DIY property report preparation – do the numbers stack up?

Would you service and repair your own car during work hours?

How about preparing all the catering for a client lunch meeting?

Of course, you wouldn’t.

Whilst you may be more or less capable of doing either, it just doesn’t make commercial sense to take that time out of your day when there are trained experts who will complete your audio typing far quicker, better and more importantly, at a lower cost.

So, why then would you or your highly skilled fee earners type out their own documents?

Of course, you can type, but the truth is, the time it might take you to type out a report could actually cost you a small fortune.

Let’s look at the numbers:

A qualified Chartered Surveyor will be charging at least £100 per hour. To type out a 10-page report – roughly 4,500 words – at an average untrained speed of 33 words per minute, would take approximately 2 and a half hours. Which actually costs the business £250 of unchargeable time.  Add to that proofing and correcting, and you’re looking at over £300!

Compare that with an experienced, professional audio typist, who could produce the same document in about an hour, proofread, immaculately typed and spaced. That’s likely to only cost around £60 to get your document back on the same day – and all the while your surveyor can be doing what they do best – earning for your firm.

DIY property report preparation can be fun and sometimes it may even make sense, but in the fast-moving professional world, specialist jobs are always best left to the specialists.

BackupTyping have a team of highly experienced and trained professional transcription typists waiting to type your documents – and save you money. We’re darned good at it because it’s all we do.

DIY? No thanks – call the professionals.

Call Lorna on 020 7096 1663 to get started.

If you’ve ever been tempted to type your documents yourself, you may wonder why professional audio typists will always do it better than you…

Put simply, an audio typist is an expert at typing accurately and at speed (probably three times faster than an average person) from a dictated recording.

So what’s the secret of accurate audio typing?

Well, apart from years of training and experience (we’ve already won, hands-down right?), professional audio typists use a specialist transcription system that employs a foot pedal to control the playback of dictation through headphones. Smart eh?

The control pedal allows the audio typist to regulate the dictation playback speed and flow, in order to type without interruption.

So whatever speed you talk at, a professional audio typist will be able to control its delivery to suit their typing speed – even speeding it up if necessary!

But what about the other benefits of using an audio typist?

Using a specialist property report typing professional is the quickest and most cost-effective way to prepare accurate and properly formatted documents for your organisation.

As a property professional, you can simply dictate your report – on the hop if necessary – into a dictation machine, either a handheld device or your smartphone, using a mobile app, such as BackupTyping (available on App Store or Google Play), send it and get on with your job, while your audio typist does the rest.

What if I’m rubbish at dictation for transcribing property reports?

It does take a bit of practice to dictate well – there’s a useful article here: How to dictate well – your typist will thank you!, but with persistence, it can really be a game-changer for you, both in time/cost saving and document quality!

If you’re looking for a highly experienced property specialist transcription service contact BackupTyping for a FREE trial Get Started | BackupTyping.

What is the difference between typing yourself and a ‘professional’?

Also known as 'should I use professional transcription service or Fanny down the road?'

If you learnt to type (on a typewriter – let’s not mention age here) it was considered a real skill as it was a bespoke vocation and not everyone knew how to do this.

With the emergence of computers ‘touch typists’ were in demand, non-typists would look in awe as their fingers quickly passed over a keyboard producing accurate documents at speed.

But with the advancement of technology, everyone now knows their QWERTY from their DVORAK and can find their way around a keyboard at varying speeds, even a two-finger user can probably produce fast words (teenagers these days are probably faster typists on mobile phones than a trained typist).

However, using a keyboard and typing are two different things.

Producing words at a fast speed is completely different from producing a well-formatted document.

If you just need to type an email then formatting is not an issue but if you need even just a short report (let’s not even think about complex reports – well not just yet) the first thing an audio typist will think of is formatting, it’s better to put in place at the beginning than need to format later.

Setting up your document with ‘headings’ which can then be linked to a table of contents should it be needed can save time whilst taking no extra time.

Ensuring headers and footers are linked or unlinked, depending on the document, are all things that can be done with a click of a button whilst typing and are bread and butter for any professional typist.

