The gap between quotation and final invoice almost always comes from work that genuinely needed doing but was never scoped. These six items are the ones that recur.
1. Layout rebuilding
Documents with nested tables, letterheads, stamps, signatures and engineering drawings cannot simply have new text dropped in. There is typesetting work that can take as long as the translation itself. If your quotation states only a per-page rate with no mention of layout, ask explicitly whether it is included.
2. Converting printed documents into text
Scans, photographs of documents and locked PDFs must be read and converted into workable text before translation. On a set of several hundred pages this is a job in itself. Some suppliers fold it into the base rate; others bill it separately. That difference in assumption alone can make two equivalent quotations look far apart.
3. Extra hard copies
Authorities frequently want more than one wet-stamped copy. The embassy keeps one, the notary keeps one, your archive keeps one. A quotation that says "one copy" has quietly left two copies to be billed later.
4. Agency fees and queues
Legalisation at ministries and embassies carries official fees and its own waiting times. Some embassies charge differently by document type. A good quotation shows these as separate lines marked "at agency rates" rather than burying them in one lump figure.
5. Source documents changing mid-project
This is the most common cause of overrun on legal and financial projects. Draft contracts get revised, financial statements get updated, annexes get added. Every change means rework. Agree at the outset how source revisions are billed: per new page, per hour, or with an included change allowance.
6. Deadline acceleration
Work that has to cross a weekend or run several translators in parallel costs more — and parallel work also demands tighter terminology alignment. If there is any chance the deadline moves forward, ask for the acceleration rate to be stated in the original quotation, so it is not negotiated while you are under pressure.
One sentence that closes all six
Ask the vendor to put this in the quotation: "This quotation covers all work required for the documents to be accepted at the destination authority. Any work outside scope will be notified and approved in writing before it is carried out." A vendor willing to write that has taken the scope analysis seriously.
Learn how to write an RFQChecklist before approving a quotation
- Is layout rebuilding included?
- Is conversion of scanned files billed separately?
- How many wet-stamped copies are included, and what does an extra one cost?
- Are official agency fees shown separately with amounts or estimates?
- How are source document revisions billed?
- What is the acceleration rate if the deadline changes?
- How long does the quoted figure remain valid?