Passport FAQ

 

What can I do in it?

Main functions in Passport:

Current Tasks: keep track of your Sandberg tasks and their deadlines in real time, mark tasks completed and fill in QC checklists

Claim Tasks: view, accept or reject tasks offered to you by Sandberg PMs and Als

Availability: tell us when you are available, unavailable or on holiday

Profile: view your profile, and keep your expertise updated so we can better match jobs to your skills

Invoicing: view invoiceable tasks and send us your monthly invoice securely via Passport

I'm just looking for this month's ZIP password!

All translation content will be sent to you zipped with a password that we change monthly, to ensure data security of files for translation, when we email them to you, and we also ask you to zip them up with the same password when you return the translated files to us. You can find the current month's zip password on the Passport front page, at the bottom of the page. We recommend 7-Zip, a secure, free zipping tool. You can find our instructions on 7-Zip here.

 

How do I view current tasks and mark them complete?

To view your current Sandberg tasks, click on View Current Tasks in the My Tasks box.

 

All tasks our PMs set up for you in Nexus appear in Passport's Current Tasks view, with the same details as in the purchase order they send via email to you. Please wait for the purchase order before you start any work. 

When you start working on a task, you can click on Mark as Started to let the PM know you are working on it. 

When you have finished a task, click on Mark as Complete to mark the task completed. If the task comes under scope for ISO 17100, our Quality Control Checklist will open for you to confirm you have carried the task out according to our instructions and guidelines. You will not be able to complete a task without filling in the QC Checklist correctly. 

After marking a task completed in Passport, please still email the PM to let them know you have finished the task, with any files you need to deliver (zipped with our password), and any delivery comments you may have.

 

How does task claiming work?

To view new tasks proposed to you via Passport, click on Claim New Tasks in the My Tasks box. 

Task claiming allows us to propose a translation or revision task to multiple translators at the same time. It is a first-come-first-served function, so the first translator to accept the task will be assigned to it by our PM. 

In the Claim Tasks view, you can accept or reject tasks proposed to you. You can toggle Claim Tasks email notification settings on and off in the Subscriptions view in Passport. 

You can use Claim Tasks in two ways:

Subscribe to email notifications to receive an email with a Claim Tasks link every time a new task is proposed to you, accepted by someone else, or withdrawn;

Unsubscribe to email notifications and use Claim Tasks by refreshing the view to see new tasks to claim. This way is only recommended to translators who work very closely with our teams and handle multiple projects per day.

Many translators work with us very closely, and using the feature allows our teams to send out frequent, multiple requests to the team's regular freelancers to accept without having to discuss each individual task separately. Task claiming is also used for faster placing of urgent ad hoc work, where time for finding an available translator is of the essence. In addition to using the task claiming feature, our PMs will also place jobs with you via email as well. 

If you do not wish to receive any task proposals via Claim Tasks, you can opt out in the Claim Tasks view.

 

How can I tell you I'll be on holiday?

To update us of your availability, click on View / Edit Availability in the My Availability box. 

We really appreciate you updating your availability in Passport, whether you are available, fully booked, on holiday, or have restricted availability for a period. The availability you set in Passport feeds directly into our project management database and helps our PMs place work more accurately – and stops you from receiving offers for work when you are not available! 

You can update the availability calendar by setting the dates and availability type by selecting the dates in the Set Availability box, or by clicking on the dates in the calendar, and clicking Update. The availability calendar also shows your booked Sandberg work in a visual view. You can clear availability and unavailability by selecting the dates and clicking on Clear in the Set Availability box.

We use the following three options under Contactability:

OK to contact:  if you are working and responding to emails. You can set this option even if you are marked as Unavailable, e.g. if you are fully booked for one week but still taking work for the following week, you will not receive any offers for work taking place during the week when you are marked as unavailable, but you may receive offers for work for the next week. 

Do not disturb: if you are not taking on work at all, e.g. because you are on vacation. You will be completely excluded from Passport offers for any periods marked as Do not disturb.

Might not respond: if you may not be checking your emails regularly

How do I invoice?

You can view your invoiceable tasks and invoice them on one monthly invoice by clicking on View Invoiceable Tasks & Raise Invoices in the My Invoicing box. View All Invoices takes you to a list of your previous invoices.

