For public agencies
How agencies buy from us.
A written quote same business day, terms your purchasing office already uses, and a delivery that stands up in the file. Everything a department needs to raise a purchase order is on this page.
Quotes
Four things and we can price it.
Send them to quotes@civictranslation.com or through the quote form. If something is missing we ask; these four are what turn a request into a number.
The file
Whatever format you hold it in: Word, PDF, InDesign, a scan, or a link to the page. A scan is fine. If it is too poor to read reliably we tell you at quote rather than after delivery.
The language or languages
Price is per language, so the quote separates them and you can drop one without re-quoting the rest.
The date you need it
Give us the real deadline, including the internal review time you need before it. The delivery date we quote is the date the file is in your inbox.
The delivery format
Usually the format you sent. Say so if you need something else: a tagged PDF, web-ready text for the CMS, or a print-ready file.
A written quote, same business day, itemized rather than a single figure:
- Word count and page count for each document.
- Price for each language, separately.
- A delivery date, not a range.
- Every assumption we made, written down, so nothing is priced on a guess.
- Anything not included, stated as not included.
If we cannot hold your deadline, the quote says so. We would rather lose the job than take it and miss the date you published.
Purchasing
Set up the way your purchasing office already works.
Nothing here asks a department to invent a process for one vendor.
Before the purchase order
A completed W-9 is available on request. If your vendor file needs anything else before a PO can be raised, ask and we will send what we hold plus the current status of anything still in process.
Terms
Standard net terms. Where your department's payment terms differ, we work to yours rather than asking for an exception.
Invoices
Every invoice carries the purchase order number, the documents, the languages, and the delivery date, so it reconciles against the PO without a phone call.
Blanket and term orders
We can work against a blanket purchase order or a term contract and draw down job by job, each one quoted in writing before it starts.
No minimum
A one-page notice is a real job and we take it. There is no minimum order and no small-order surcharge.
Under a prime contractor
Where the award sits with a prime, we can work as a subcontractor on their paper and their process.
Working under a prime contractor? Subcontract terms are on the partners page.
Turnaround
Deadlines, and what a rush changes.
Standard turnaround is set against the clock a department actually works to, not against a vendor's production convenience.
- Standard
- Documents up to roughly 2,500 words, per language.
- Priority
- Documents up to roughly 1,200 words, per language. Same-day intake before 11 a.m. PT.
- Scheduled
- Handbooks, manuals, and multi-document programs, delivered on a milestone schedule.
- Tell us the deadline at intake rather than after the quote. It decides which tier the job runs in, and the quote names the tier.
- A rush changes the schedule and the staffing. It does not change the process: the human review step is not shortened and is not skipped.
- Our hours are Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Pacific. Work outside them is by arrangement and is agreed in the quote, not assumed.
Handling
Confidentiality, records, and what the delivery has to survive.
Confidentiality.
Draft, deliberative, and pre-decisional documents are handled as confidential by default. You do not have to ask for it and you do not have to flag the file.
Reviewers are engaged under confidentiality terms and see only the job they are assigned. We sign your department's nondisclosure or confidentiality agreement rather than asking you to sign ours.
We do not publish, quote, or name client work. There are no case studies on this site and there will not be.
Records.
Civic Translation retains the source file as received, the delivered translation, and the signed certificate of accuracy. Each job carries a reference number that appears on both the certificate and the invoice.
Three things follow. A lost delivery is reissued from the record instead of re-translated. An audit question about what was translated, into what, and on what date is answered with documents rather than recollection. A later revision is quoted against the original rather than from scratch.
If your retention rules require us to destroy our copies after a set period, say so at intake and we confirm the schedule in writing.
Accessibility of the delivery.
Text comes back as live text — selectable, searchable, and reflowable — not as an image of a page. Heading structure, lists, and table headers survive the language change.
The language of the document is tagged so a screen reader pronounces it correctly, which matters more in a translated file than in an English one. Send a tagged PDF and you get a tagged PDF back.
We carry the structure of what you send across. We do not audit your source file for accessibility, and we tell you when something in it will not survive translation intact. Our accessibility commitment.
Vendor file
Documents we can provide.
Ask for what your department's vendor file needs and it comes back in writing, same business day, where it exists.
Nothing is listed here yet, and that is deliberate. This site prints a registration, certification, or insurance line only once it has been issued — so anything you read on this page can be pasted into a vendor file without being verified first.
Registrations, certifications, and coverage are in process. Ask for the current status of any specific item your vendor file requires and you will have it in writing, same business day.
- A completed W-9.
- A signed confidentiality or nondisclosure agreement on your department's own form.
- A specimen certificate of accuracy in the form we issue it. See the certificate.
- A written description of the translation and review process every job runs through. See the process.
- Written confirmation of the current status of any registration, certification, or insurance item your vendor file asks about.
Related
- Capability statementFirm snapshot, NAICS codes, printable.
- Language access rulesWhat the ordinance and the acts ask for.
- PricingHow a job is priced before you commit.
- LanguagesWhich pairs are staffed directly.
- Quality standardsWhat the review step actually does.
- Request a quoteSend a file and a deadline.
Send the document and the deadline.
Attach the file, name the languages, and give us the date. An itemized written quote comes back same business day, in a form your purchasing office can act on.