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Transcription Service FAQs

Here are some of the questions we hear most often from new and existing clients about our service ….

What is a cleaned up transcript?
Cleaned up transcript means that it is not verbatim. Stutters and sentence restarts are not included. Basically, it’s written in a readable format. For most projects such as interviews, webinars, and podcasts, the cleaned up transcript is what you want, because it flows nicely.

Do you offer verbatim transcription?
At this time we do not offer verbatim word-for-word transcription that includes things such as “um” and “uh” – this is not our specialty and we prefer to stay within the realm of cleaned up transcripts to offer the best possible service to our clients.

What are audio minutes and audio hours?
1 minute of audio = 1 audio minute; 60 minutes of audio = 1 audio hour.
We bill you by the length of your audio or video files, not by the length of time it takes us to complete a project.

How do you handle billing and payments?
We are currently using SlickPie to send invoices and payment via Paypal is preferred, but checks in the mail are still perfectly okay if you prefer. We generally bill the day a project is submitted. First projects with us and any rush orders require payment be made in advance.

Some clients have ongoing projects that are billed on a specified schedule. If you need alternative billing options please let us know and we can discuss it further.

How are audio and video files submitted?
If your audio or video is already online in a downloadable format you can just send us a link to download from. For large projects we have Dropbox and Asana options available. If you need a different delivery method, let us know and we can discuss alternate options.

When will I get my transcript file back?
Our standard turnaround time is three to five business days. During busy times or for longer projects it can be up to seven business days.

Rush services are available for an additional charge.

What format will my transcripts be delivered in?
We generally deliver back a Word document. If you need something else just let us know and we can handle that. Additionally, we are happy to work within your existing template or help you create a template for branding purposes. Customized templates are often created and used for telesummit and podcast transcripts.

I have a preferred format, can you use my template?
Yes. I actually encourage and support custom templates. If you have a template that you prefer to use for your transcripts please send it over and I’ll work from that so you don’t have to copy and paste and reformat for every transcript that you order.

Additionally, if you don’t have a custom template and would like to have one, I’d be happy to work with you to have one created. I have a team of several talented freelancers that help with those sorts of things and they do a great job of making us all look good.

What type of file can I send you?
We happily accept digital audio and video formats.
We can stream video from YouTube or other services if you don’t have a downloadable file, but the rate is higher for this type of video work.
We no longer accept cassettes in the mail.

Have a question that we didn’t answer here? Contact us and we’ll get right back to you.

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