Audio transcription from home 11 July 2014 at 9:32AM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Boost Your Income 38 replies 50.3K views

cazmanian_minx

If there are any fast typists out there, Take Note is recruiting at the moment.

http://careers.takenotetyping.com/

I've been one of their freelance transcribers since February this year and so far so good - payment's been on time every month and the staff are lovely

System

What sort of earnings do you make please?

cazmanian_minx

For normal transcription files, it's 45p per minute of audio, going up to about 51p (off the top of my head) for files where there are more than four people speaking. An hour of audio takes me between three and four hours to type, depending on what it is, so it works out between £6.75 and £9 an hour before tax and NI. For other types of file the rate is either higher (if it's something like a full verbatim file where you type *exactly* what's said) or lower (if it's a notes and quotes file, where you're summarising and it's faster to do), but it works out fairly consistently around that sort of rate.

Robinette

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

For normal transcription files, it's 45p per minute of audio, going up to about 51p (off the top of my head) for files where there are more than four people speaking. An hour of audio takes me between three and four hours to type, depending on what it is, so it works out between £6.75 and £9 an hour before tax and NI. For other types of file the rate is either higher (if it's something like a full verbatim file where you type *exactly* what's said) or lower (if it's a notes and quotes file, where you're summarising and it's faster to do), but it works out fairly consistently around that sort of rate.

Thanks for explaining. I got rather excited when I saw on the FAQ section of the website that audio is paid at £25 per hour for full transcription; I now understand that this is the length of the audio rather than the time it takes to complete it.

ScarletteJigsaw

Hi
Having checked out the TakeNote website, it says that you have to register as self employed to work with them. I work full time and was looking to supplement my income this way. Could I still do this? Sorry, this is probably the wrong section to ask in, but this is one of the first times I have posted on this page.
Thanks
SJ

MysteryMe

Registering as self employed whilst being in a PAYE job is no problem, many people are. There are threads on here giving details on how to go about it and HMRC also have a helpline.

Robinette

ScarletteJigsaw wrote: »

Hi
Having checked out the TakeNote website, it says that you have to register as self employed to work with them. I work full time and was looking to supplement my income this way. Could I still do this? Sorry, this is probably the wrong section to ask in, but this is one of the first times I have posted on this page.
Thanks
SJ

Yes, you can be employed and self-employed at the same time. You can register with HMRC here: https://online.hmrc.gov.uk/registration/newbusiness/introduction

Maktina

How much work do they have in an average week? Can I expect 1 job per day? Also I noticed it requires a professional reference to apply (under account information), but all the work I've done recently has been NDA contracts and/or freelance. Does this mean I can't apply?

Abbafan1972

Are they strict on the entry requirements? IE:- The grade C for English and can you just register for copy typing and not audio, or does it have to be both?

cazmanian_minx

Maktina wrote: »

How much work do they have in an average week? Can I expect 1 job per day? Also I noticed it requires a professional reference to apply (under account information), but all the work I've done recently has been NDA contracts and/or freelance. Does this mean I can't apply?

They seem pretty swamped at the moment - an email came out to all transcriptionists this morning asking if anyone wanted extra work and there were a good 40 jobs on it. I've been signing up for shifts 5 or 6 days a week since the end of February and I think there have only been about 4 days when they've had no work for me. I'd been self-employed for ages when I applied to them, I gave them someone I was still in touch with from my last employer, ten years ago, and that was fine. I don't think they ever contacted him.

Abbafan1972 wrote: »

Are they strict on the entry requirements? IE:- The grade C for English and can you just register for copy typing and not audio, or does it have to be both?

Don't know about the grade C for English - I assume if you get through all the tests they'd be able to make a judgement call on whether your standard of English was acceptable or not. They very, very rarely get copy typing, I've only seen a couple of jobs go through and quite often they only go to people who can drop into the office and pick up documents, so they don't have to scan them all into PDFs.

Abbafan1972

Thanks for the info. I think I will give it a miss.