After all, it is easier to amend a well-formatted document than to start formatting plain text.

Now as promised, what about complex reports?

So, just dealing with Word because it is more commonly used.

If a mix and match of formatting styles have been used – single line space, one and a half, windows, orphans – the terminology in itself can make your head spin.

But if you know what you’re doing from the outset, you know what to look for it’s easy (like Sunday morning – and at BackupTyping we do work weekends), does the document have inbuilt styles?

If it does this makes all professionals do a little fist pump knowing they just need to follow the set styles.

But for the untrained eye rather than choosing a ‘section heading’, they will just bold the title.

If the inbuilt formatting styles haven’t been followed it could end up taking hours to format something which could be done at the press of a button (well maybe two or three).

Here at BackupTyping, we are not ‘just’ audio typists but experts in Word (and PowerPoint and Excel too).

Add to that our deep understanding and experience of the property industry and its unique terminology, then the answer to the question becomes clear.

For tips on good dictation that your typist will thank you for, check out How to dictate well – your typist will thank you!

BackupTyping provides a fast, accurate and experienced transcription for property professionals – saving you time and money. Call us on 020 7096 1663 to find out how we can help you.

Simply, yes!

Of course, you should ask your confidential transcription service provider to assure you of this but all professional transcription companies will have arrangements in place to ensure the confidentiality of all documents and business information.

Here at BackupTyping, all typists sign confidentiality agreements from day one.

In fact, a transcription service can be even more secure as any potentially sensitive and highly confidential information is outside of the business.

At BackupTyping, as well as typing all manner of day-to-day property reports and documents, we work with HR departments within property organisations keeping their top-secret documents top secret.

All reputable transcription companies will also be happy to sign an NDA document if requested which will give you that extra peace of mind.

BackupTyping provides a fast, accurate and experienced transcription for property professionals - saving you time and money. Call us on 020 7096 1663 to find out how we can help you.

When transcribing dictation either in the office or remotely, the most important part of your work station is your transcription software and whilst Express Scribe and Olympus look very similar - there are a few differences.

Express Scribe, for example, will play every format of audio except (in 90% of cases) DS2 which is the standard Olympus format, although there are some anomalies and the reason why some files will load and some don’t is as much of a mystery as what is in Area 51.

Other than that all audio formats can be downloaded (DSS, WAV, M4A, AMR, MP3 etc).

DSS and DS2 are the standard formats of Philips and Olympus which traditionally were the ‘big 2’ in the dictation arena but with the emergence of apps for iPhone and Android other formats are becoming more popular and the handheld machine is becoming less of a necessity.

Olympus on the other hand will play all formats, although again there are a few instances where certain MP3 or M4A files will not load – see Area 51 above for an explanation of this.

But what Olympus can do which Express Scribe can’t is that it can convert audio files – a DS2 file can be converted to DSS, or WAV etc.

So for playing of audio files Olympus has a slight advantage.

However, what puts Express Scribe on an even keel is its ability to play MP4 files which are video files and the format that Microsoft Teams records in which gives it an advantage in the current climate of virtual meetings.

Is there a winner overall? Unfortunately not.

Neither software is all-encompassing and where one fails the other wins.

How do they perform on cost?

Express Scribe software is relatively inexpensive at around £40 (price is in $ and there are often discounts) and the foot pedal is £60 whereas an Olympus foot pedal is about £80 and the software around £140 so it does make it the more expensive option.

And before you ask, there is not a foot pedal which will work with both, an Olympus foot pedal will only work with Olympus software and vice versa for Express Scribe.

Rest assured though, at BackupTyping we have a mix of both software ensuring that all our clients’ dictation needs are met, so far in over 20 years we have not encountered an audio format we haven’t been able to transcribe.

For more information on Express Scribe visit www.nch.com.au and for Olympus visit www.olympus.co.uk.

To purchase Philips or Olympus dictation systems please contact us for information and up-to-date prices.

BackupTyping provides a fast, accurate and experienced transcription for property professionals - saving you time and money. Call us on 020 7096 1663 to find out how we can help you.

