You delivered the files this morning. Now you have to turn 8,420 words of source text, two rounds of revision and a glossary you built from scratch into a document an agency's accounts department will pay without emailing you back.
A translation invoice needs everything any invoice needs, plus five things that are specific to language work: the language pair, the word count and which end you counted, your rate and its unit, the agency's purchase order reference, and any CAT tool discount grid you agreed to. Miss the PO number and it will sit unpaid for a month without anyone telling you why.
This guide covers what goes on the invoice, when to bill per word against per hour, what agencies need before they can pay you, and what to do when the money is late.
What a translation invoice must contain
Start with the ordinary parts: your name and address, your tax or VAT number if you have one, the agency's registered details, an invoice number, the issue date, the due date, the total, and how to pay you.
Then the five that are yours alone.
The language pair
Write it as source into target, on its own line: German into English, not "German translation". An agency running dozens of linguists sorts by pair, and an invoice that does not say which one takes a human to resolve.
The word count, and which end you counted
Source word count is the normal basis and the safer one, because it is known before you start and cannot move. Target counts change with the language: translating into German or Finnish usually shrinks the count, into Spanish or French usually grows it. If you quoted on source, say "8,420 source words" on the invoice. The word "source" is doing real work there.
Your rate and its unit
Per source word, per target word, per line, per standard page, per hour. Whichever you use, put the unit next to the number. A rate of 0.11 means nothing on its own, and the ambiguity always gets resolved in the payer's favour.
The purchase order reference
Most agencies of any size cannot pay an invoice without their own PO or job number on it. Their system matches your invoice to their job, and with nothing to match it against it goes into a queue nobody watches. Ask for the reference when you accept the work, not when you invoice.
The CAT grid, if you agreed to one
If the job was priced on a Trados or memoQ analysis, show the bands you were paid on: new words, fuzzy matches, repetitions, each with its count and its rate. Two reasons. The agency's checker can reconcile it against their own analysis in seconds, and you have a record of what you accepted when the same client sends a similar file next month.
Per word, per hour, or per project
The unit should follow the work, not habit.
- Per word for straightforward translation of a finished source text. It is what agencies expect and it is easy to check.
- Per hour for revision, proofreading, machine translation post-editing, subtitle timing, terminology work and anything where the effort has no relationship to the word count. A badly machine-translated file can take longer than translating it yourself, and a per word rate hides that completely.
- Per project for certified or sworn documents, birth certificates and the like, where the value is in the certification rather than the length, and for small jobs that fall under your minimum.
Have a minimum fee and put it on the invoice. A 90 word press release still costs you the context switch, the file handling and the delivery email. Most translators set a minimum somewhere around the value of an hour's work.
Check what your per word rate really pays per hour
Put in the hours a job actually took and what you charged for it. You get the effective hourly rate, which is the only fair way to compare a per word job against an editing job. Free, and nothing to sign up for.
What the agency needs before it can pay you
This is where most first invoices to a new agency stall, and none of it is about the translation.
- Be on their vendor system first. Signed agreement, tax form, bank details, sometimes a tax residency certificate. Ask what they need on the day you accept the first job, because the paperwork usually takes longer than the job does.
- Find out whether they self-bill. Some agencies issue the invoice themselves from their own records and you never send one. Sending your own into a self-billing account creates a duplicate their system will reject.
- Learn the monthly cut-off. Many agencies batch payments: everything invoiced by the last day of the month is paid on a fixed date the following month. An invoice sent on the 1st can wait an extra four weeks for the sake of one day.
- Use their portal if they have one. Emailing your project manager is not invoicing. Your PM cannot pay you and often cannot chase it either.
- Ask who to contact about payment. Get the accounts email at the start. It costs one line in an email and saves a fortnight later.
Currency, and the fee nobody budgets for
If you are invoicing an agency in another country, decide two things and write both on the invoice.
Which currency you are billing in. Invoicing in the agency's currency makes you easier to work with and moves the exchange risk onto you. Invoicing in yours does the reverse. Either is defensible; leaving it ambiguous is not.
