Freelance Translator Spreadsheet for Per-Word Income and Costs
A translator's invoice depends on word counts, language pairs and minimum fees, and agencies often pay in monthly batches long after delivery. Your costs are steady subscriptions and the odd proofreader, so the gap between work done and cash received is what needs watching.
How a translator gets paid, and what that means for the sheet
Translation is usually invoiced per source word or per target word, with a minimum fee for short files. Agencies often pay in one monthly batch some weeks after you invoice, while direct clients pay per project. The gap between delivery and payment can be long, so the Invoices tab matters as much as the Transactions tab.
Log Income when the money reaches your account, with the agency or client in the Client / Vendor column and the file name and language pair in the Description. A minimum fee for a short file is a normal invoice, so log it like any other. If a payment arrives in a foreign currency, log the amount your bank shows after conversion.
One example month, logged
Invented numbers, to show the shape. Each row below is one line on the Transactions tab.
| Client | What it was | Income |
|---|---|---|
| Lingua Bridge Agency | Supply contract, 6,500 words, EN to ES | $780 |
| Brightway Medical Devices | Device manual, EN to DE | $1,450 |
| Seabright Subtitles | Documentary subtitles, rush job | $920 |
| Calder & Finch Publishing | Novel sample chapters, FR to EN | $410 |
| Income total | $3,560 | |
| Category | What it was | Expense |
|---|---|---|
| Software & subscriptions | CAT tool license, annual | $480 |
| Software & subscriptions | Specialist dictionary subscription | $60 |
| Equipment | Second monitor for side-by-side editing | $230 |
| Equipment | External backup drive | $85 |
| Contractors | Proofreader for medical manual | $160 |
| Professional fees | Translators association dues | $135 |
| Professional fees | Certification exam fee | $250 |
| Marketing | Directory listing renewal | $45 |
| Other expense | Payment platform transfer fees | $38 |
| Expense total | $1,483 | |
In this example the month ends with $3,560 in, $1,483 out and $2,077 left before you set anything aside for tax.
The P&L tab sorts the same rows by category:
| Expense category | Month total |
|---|---|
| Software & subscriptions | $540 |
| Equipment | $315 |
| Contractors | $160 |
| Marketing | $45 |
| Professional fees | $385 |
| Other expense | $38 |
| Expense total | $1,483 |
Where a translator's purchases go
- Software & subscriptions: CAT tool licenses, terminology databases, QA checkers and online dictionaries belong here. Log an annual license once on the day you pay it, not as twelve monthly slices, so the P&L tab shows the month the cash actually left.
- Contractors: A proofreader or second translator hired for part of a large job goes under Contractors. Put the project name in the Description and keep their payment on its own row, apart from the Income row, so the cost of the job stays visible.
- Professional fees: Association dues, certification exam fees and accreditation renewals fit under Professional fees. They are rare and lumpy, so give each one a clear Description, such as the name of the body and the year.
- Other expense: When a payment platform takes a fee before the money reaches you, add the fee as its own Other expense row and log the Income at the pre-fee amount, so the sheet matches both the invoice and your statement.
Four tracking tips for a translator
- Put the language pair, file name and word count in the Description of each invoice row. Months later you can sort by client or scan the Descriptions to see which pairs and files brought in the money.
- Agencies pay late in batches, so open the Invoices tab at month end and read the Days outstanding for each unpaid invoice. Before chasing one, check whether it is still inside that agency's usual payment window.
- Rush and weekend jobs often carry a surcharge. Write rush in the Description so you can find those jobs later and judge whether the extra rate covered the lost evenings.
- When an agency sends many small files under one purchase order, keep one row per order, not per file, and put the PO number in the Description so it matches the agency's remittance.
Two formulas worth a cell of their own
These use the kit's Transactions tab (Type in column B, Category in C, Client / Vendor in E, Amount in F). Excel and Google Sheets both support SUMIFS.
- Spend in your biggest category, here Software & subscriptions:
=SUMIFS(Transactions!F:F,Transactions!B:B,"Expense",Transactions!C:C,"Software & subscriptions")returns $540 on the example month. - Income from one client:
=SUMIFS(Transactions!F:F,Transactions!B:B,"Income",Transactions!E:E,"Lingua Bridge Agency")returns $780 on the example month.
Questions
How do I track a translation agency that pays weeks after I invoice?
Add the invoice to the Invoices tab on the day you send it and leave it unpaid. Log the Income in the Transactions tab only when the money arrives. Until then, the Invoices tab shows what the agency still owes you.
Do I log a word-count discount for repeated text as a separate row?
No. The discount is already inside the final invoice total. Log the amount that was actually invoiced and paid. Put the repeats or fuzzy matches in the Description if you want to remember why the total came in below the quote.
Already built
The Freelancer Finance Spreadsheet Kit has the Transactions, Invoices, P&L, Cash Flow and Tax Set-Aside tabs wired together, with this kind of example data on every tab. One Excel file, $29.
Free: the Tax Set-Aside tab as a standalone Excel file
One working tab: type your quarterly income, expenses and the rate you choose, and it shows what is still to put aside. Confirm your email and the file arrives right away, plus an occasional note (at most one a week) on tracking freelance money. Unsubscribe in one click. Privacy.
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General information about using spreadsheets, not financial, tax or accounting advice. Example numbers are invented. Categories are for tracking and do not say what is deductible.