# Expensorr for Translators

> Expensorr suits independent translators because it captures CAT tool renewals, professional association dues, and certification costs from a receipt photo or a spoken sentence, tags each one to the client or project it belongs to with labels, and separates a tool you use on every job from a cost tied to one client's requirements.

An independent translator's expenses split into two kinds that get tracked very differently in practice: the CAT tool license and professional association dues you pay for whether or not any particular client sends you work, and the certified-translation fee, client-specific glossary, or rush charge that only exists because of one project. Folding both into a single "translation expenses" total tells you what you spent, not whether a given project actually covered its share of the software, membership, and certification it took to deliver it.

## Why a single "translation" category breaks down

A category like "Software" or "Professional Fees" gives you a total, not which project it served. If you renew a CAT tool license in January and work forty projects on it across the year, "Software: $436" is true and useless on its own — it doesn't say whether one particular agency relationship, with its own required glossary and portal fee, is actually worth what they're paying per word once your overhead is accounted for.

Expensorr separates categories from labels for exactly this reason. A category describes the kind of spending — software, membership dues, certification fees. A label attaches who or what it was for — a client, an agency, a project. Your CAT tool renewal can sit in the Software category with no client label at all, because it's genuine overhead, while a glossary purchased specifically for one agency's style guide carries that agency's label and nothing else.

**From a translation cost to a labeled record**

1. Pay for CAT tool software, dues, or a project-specific cost — License renewals, association membership, a client-required glossary
2. Photograph the receipt or forward the confirmation email — Expensorr drafts the merchant, date, and total
3. Decide overhead or a specific client or project — Used across every job, or required by one client's workflow
4. Attach a client or project label if it's the latter — The category stays the same either way

## What CAT tools cost

A computer-assisted translation tool is close to unavoidable overhead for most working translators, and the two major ones price very differently. memoQ translator pro is sold as a subscription at $54 a month, or $436 a year billed annually, according to memoQ's own pricing page. Wordfast Pro is sold as a one-time license instead, at $480, with a reduced $240 rate for buyers in developing economies, per Wordfast's own pricing page. Neither model is obviously cheaper — a memoQ subscription keeps you current every year, while a Wordfast license is a single payment you're not committed to renewing — but the two are different kinds of cost, and worth recording as what they actually are rather than normalizing one into the other.

## Professional membership and certification

Two costs here are genuine overhead rather than anything tied to a single client: association dues you pay to belong to a professional body, and a certification fee you pay once to earn a credential. The American Translators Association charges new individual (Associate or Active) members $290 for a full year, prorated from your join date, according to ATA's own membership page. ATA certification — the credential many US-based translators use to signal verified competence in a language pair — costs $525 to register for the exam, which includes all administrative and grading expenses, per ATA's own exam registration page. ProZ.com, more a marketplace and directory than a membership body, prices its Professional Standard membership at $96 a year at its current promotional rate (normally $120), with Plus at $144 a year and Premium at $260 a year, according to ProZ's own membership pricing.

**Translator association dues, per year**

- ATA (new Associate/Active member): $290
- ProZ.com Professional Standard: $96 — current promotional rate

Source: [ATA and ProZ.com's own membership pricing](https://www.atanet.org/member-center/join-ata/)

None of these dues or fees are things Expensorr pulls in automatically — there's no integration with ATA or ProZ — but recording the renewal each year is the only way to see it against the client work it supports, rather than losing it in a lump "professional fees" total you only look at once a year.

## The other costs that are usually project-specific

**Client-required glossaries and style guides.** Some agencies supply a paid terminology database or require a specific plugin for their CAT tool workflow — a cost that exists only because of that one relationship.

**Certified or notarized translation fees.** A certification stamp, a notary fee, or a sworn-translator surcharge tied to one document is about as clean a project cost as exists — it wouldn't have been paid without that specific job.

**Rush and specialization surcharges you pass through.** If a client requires a specialist reviewer or a rush turnaround and you subcontract part of the work, that subcontractor's invoice belongs to the project that required it, not to your general overhead.

## Overhead versus a specific client or project

**Does this cost belong to one client or your whole translation practice?**

Would you still be paying for this tool, membership, or fee if this one client or project didn't exist?

- Yes — I'd keep it either way → Overhead, no client label — Your CAT tool license, association dues, and general certification costs
- No — this client or project required it → Label it to the client or project — A required glossary, a notarization fee, a subcontracted specialist's invoice

Getting this right matters more than getting every category perfect. Label your memoQ renewal to every client and each one looks more expensive to serve than they are; leave a client-mandated glossary fee unlabeled and that client looks more profitable than they actually were when you're negotiating your next per-word rate with them.