Who pays the transfer charges. An international bank transfer can lose you a fixed fee at your end, a fee at theirs, an intermediary bank fee in the middle, and a margin on the exchange rate. On a small invoice those can take a real bite out of the total. State "all bank charges payable by the client" on the invoice if that is what you agreed, and keep an eye on what actually lands against what you invoiced, because the gap is the true cost of that client.
Dates, terms, and the wait you are agreeing to
Put a real calendar date on the invoice, not only "Net 30". A date is unambiguous and it is much easier to refer to when you chase.
Be clear-eyed about what the terms cost you. In our invoice data, Net 30 invoices are paid in 47.2 days on average, so a month on paper is closer to seven weeks in practice. Agencies commonly work on 45 or 60 day terms, which stretches it further. That is not necessarily a reason to refuse the work, but it is a reason to know how many weeks of your own money you are carrying, and to price the biggest agencies accordingly.
If you want the full picture on choosing terms, including what shorter windows actually change, we have a separate guide to invoice payment terms.
When an agency pays late
When an invoice is paid late, the typical delay is 11 days, and one in four late invoices runs 28 days or more. In agency work the first fortnight is almost never a refusal. It is usually a missing PO number, an invoice that went to a project manager instead of accounts, or a batch cut-off you missed by a day.
So check those three before you chase, then work in this order.
- Email accounts payable directly, not your project manager, with the invoice number, the PO reference and the date it was due.
- Ask for a payment date rather than a payment. It is a far easier question for a clerk to answer, and it gives you something specific to hold them to.
- Copy the project manager in on the second chase. They want the relationship to continue and they can walk down the corridor.
- Stop accepting new work from that agency while an old invoice is open, politely and in writing, before the exposure grows.
Keep it factual and unemotional at every step. Translation is a small industry, project managers move between agencies, and the person chasing you today may be commissioning you in two years.
If you work with direct clients instead
Direct clients pay better and they need more from the invoice, because they have never bought translation before. Spell out what they are getting: the language pair in plain words, what was delivered, and what is not included, such as layout, certification or a second round of changes after sign-off. Ask for a deposit on anything substantial. And send a quote first, because a direct client who has not seen a price is not a client yet.
Three free tools for getting the invoice right
There is also a free translation invoice template and a matching translation estimate template, both fill-in-and-download with no account. If the wider money side of the work is the problem, rates that have not moved and agencies on long terms, that is covered in invoicing for translators.
Frequently asked questions
What should a freelance translator put on an invoice?
The usual invoice details plus five specific to language work: the language pair written as source into target, the word count and whether it is source or target, your rate with its unit, the agency's purchase order reference, and any CAT tool discount bands you agreed. The PO reference is the one that most often holds up payment.
Should I invoice per source word or per target word?
Per source word is the normal basis and the safer one, because the count is known before you start and cannot change. Target counts move with the language, shrinking into German and growing into Spanish, so a target-word quote is an estimate until the job is finished.
Do I need a PO number on a translation invoice?
For most agencies of any size, yes. Their system matches your invoice against their job record, and without a reference to match it sits in a queue with nobody assigned to it. Ask for the PO when you accept the work rather than when you invoice.
How do I charge for proofreading or post-editing?
By the hour. Revision, proofreading and machine translation post-editing have no reliable relationship to word count, and a badly machine-translated file can take longer than translating from scratch. A per word rate hides that entirely and you absorb the difference.
Should I invoice an agency in my currency or theirs?
Either works as long as the invoice says which. Billing in the agency's currency makes you easier to deal with and puts the exchange risk on you. Also state who pays the bank charges, because intermediary fees on an international transfer can take a noticeable bite out of a small invoice.
What is a reasonable minimum fee?
Most translators set one around the value of an hour's work, to cover the context switch, file handling and delivery on a very short job. Put it in your rate card and on the invoice, so a 90 word job does not cost you money to accept.
How long do translation agencies take to pay?
Commonly 30 to 60 days by their stated terms, and longer in practice. In our own invoice data, Net 30 invoices are paid in 47.2 days on average. Many agencies also batch payments to a monthly cut-off, so invoicing a day after the cut-off can add four weeks.
