How to Plan a Budget for Transcription Services [With Template]

Many businesses and organizations need transcription services for a variety of functions. Without reliable transcription, many operations will struggle to perform efficiently.

Some of the industries that rely on accurate transcription include legal, healthcare, entertainment, and marketing. It’s become integral to many everyday tasks such as meetings, interviews, and staff training.

Additionally, transcriptions can also help in different content creation efforts like subtitles for tutorials and video FAQs.

For many companies, inaccurate and inconsistent transcripts can lead to costly lawsuits. Every word, phrase, and sentence must be correct at all costs.

Before hiring a potential transcription partner, you should know how to create a practical budget for your needs.

Use our detailed guide and template as you prepare a budget for your transcription needs.

Hire a proven partner who can deliver timely and faultless transcripts. Connect with the leading transcription services firms on Clutch.

What Goes Into a Transcription Budget

While searching the internet, it’s easy to feel overconfident when you see rates like $1 to $3 for every minute of audio. For those inexperienced with transcription services, undermining those figures can add up and bite them back when they see the total costs.

It’s important to understand that transcription costs go to many different components, and you’ll need to consider those when planning your budget. Here are those components:

• Deliverables: There are different types of transcription services including verbatim and phonetic transcription. In addition to those, the volume and length of audio or video files needed to be transcribed are also major components that dictate the cost of your project.
• Software and technology: Nowadays, there are tons of free and commercially available software and technologies used to transcribe different types of audio or video. Many transcription firms utilize these technologies to supplement and streamline their processes.
• Quality assurance: Accuracy is the name of the game regarding transcription services. Meticulous QA is crucial to ensuring the integrity and precision of transcripts. Experienced QA specialists in full-scale transcription companies pay close attention to every day, and they can apply different techniques like randomized testing.
• Personnel: Transcription is a time-consuming task and human resources costs typically make up a huge portion of a project. For instance, bulk projects running on tight timelines require more transcribers and QA specialists; the more transcriptionists you need, the higher the costs. Generally, these professionals are paid by the hour if they work full-time.

By thinking carefully about these components, you’ll understand where your budget goes and help make the process simpler for you.

How to Plan a Budget for Transcription Services

1. Assess Your Needs
2. Research What Type of Transcription Services Needed
3. Evaluate Your Revenue
4. Look Up How Much Tools Cost
5. Consider Hiring A Dedicated Firm

1. Assess Your Needs

Before you do anything else it’s important to have a clear understanding of your needs. Your budget will always depend on what you need, so take your time assessing the workload you need, the scope of the project, and the expected turnaround times.

What file format do you need? How many audio files a week do you need to be transcribed? How is the quality of the audio recordings you’ll send? Those are just a few of the questions you need to ask yourself before you proceed to the next steps.

In addition to transcription services, are there any other related solutions you require? Identify whether you only need it for a one-time project or if it will be part of your business regularly. By determining these, you will get a better idea of how to adjust your finances.

2. Research What Type of Transcription Services Needed

This second step goes after you’ve determined your transcription needs. Using the information you’ve gathered, it’s time to research what type of transcription services are the right fit for your requirements.

It may not occur to some but there are different types of transcription services, and the price varies depending on what you need.

Here’s a list of the types of transcription services for your reference:

• Audio and video transcription
• Foreign language transcription services
• Media services
• Legal transcription
• Business transcription
• Edited transcription
• Verbatim transcriptions
• Intelligent verbatim transcription
• Phonetic transcription

By identifying what type of transcription services you need, you can better research the average costs online. It will also help you communicate your project with a potential service provider when you discuss it with them.

3. Evaluate Your Revenue

Once you assess your transcription needs, the next thing you need to do is evaluate your current finances. Do you have enough resources for the scale of your project? Is there any wiggle room in your overall business budget?

The biggest mistake a business owner can make is to jump on a project without fully comprehending their financial status. If your business is running low on resources but you direly need transcription services, you can pivot your strategy and allocate a small budget to make sure you don’t end up short.

During this step, you can consult your leadership team or co-owners to discuss your finances and determine how much you’re willing to spend on transcription services. Don’t worry yet because you don’t need to come up with exact figures, rather you can set a ballpark range and a budget limit.

4. Look Up How Much Tools Cost

As mentioned, there are already different state-of-the-art transcription tools and software available. Most transcription projects and teams use these solutions to streamline their work and tackle bigger workloads.

As you prepare your budget, consider looking up the different apps needed by transcribers —- Otter, Sonix, Trint, Descript, and so many more can help transcribers work through audio quickly.

You can compare and contrast the prices along with their customer reviews and specs when budgeting for your project. Proper research on these tools will not only help you decide which one is best for your needs but also allow you to prepare the right amount for your budget.

5. Consider Consulting a Dedicated Firm

Lastly, the best way to get an accurate figure for your project is to directly consult an experienced transcription firm. Searching on the internet will give you a good idea of how much to spend but personally discussing with a vendor will help clarify where your budget goes.

When you prepare a budget, you can ask for a breakdown of their pricing structure and see if they handle projects similar to yours.

One of the most common ways companies cut costs is by hiring offshore transcription service firms from countries in Asia and Eastern Europe. Typically, their rates are lower than firms headquartered in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. Online directories such as Clutch will help you filter the options by location, team size, and minimum project costs.

Transcription Budget Template

Download our free transcription budget template.

Factors Affecting Transcription Costs

Just like with different projects, there are a plethora of factors that influence the final cost of transcription services. As you prepare a budget for your project, make sure you carefully consider these variables:

• Type of transcription 
• Industry (e.g. legal and medical)
• Length of audio recordings
• Audio quality
• Number of speakers
• Turnaround time
• Additional requests (e.g. formatting and timestamps)
• Machine or human transcription

Of course, the longer the audio, the more additional requests, and the poorer the audio quality, the higher the costs. Additionally, some transcription firms charge an additional for projects that require a very tight turnaround time. Keep that in mind when budgeting for your project.

Understanding these factors will help you budget wisely and communicate your needs clearly if you plan to hire a service provider. 

Plan Your Transcription Budget Wisely

In this current digital world, transcriptions add value to many processes and industries. It’s not as easy as it looks though because it requires different skills like fast typing, good grammar, and computer skills.

Investing in high-quality transcription services is a must as you scale and aim to improve your business efficiency. Don’t be intimidated by the costs because it provides an invaluable return on investment if you budget wisely.

Don’t settle for less for your business! Work with the best transcription services companies on Clutch. Don’t worry about spending many hours searching because you can easily filter the firms on our list by their location, team size, and project costs.