 

To generate an invoice via Invoiceable Tasks, simply tick the box next to the tasks you want to invoice and click on Invoice Selected Tasks. A dialog with further invoicing instructions will open, with the following options:

Insert your reference number for the invoice (obligatory)

Adjust invoice date and due date

Upload your own invoice file in .pdf or .docx format

Adjust decimals for invoice total and VAT, in case your invoice shows a small discrepancy

About invoice dates

Please submit a single invoice for each month's work to reach us no later than 7th of the next month. Invoices should be dated the month the work was completed, not when the invoice was created. For example, if you are generating an invoice for May work on the 6th of June, date your invoice and adjust the Invoice Date to 31 May, and check that the Due Date shows 30 June. We pay all invoices by the end of the month after your invoice is dated (e.g. if your invoice is dated from 1st to 31st of May, we will pay it by the end of June).

 

What about My Profile?

Your profile feeds directly into our Nexus database, and the information you enter in the profile on your expertise, tools and skills is used by our PMs for placing work. Please update the profile regularly!

 

Use the Edit buttons in each profile information box to edit the information in that box. 

Contact profile (your name) Check and update your personal and contact details. Check and upload your up-to-date CV. 

Languages List your working languages and your skills level 

Language pairs List the language pairs that you translate between. This list uses the languages you have selected in the Languages box. Non-native speakers of English should generally avoid adding English as a target language; even if you feel comfortable translating both from and into English, many of our clients have requirements to only use native English speakers. We do make some exceptions for situations where we have exceptionally few native English speakers in a given language pair. Please discuss this with our Vendor Management team if you think this applies to you. 

Services offered Tick "yes" to all the services that you are happy to offer, and "no" for the services that you definitely do not offer. Leaving a box blank means you may receive offers for a particular service, but not as many as if the box is ticked “yes”. 

Software Tick "yes" to all the tools that you are able to work in, and "no" for the tools that you definitely do not want to use. If you are happy to try out tools that you don't yet know, leave those unticked. Please note that Trados Studio is a paid tool, and you must own your own license to work with this software. All other software on this list is either free at point of use, or we can lend a license for. 

Domains Tick "yes" to the ten domains that you are most familiar with, your expert subject matters. We have restricted the "yes" ticks in this selection to ensure that we know what domains are within your core expertise, but this does not stop our PMs from offering you work in other domains (unless the domain is very specialised, and these fields are marked with the ® symbol). Tick "no" to the domains that you definitely do not offer. If you would like to add more than ten domains, please contact our Vendor Management team. 

Text types Tick "yes" to the ten text types that you are most familiar with. We have restricted the "yes" ticks in this selection to ensure that we know what text types are within your core expertise, but this does not stop our PMs from offering you work in other text types (unless the text type is very specialised, and these fields are marked with the ® symbol). Tick "no" to the text types that you definitely do not offer. If you would like to add more than ten text types, please contact our Vendor Management team. 

Currencies Shows the currency and minimum fee you have agreed with us. This field is uneditable in Passport. 

Rates Shows the basic rates and rate exceptions you have agreed with us. This field is not editable in Passport, but if you have any queries on either the currency or the rates, do get in touch with our Vendor Management team. 

Working pattern List your typical weekly working pattern. This is an indication to our PMs on when roughly you work, for example, if you always work towards the evenings rather than in the mornings, or if you don't work on a Wednesday. The working pattern view is simply an indication and doesn't tie you into anything – it's just helpful information for our PMs, especially if you don't typically work during normal office hours. For any issues with your profile, get in touch with our Vendor Management team at vendor.management@stptrans.com.

 

What are Subscriptions?

You can access your Passport subscriptions via the Settings box.

 

Subscriptions are email notifications you receive via Passport to your main email address. 

Some of the subscriptions are optional. You can choose whether you wish to receive an email notification when a PM offers a new task to you via Claim Tasks, when an offered task is withdrawn (usually cancelled or delayed by our client), or when someone else accepts a task. 

Compulsory subscriptions are email notifications you cannot opt out of, they are related to essential Passport functionality and your ability to carry out work for us.