Rate per line

[MyVirtualAngel]

Hi guys,

Just after a little help, I normally charge per audio hour for transcription but have recently been asked what i charge per line. Is there a particular way that you would work it out or is there a "going rate" per line? I'm really not sure what to tell them and am holding off emailing them back until i can get some advice. Any help would be greatly appreciated. TIA

[The Office Virtuoso]

Sorry, I charge by audio hour too! I've heard about by page before, but not by line.

[Action Jackson VA]

I have not heard about line either. Interesting question. I charge per minute of audio.

[Prism Virtual]

I saw a posting on Elance where someone was looking to charge per line which I thought was a little odd. Anyway, I Googled the phrase "transcription charge per line." Bunch of stuff showed up. You might want do that to see how to handle a charge per line.

[Business-Bytes]

Hi guys,

Just after a little help, I normally charge per audio hour for transcription but have recently been asked what i charge per line. Is there a particular way that you would work it out or is there a "going rate" per line? I'm really not sure what to tell them and am holding off emailing them back until i can get some advice. Any help would be greatly appreciated. TIA

Since I am enrolled at an online medical transcription college, all I had heard of was by the line until I decided to delve into other transcription also, then I became familiar with per audio hour, etc.

Here is a link that provides helpful info with figuring out how much to charge by the line that you might find useful, albeit it is geared towards medical transcription, but I would think the same would relate to general transcription also. : http://www.mtdaily.com/math.html

[MyVirtualAngel]

Thanks for all your responses. Jules i will definitely check out that link, thanks for your help

[mandanicole]

I know that when I was in school for Court Reporting the court reporters charge per page of transcription, because they usually do more than one voice transcriptions. Just my 2 cents.

[cherylb]

After 25 years of doing medical transcription, these clients are almost always charged per line. It could be anywhere from 5 cents per line to 14 cents per line, but it seems that the going "average" it about 8-9 cents per line. (which explains why it's not my full time job anymore....)

[JoCarole]

I have my medical transcription certificate from my local college. A few years ago I was going to start looking for work in this field but found out that it wasn't that easy to find work or to get decent money in MT. I was following the comments on the forums and realized a lot was being outsourced. Since the labor is so much lower that the US, how much work is actually being done here?

I just wish I didn't even bother going to school, all that money, time, books, and notes, still in my closet, taking up precious space. Anyone feel like me?

So in light of the above, I am thinking of just sticking with business transcription. Anyone else feel like me?

Thanks

[homebody]

Hi all, new here. I did medical transcription for 13 years and now do QA on new MTs as well. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with charging by the line for general transcription, but a line rate is common in medical transcription.

Medical transcription is routinely outsourced to US home workers. There is a difference between outsourcing and offshoring. It can be offshored to India, etc., which pays low, of course. Many US companies refuse to use offshore workers, but some large MT companies do offshore their work. That has been going on for years and there is still a lot of MT work available to US workers.

If doing MT on your own accounts, depending on the part of the country, you can charge anywhere from 11 to 18 cents per line.

The 8-9 cents per line mentioned above is what you get if you are acting as a subcontractor rather than working on your own accounts. Some good MTSOs pay more, up to 10-11 cents per line for very experienced MT subcontractors. When working as a subcontractor, you split the cents per line rate with the account owner or MTSO. Some MTs prefer that, as there is less administrative work on their end, they don't have to deal with office managers or the dictators directly, no printing, etc.

But if you have your own medical accounts, 11-18 cents is what you'd charge per line, not 8-9 cents.