A Tigrinya interpreter for Thursday at 9
A hospital trust client calls to book a Tigrinya interpreter for Thursday at 9am. Your coordinator writes it on a pad, then in the booking spreadsheet, then starts phoning interpreters. The first two do not answer. The third can do it but needs travel paid. The coordinator calls the client back to check. On Thursday the appointment overruns, the interpreter stays an extra hour, and fills in a paper timesheet that someone signs illegibly.
A week later, finance tries to work out what to bill: the booked time, the actual time, the minimum call-out, the travel? And what to pay the interpreter, under which rules?
Why interpreting is so hard to run
- Bookings come in by phone, email and client portals in different formats.
- Interpreters are found by calling round, because availability is not recorded.
- Location, travel time and mode (face to face, phone or video) all affect who can do it.
- Cancellations, no-shows and overruns change both the bill and the pay.
- Timesheets come back on paper or photos, days later.
- Client rules differ: minimum charges, cancellation windows, mileage rates.
What it costs
Coordinator time on phone calls. Unfilled bookings, which matter a great deal when the client is a hospital, a court or a social care team. Billing disputes when the client and interpreter remember times differently. Late invoices because timesheets arrive late. Interpreters paid inconsistently, which makes good ones go elsewhere.
| Step | Phone and paper | Online booking and timesheets |
|---|---|---|
| Booking | Phone call, retyped | Client books online with all details |
| Finding an interpreter | Call round | Offer to available, qualified interpreters nearby |
| Confirmation | Call back | Automatic confirmation to client and interpreter |
| Session times | Paper timesheet | Digital timesheet signed on the interpreter's phone |
| Billing and pay | Worked out by hand | Calculated from client and interpreter rules |
How we build interpreting management
- Clients book through a web form or portal: language and dialect, date, time, expected duration, location or remote link, type of appointment, contact on the day and any special requirements.
- Interpreter records hold languages and dialects, qualifications and vetting status your contracts require, location, travel radius, modes offered and availability.
- Offers go to suitable interpreters by text and email, closest and best qualified first, and the first acceptance confirms the booking. The coordinator can always override.
- Client and interpreter get confirmations and reminders, with directions or the video link.
- At the end of the session, the interpreter records start and finish times on their phone, and the client's contact signs on screen. Overruns and no-shows are recorded with the reason.
- Billing is calculated from the client's rules, including minimum charges, cancellation terms and travel, and invoices are drafted in Xero or QuickBooks.
- Interpreter pay is calculated from their own rules and passed to your payment process.
What vetting or qualifications a booking needs is set by your contracts and your clients. The system checks bookings against the rules you enter.
What coordinators and finance notice
Cancellations get the same treatment. When a client cancels, the time of cancellation is recorded against their cancellation terms and the interpreter's, so both the charge to the client and any payment to the interpreter are worked out from the rules rather than argued about later.
Bookings arrive complete, and most are filled without phone calls. Coordinators focus on the hard ones, such as rare languages, urgent same-day requests and complex locations. Timesheets are available as soon as a session ends, signed by both sides, so billing disputes fall away. Invoices go out promptly and interpreters are paid consistently.
Public sector clients also tend to ask for fill-rate and response information on their contracts. When every booking, offer and acceptance is recorded, that report is a download rather than a week of counting.
Is this your interpreting desk?
- Most bookings still come in by phone.
- Coordinators call round interpreters to fill bookings.
- Timesheets come back on paper or as photos.
- Overruns and cancellations cause billing disputes.
- Interpreter availability is not recorded anywhere.