Well this is a tricky question.

This is going to be different depending on your circumstances.

Here’s some guidance to help you choose which transcription company is going to be best for you to work with.

Consider the following questions

What is your typing speed? This is important as you want to make it worth your while so make sure your speed is above 80 wpm and very importantly accuracy is pretty darn 100%.

Which fields are you qualified to work in? Find a specialist transcription company for that industry, i.e. property, legal, medical, etc.

It is going to be much easier for you and better for the clients if you already know that field.

How many hours do you want to work? Many transcription service providers will be flexible as long as you know what you can do – work out what you can really do and talk to transcription companies that fit you (as above) with that in mind.

Do you want to work from home? Many transcription service providers are well set up to enable remote working but do check with your preferred company that this is a way they are happy to work.

So, if you can find a transcription company in your specialist field that ticks all your boxes, including a rate of pay that you are happy with, that’s the best one for you!

Do bear in mind that even though you may be working remotely, the transcription company will be investing time and effort training you to their systems and it may take a few weeks for you both to feel it is the right role for you, so expect a training period.

Also you may need to supply your own transcription equipment and make sure you have a good PC with virus protection and up-to-date software with plenty of hard drive space!

If property is your field of expertise then we could be the best transcription company for you to work with.

Contact us at jobs@backuptyping.co.uk to discuss or via the website www.backuptyping.co.uk.

BackupTyping provides a fast, accurate and experienced transcription for property professionals - saving time and money. Call us on 020 7096 1663 to find out how we can help you.

They are multitaskers.

Often one secretary in an office can work for three, four or even more (worryingly) people.

A secretary’s role is often many and varied, and includes, among others, meeting clients, taking minutes, organising meetings, answering the phones, filing, and administration, as well as typing.

A secretary is not purely typist, although should be able to.

A secretary and an audio typist are two different roles.

If a secretary spends most of the day typing, the other tasks can be left to the side to mount up.

A secretary can bring the most value to a business by undertaking many tasks aside from typing.

At BackupTyping we can cover the typing role for you.

No distractions, no organising diaries and arranging meetings, just straight-forward and focused typing.

By sending your work to us, your secretary will have more opportunity to carry out all of the other roles required in an office setting and be able to focus on those tasks whilst knowing that the typing is in safe and experienced hands.

It’s really that simple.

By us providing an audio typist service and taking the typing pressure off the secretary in the office, they can complete their tasks more efficiently, while at the same time we can complete the typing, which ultimately increases efficiency and productivity for them and the business!

BackupTyping provides a fast, accurate and experienced transcription for property professionals - saving you time and money. Call us on 020 7096 1663 to find out how we can help you.

An audio typist is a specialist who types speech via headphones and a pedal attached to a transcription system.

In the old days, small tapes were used but now dictators use a digital machine or even a smartphone.

And thank goodness – no more snapped tape, re-threading cassettes or accidentally deleting instead of rewinding before transcribing!

The speech goes in the ears and out the fingers in quite a majestic way.

The pedal is in effect the start/pause ‘button’ but as controlled by your foot (much like driving an automatic car, using one foot only), allowing the audio typist to type continuously by controlling how much speech is heard at one time.

A professional audio typist can control this so the typist's fingers are continually moving over the keyboard while their foot gently moves up and down to allow a flow of speech through the headphones.

It really is an art form and takes some practice to get this beautiful flow going.

BackupTyping has a team of these expert audio typists.

Our team has worked in the property industry for many years, at a senior/PA level, and all have experience of producing the type of documents property professionals dictate; from reports, submissions and all types of correspondence in Word, cost schedules and specifications in Excel to photographic schedules and presentations in PowerPoint.

Our team won’t just type up your documents.

We read them, format them, ensure they are in your correct corporate branding, correct grammar and ultimately produce a complete professional document to your required timescale.

We are a team who are always here – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – ready and waiting to provide you with the efficient service you need when you need it.

BackupTyping provides a fast, accurate and experienced transcription for property professionals - saving you time and money. Call us on 020 7096 1663 to find out how we can help you.