FAQ

While there are many translation agencies locally and abroad, the pool of qualified and/or certified linguists is small. As such, these agencies share the same pool of linguists. We keep costs low by ensuring that we do right the first time. We also keep fixed costs such as rental and other variable costs such advertising fees as low as possible. The savings are then shared with our clients.

With a stream of established clients who value our work and early delivery, we can continue to keep our prices low without sacrificing quality.

We usually charge by the number of words, except for documents that are extremely short such as identity cards. These are charged by document type (e.g. graduation certificate, work permit, driving licence, etc.) Editable documents can be automatically counted using tools such as that provided in Microsoft Word or other online tools. For non editable documents such as photocopies or images with text, they can be estimated to a high degree of accuracy (up to 99%) by manual counting. The easiest way to do so is to count the number of lines in one page and then multiply it by the number of words in each line and the number of pages.

No, we do not. Unless the client has specific requirement to use a machine to translate, we only rely on human translators. Some clients do request for machine translation. In this industry, they are processes known as pre-editing machine translation (PEMT) and machine translation post-editing (MTPE). Machine translation alone does not produce professionally sounding documents in any target language. This is the reason for requesting PEMT and/or MTPE. However, the cost may not be substantially cheaper than using human translators from the onset, since the editing process needs to be costed and it also takes more effort and time to edit a machine translated document.

Quality can never be underestimated in any line of business. Businesses do fail because of persistent poor quality. At Eureka Translation, we are committed to delivering the best quality service to our clients by partnering with subject matter experts or linguists and subjecting all processes to strict quality assurance and control.

One concept we adhere to is the six-sigma quality control, which is based on the principles of probability and statistics. In essence, it means that there must not be more than 4 errors/mistakes in a million.

Compromising on confidentiality is not any different from compromising on quality. We hold both in the highest regard. We have worked with many law firms and government organisation on documents that are extremely confidential, but we have never been taken to tasks for confidentiality and disclosure issues. If necessary, we can enter into a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with our clients.

We also subject all our linguists to the same, if not higher, degree of confidentiality as that required by our clients. All our staff, linguists, and freelancers who require access to our database must sign a Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA) with us. All documents are password-protected for access only to specifically identified parties.

We do offer progressive discounts of up to 20% for single-project high-volume translation of at least 10,000 words, starting with 1% for 10,001 to 20,000 words and thereafter 1% for each 10,000-word increment, until the maximum of 20%. For customers who have been with us for many years and have each achieved a translation milestone of at least 1,000,000 words, we provide an additional discount of 5%.

Similar discount principle applies to interpretation, transcription, and other services. Please enquire with us.

We do provide a Certificate of Translation if it is required. We do this by attesting to the language service rendered from the source language to the target language. If further necessary, we can have an affidavit signed in the presence of a Commissioner for Oaths by other linguist. Affidavits are accepted by the relevant authorities.

Starting from January 2016, documents submitted to ICA for relevant processing, such as for PR or citizenship application, must be rendered into English, certified, and notarised.

Since September 2021, Singapore has become a Contracting Party to the Apostille Convention. This means that for documents to be used in a foreign country that is also a Contracting Party to the Apostille Convention, verification at the home country foreign affairs ministry or the equivalent followed by legalisation at foreign missions in the home country are no longer required. Notarised documents can be brought directly to the Singapore Academy of Law to be apostilled within the same day. The apostilled documents will be accepted by the relevant Contract Party’s authorities.

Notarisation can only be carried out by a Notary Public, who is usually a lawyer appointed by the State. While we are not qualified to notarise documents, we can assist you administratively by bringing your certified documents to the Notary Public on your behalf. Notarisation fees are already set by the State. Any additional charges are mainly to cover our administrative costs. You may of course choose to save on the administrative charges by bring the certified documents to any Notary Public yourself.

Our normal turnaround time for delivering a project is one working day per 2000 words. Our expedited service would incur a 30-50% markup on the normal rate. For extremely large volume and urgent projects, we may split the work between a maximum of 3 linguists. This will incur further markup of 10% per additional linguist engaged to cover the cost of coordination between them to ensure consistent style and terminologies used.

Being a melting pot of culture, Singapore is home to many professionals from many countries. Some of these professionals offer their linguistic skills on a freelance basis. For this reason, we have linguists from almost industries you can think of, from agriculture to zoology. It is important to leverage on these professionals for their industry knowledge and native language skills as no single linguist is an expert in all industry fields. Be rest assured that these professionals are subject to similar stringent confidentiality requirements that our end clients demand.

Certainly. It is your call. However, for cost effectiveness, we suggest that the revisions be limited to a maximum of three. Any further revisions made will incur an additional charge of 20% on the original quote payable in advance before the revision is attended to. This is to be fair to all clients as linguists in this industry is scarce and in high demand.

Any changes made should be on the rendered documents. If you have revised the source and the previously rendered products need to be updated accordingly, we charge an additional one-time fee of 10% of the original quote before the revision of the source plus the cost or further rendering the revised source into the target product.

Unless otherwise offered by Eureka Translation:

• A 20% surcharge will be imposed on sources created in non-Microsoft-Word format, .htm/html (.php, .asp, .xml), etc.;
• A 50-200% mark-up will be imposed for deliveries required urgently and/or overnight, including on weekends and public holidays.

Eureka Translation offers the following benefits to all its clients:

• No Good & Service Tax (GST)
• No Administrative Fee
• Volume and/or loyalty discounts as stated in Point 6 above

All payments are to be made in Singapore dollars (SGD or S$).

Our overseas clients may make payment by:

• T/T (to the designated bank account in our invoice)

• International telegraphic transfer fee shall be borne by the client and is typically S$10 unless otherwise stated in the quote or invoice.
• Kindly refer to oanda.com to estimate the SGD/S$ amount based on the exchange rate on the date of payment.

We charge a minimum of S$60 per page for DTP. This is subject to change as reflected in our quotation for layout that is more complex and complicated (for example, tables, graphs, diagram, and figures) and the target language. We can handle the following:

• Adobe Acrobat
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe InDesign
• Adobe PageMaker
• AutoCAD
• CorelDraw
• Corel
• WordPerfect
• FrameMaker
• Macromedia
• MS Office
• Page Plus
• Photoshop
• Quark Expres
• Any other applications that you prefer.