## Before you invoice a client or close out the year

**What to check before invoicing a client or closing the books**

- CAT tool and software renewals for the period are recorded — An annual subscription or a license fee is easy to forget between projects
- A glossary or plugin required by one client is labeled to them — Check what the agency's workflow actually required, not just what you remember buying
- Certification, notarization, or subcontractor costs are tied to the right project — Not just recorded — attached to the job it was actually for
- Association dues and certification fees for the year are accounted for — They change what a year of client work actually netted you

## Capturing it without slowing down a deadline

None of this is worth doing if it takes longer than the translation itself. Photograph a receipt or forward a confirmation email and Expensorr extracts the merchant, date, total, and a suggested category into a draft you confirm — a few seconds between projects, not a separate bookkeeping session later. For a cost with no receipt at all, say what you spent and Expensorr parses the sentence instead. [How to track expenses from receipts](/guides/how-to-track-expenses-from-receipts) covers that capture flow in more detail.

Multi-currency matters if clients pay you in a currency you don't otherwise use, or you buy a license from an overseas vendor. Expensorr supports 75 currencies and records each transaction in the currency it actually occurred in. [Tracking expenses in multiple currencies](/guides/track-expenses-in-multiple-currencies) covers the mechanics.

## What this does not solve

Worth stating plainly rather than discovering it later: Expensorr does not connect to your bank, ProZ, or any agency's payment system, so a license renewal or a certification fee has to be scanned, spoken, imported, or typed in — nothing arrives on its own. It does not file taxes or calculate what's deductible; it keeps the record your accountant works from. And it has no per-project rate calculator — it tracks what a client or project cost you, not what your effective per-word rate came out to.

## Cost

Every feature described here — labels, wallets, multi-currency, receipt scanning, voice capture — is free on both tiers. The free plan includes 20 AI receipt scans or voice captures a month, which comfortably covers a translator logging an occasional license renewal or association due; Premium removes that cap and changes nothing else.

## Where to start

[Expensorr for freelancers](/for/freelancers) covers the broader case for solo, client-billed work if translation is one of several ways you earn. [Expensorr for consultants](/for/consultants) covers a similar overhead-versus-engagement split for a different kind of client relationship. [Expense tracking for freelancers](/guides/expense-tracking-for-freelancers) has the weekly routine that keeps several clients' costs from piling up between reviews, and [the best multi-currency expense apps](/compare/best-multi-currency-expense-apps) is worth a look if getting paid in several currencies is the deciding factor for you.

Sources, checked on 1 October 2026: [memoQ's pricing page](https://memoq.com/pricing/individual-use) for memoQ translator pro at $54/month or $436/year billed annually; [Wordfast's pricing page](https://www.wordfast.com/pricing.html) for Wordfast Pro at $480, or $240 for buyers in developing economies; [ATA's membership page](https://www.atanet.org/member-center/join-ata/) for new Associate/Active membership at $290/year; [ATA's exam registration page](https://www.atanet.org/certification/exam-schedule-and-registration/) for the $525 certification exam fee; ProZ.com's own membership pricing for Professional Standard at $96/year (current promotional rate, normally $120), Plus at $144/year, and Premium at $260/year. Expensorr's capabilities and limitations are as recorded on this site. Third-party prices and fees change; verify before you budget around them.

## Frequently asked questions

**Does Expensorr track what a translation agency or marketplace deducts from my pay?**

No. Expensorr has no integration with ProZ, Gengo, TranslatorsCafe, or any agency's payment system, so a platform or agency fee isn't pulled in automatically. Record the net amount you actually receive as income, or record the full project fee and the deduction as a separate expense — either way, it has to be entered by hand.

**Can I keep a CAT tool license or glossary bought for one client separate from my general translation overhead?**

Yes, with labels. A CAT tool you use across every job, like your main license, stays unlabeled overhead. A client-specific glossary, a plugin required for one agency's workflow, or a certified-translation fee for one project gets that client's or project's label.

**Does Expensorr calculate my effective rate per word or per hour after tool and membership costs?**

No. It has no per-project rate calculator. It lets you label every cost to a client or project so you can total them up yourself and compare against what that work paid, but the calculation itself is on you.

**I translate for direct clients and through agencies — can I keep those separate?**

Yes. A cost specific to one agency's workflow, like a required plugin or portal fee, gets that agency's label. Your CAT tool license and professional association dues, which you'd keep regardless of who's sending you work, stay unlabeled.

**Is this worth it if translation is a small part of my income?**

Probably not for the AI capture volume alone — at that pace you'll likely stay comfortably inside the free plan's 20 AI scans a month. The value is more in labels keeping a CAT tool renewal or a certification fee from blurring into a single "business expenses" total when tax season arrives.

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Source: https://expensorr.com/for/translators
Published: 2026-10-01