra services such as layout work and transcriptions integrated in their workflow. As this is a manual process the following procedure is used to provide them with a range of non-automated task types.

Type of Services

Extra Services can be offered to any Software customer (Subscription, Freemium, Software light, etc.) in order to provide them with extra services not supported on Software

Examples are:

DTP, pre and/or post
Audio and Video Transcriptions
Subtitling
Pure Proofreading
Sworn Translations

The responsible CS should contact the PM team regarding the need of extra services and introduce the responsible PM to the customer. The PM should keep the CS in the loop on the project status upon start and completion of a project. CS can be cc’ in emails to the customer and/or be updated in an alternative way (e.g. Slack).

Step by step instruction on how to set up a quote and the production for extra services.

How does the flow differ from before? While the production is done through the Service Platform as usual, the quotes are set up through HubSpot deals.

Create a project on the Service Platform

On order to send a quote to the customer through HubSpot we need to first create a PO on the Service Platform where the production of extra services is done as usual. Always use the account “Vendor Management” (Zimbabwe) to set up the project. It MUST be this account in order to keep correct financial records. You can find the account here.

Create a PO by impersonating the account, include the file and language combination, set it to “get a suggested deadline” to create a dynamic deadline.
Set yourself as LA and PM and add 0€ as customer price before accepting the quote. IMPORTANT: since the customer is charged manually through their payment method on Software, the customer price must be set to 0€ in the PO on service. This PO is only used for production and supplier payments.
Keep the deadline on dynamic and accept the quote and start production only once you receive the go ahead from the customer.
The file(s) are delivered to the customer via email. If they order pre and post dtp, we first do pre-dtp, send the prepped file to the customer, let them send it back to us via email once it is translated, and then we continue with post dtp. If pre- and post-dtp is ordered, add a comment to the quote that the customer will need to send us the translated file before we can finish the project. All proofreading from their side also needs to be finalized before we proceed to post-dtp.

Set up of the deal/quote in HubSpot

Every deal needs to be set up in the designated pipeline: here. The workflow for the deal consists of 5 stages:

New: where the deal is added while the quote is in preparation

Approval Needed: where the quote is manually dragged to by PM once the quote is sent to the customer.

Supplier Confirmation Needed: where the quote is manually dragged to by the PM once the customer has approved.

In Progress: where the quote is manually dragged to by the PM once the supplier(s) have accepted

Completed/Closed: where the quote is manually dragged to by the PM once the final file is delivered to the customer. Setting the status to “Completed” will trigger a finance ticket requesting a manual invoice.

Deal creation:

Create a quote here by clicking on “Create deal” in the upper right corner.
The quote is named according to the system “Customer Name + Service + Service PO Number”, e.g., “Nordsense + Proofreading + DE535678”.
Put yourself as deal owner, deal type is existing business.
Under “Add a line item” add the service the customer is requesting.
Create Deal.

Creation of Quote:

Create a quote in the deal by clicking on “add” on the right hand side.
Quote template remains “Basic”, add the name, e.g. “Nordsense Proofreading”.
The quote name should not include the PO number
Set expiration date if wanted.
In comments to buyer include all information regarding the service or what is important for the customer to know, e.g. delivery time in days starting from acceptance of quote.
Click “next” and add the company and contact the quote is being sent to.
Click “next”, review your own information.
Click “next”, here the line item you added will be shown. Adjust the unit price to the final price of the project.

Pricing:

The price needs to include our normal margin (usually 50%) PLUS the 10% of the service charge. In order to calculate the customer price, use the supplier rate and add 110%.

Example: supplier gets 10€, customer rate is 21€

In order to know the supplier rate, either estimate or for e.g. DTP reach out to the layout expert by providing them with the files and let them give you their rate.

Click “next”, leave the default settings of “no signature” and “no payment”
Click “next” and then “publish quote”. Copy the link shown - you will need it later
Quote is created.

Add information to the deal:

In the deal, add any important information that might be useful to you as the PM or the CS, as a note.

This should include:

price per word
estimated delivery time
if any specific suppliers should be used
which CS is responsible
any other information

Add the document(s) from the project by adding “Attachments” on the right hand side.

Send quote to customer:

Send the quote to the customer via email by inserting the link you copied earlier. Give the customer any other necessary information. Let the customer know that they can accept the quote by giving you the confirmation via email.

Update the status of the deal to “Approval Needed” as soon as it was sent to the customer and keep on updating its status as the project gets approved, declined etc.

Last Step:

As a last step the PM has to manually move the deal to “Completed” in order to trigger the ticket to finance. If this is not done, no invoice will be created and the customer will not be charged.

IMPORTANT:

Always remember to move the deal to the next stage whenever a new stage is reached.