Freelance writers and editors
A writer or editor quotes by the page and has clients review drafts on the page.
Translators and interpreters
You translate in the document and keep your glossaries beside it. Clients' files stay encrypted, and Magpie bills the hours.
A freelance translator uses Magpie without a team. A small agency can work in one Magpie team.
Get started free
This combination of six Magpie areas fits a translator.
- Documents
- Documents opens a client's Word file, and exports your translation back to Word.
- Spreadsheets
- Spreadsheets keeps each client's glossary, searchable and shared if you choose.
- Secure Files
- Secure Files keeps clients' files encrypted, and sends them by a link that expires.
- Time Tracking
- Time Tracking records your hours on each job, at its rate.
- Invoicing
- Invoicing bills each job, and clients pay by card.
- Contacts
- Contacts keeps each direct client and agency, with every job you invoiced them.
A client's Word file opens with its comments, and goes back to them as Word.
Documents imports a source file in .docx, .odt or Markdown, with comments and tracked changes. You write the translation in the editor, with styles, tables and footnotes.
A client or reviser can read it and suggest changes on the page. You export it as DOCX or PDF, with or without the suggestions.
Each client's glossary is a spreadsheet you search and filter as you work.
Spreadsheets keeps the source term, the target term and a note in columns. A filter finds every term that contains a word, and lookups find a term across sheets.
You can share one glossary with a client to read or edit. It imports and exports CSV, so a glossary can become a deck in Flashcards.
Clients' source files stay encrypted, and each translation goes back by a link that expires.
Secure Files encrypts each file and its name in your browser before it is stored. Magpie cannot open them without your password. Folders keep each client's files apart.
You send a file of up to 2 GB by a link. It expires after an hour, a day, a week or 30 days. It can allow one download and need a passphrase.
Your hours on each job are recorded at the client's hourly rate.
Time Tracking gives each job a project, with an hourly rate and a budget of hours. A timer runs while you translate or proofread, or you add the time afterwards.
Rounding can be exact, or to 5, 6, 10 or 15 minutes. Reports total your billable hours by client, and export as CSV.
Magpie bills each job at your page rate or by the hour.
Invoicing bills each job with a line per document or per page, at your rate. Add unbilled time puts your recorded hours on the invoice too.
Each line uses one of your tax rates. Clients pay by card from the email, into your own Stripe account. Reminders go out until each invoice is paid.
Each direct client and agency has a page with every job and invoice.
Contacts gives each client and agency a page of their own. Its activity lists every invoice and the documents they signed.
A pinned note keeps their preferences, such as British or American spelling. A default hourly rate on the contact is used for their time.
Six more areas cover quotes, scanned PDFs, terminology, calls, confidentiality and portals.
- Proposals
- Proposals quotes a larger job by the page, with a deposit, and the client signs online.
- PDF Editor
- PDF Editor makes a scanned PDF searchable, and shows the words changed between two versions.
- Flashcards
- Flashcards drills a client's terminology both ways, with spaced repetition.
- Meetings
- Meetings lets clients book a call or a short interpreting session, with a Zoom link.
- E-Signatures
- E-Signatures sends your NDA as a PDF to sign.
- Client Portal
- Client Portal gives a regular client their files and invoices on one page.
A translation goes from the client's source file to a paid invoice.
The client's contact page lists each invoice.
The source
The client's contract arrives as a scanned PDF. PDF Editor makes the source text searchable.
The translation
You write the translation in a document, beside the client's glossary in a spreadsheet.
The hours
A timer runs on the job's project while you work.
The revision
A reviser suggests changes on the page, and you accept or reject each one.
The delivery
You export the final translation as a PDF and deliver it by a secure link.
The invoice
You bill the pages and the hours. The client pays by card from the email.
Setting up takes four steps.
Add your business details
You add your name, address and tax number for invoices. Help: Send and configure invoices.
Connect Stripe
You connect your Stripe account, so clients can pay by card. Help: Connect Stripe to receive money.
Set up Secure Files
You set up your Password Vault, which unlocks Secure Files. Then you make a folder for each client. Help: Secure Files.
Bring in your glossaries
You import each glossary as a CSV file into a spreadsheet. Help: Create and edit a spreadsheet.
Plans
A freelance translator working alone fits Pro, without a team. It has no limit on invoices or contacts, and raises your file storage from 1 GB to 20 GB. Secure Files counts toward it.
A small agency fits the Team plan, one price for up to 25 members. On the free plan, you can create 5 invoices a month and keep 100 contacts.
Magpie adds no fee to invoice payments. Stripe's processing fee is taken from each.
Other language and writing work has pages of its own.
Virtual assistants and online business managers
A virtual assistant works in several clients' teams and bills the hours every month.
Tutors and music teachers
A language tutor takes bookings for lessons and shares flashcard decks with students.
Questions translators and interpreters ask
Can I open a client's Word file and deliver the translation in Word?
Yes. Documents imports a .docx file of up to 25 MB, with its comments and tracked changes. Pictures inside the file are not imported. You export the translation as DOCX, ODT, Markdown, HTML or plain text, or download a PDF.
Can a reviser or proofreader check my translation?
Yes. You share the document as Can review, and they comment and suggest changes on the page. You accept or reject each suggestion. They open only that document.
Can I keep a glossary for each client and language pair?
Yes, as a spreadsheet with a column per language and one for notes. Filters find terms that contain a word, and lookups find a term across sheets. Find and replace works across every sheet.
Can I import my existing glossaries and term lists?
Yes, as CSV or TSV files of up to 5 MB. An Excel file is saved as CSV first. Each sheet exports as CSV too.
Can I learn a client's terminology?
Yes. Flashcards imports a glossary from a CSV file, and each card can ask both ways. Spaced repetition schedules each card's next review from how well you knew it.
Can I translate from a scanned PDF?
Yes. PDF Editor recognises the text of a scanned PDF in your browser, in 15 languages. You can then search and copy it. It can misread words, so you check the result.
Can I see what changed in a client's updated source PDF?
Yes. Compare PDFs lists the words added and removed on each page between two PDFs. It runs in your browser, so the files are not uploaded.
How are clients' confidential documents kept?
Secure Files encrypts each file and its name in your browser before it is stored. Magpie cannot unlock them without your password. Files of up to 2 GB each are kept in your own folders.
Can I deliver a translation securely?
Yes. A secure link expires after 1 hour, 1 day, 7 days or 30 days. It can allow only one download and need a passphrase you give separately. You can revoke it at any time.
Can I charge a page rate or an hourly rate?
Both. An invoice line has a quantity and a price, such as 12 pages. Add unbilled time puts your recorded hours on the same invoice, at the client's rate.
Can I bill an agency every month for all its jobs?
Yes. You track every job for the agency on its projects, then invoice the month's hours together. Add unbilled time lists your billable entries for that client.
Can clients book an interpreting call?
Yes, up to two hours. Meetings gives you a page where clients book a free time, with lengths you choose. With Zoom connected, each new meeting gets a Zoom call.
Can a client sign my NDA?
Yes. You send your NDA as a PDF to sign. Each signer gets their own link by email. When everyone has signed, Magpie will email them the signed PDF and a certificate.
What does Magpie take from my clients' payments?
Magpie adds no fee to invoice payments. Stripe's processing fee is taken from each card payment. The rest goes to your own Stripe account.
Set up your translation business.
Create a Magpie account and add your business details.