Do You Transcribe Financial Earnings Calls -- Poll Results

Of the people who participated in the poll: 44% of us are currently transcribing earnings calls, 44% have in the past and aren't currently and only 11% have never attempted earnings calls.

Thanks to everyone who participated! We hope you found some of last week's information useful for you, whichever group you happened to fall into. As always, thank you for reading!

Financial Earnings Calls Text Expanders K-Z

As I mentioned regarding the Financial Earnings Calls Text Expanders A-J list, this list is by no means meant to be extensive. Again, if you feel like we're missing something extremely important, please let us know!

Shortcut	Output
lom	listen-only mode
mfr	manufacture
mfrd	manufactured
mfrg	manufacturing
mfrr	manufacturer
mfrs	manufactures
mfrrs	manufacturers
mkt	market
mktb	marketable
mktd	marketed
mktg	marketing
mktr	marketer
mkts	markets
mktp	marketplace
mktrs	marketers
mna	M&A
mna/	mergers and acquisitions
mtm	mark-to-market
ndq	NASDAQ
nfp	not for profit
nfps	not for profits
ng	non-GAAP
npt	nonprofit
npts	nonprofits
opex	OpEx
opex/	operating expenses
opr	operate
oprd	operated
oprg	operating
opri	operation
oprl	operational
oprr	operator
opris	operations
opris	operations
oprly	operationally
oprrs	operators
pdev	product development
pds	per diluted share
pe	percent
peg	percentage
pes	percents
pef	perform
pefc	performance
pefd	performed
pefg	performing
pefr	performer
pefs	performs
pefcs	perfomances
pegs	percentages
pf	pro forma
pfds	per fully diluted share
pfdss	per fully diluted shares
pfo	portfolio
pfos	portfolios
plpr	please proceed
pnl	P&L
pnl/	profit and loss
pnl/s	profit and loss statement
pos/	point of sale
psb	per share basis
psl	Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
psn	position
psnd	positioned
psng	positioning
psns	positions
pt	profit
ptb	profitable
ptd	profited
ptg	profiting
pts	profits
pty	profitability
pte	prototype
pteg	prototyping
ptes	prototypes
rau	risks and uncertainties
rcov	recover
rcovb	recoverable
rcovd	recovered
rcovg	recovering
rcovs	recovers
rcovy	recovery
rdc	reduce
rdcd	reduced
rdcg	reducing
rdci	reduction
rdcs	reduces
rdcn	reductions
recon	reconciliation
ret	retail
retd	retailed
retg	retailing
retr	retailer
rets	retails
retrs	retailers
rev	revenue
revs	revenues
revp	RevPAR
rnd	R&D
rnd/	research and development
roi	ROI
roi/	return on investment
roii	return on innovation investment
rpmt	repayment
rr	run rate
rrw	risk/reward
rsr	restructure
rsrd	restructured
rsrg	restructuring
rsrs	restructures
rtr	retire
rtrd	retired
rtrg	retiring
rtrm	retirement
rtrs	retires
rtrp	retirement plan
sbb	stock buy-back
sbs	subsidiary
sbss	subsidiaries
sbst	substantial
sbstl	substantially
sec	security
secd	secured
secg	securing
secs	securities
seg	segment
segd	segmented
segg	segmenting
segs	segments
seq	sequence
seqd	sequenced
seqg	sequencing
seql	sequential
seqs	sequences
seqll	sequentially
sexc	Securities and Exchange Commission
sgna	SG&A
sgna/	selling, general, and administrative
sh	shareholder
shs	shareholders
shp	Safe Harbor provisions
shr	share repurchase
skh	stakeholder
skhs	stakeholders
sku	SKU
skus	SKUs
sl	sales
sop	SOP
sops	SOPs
sop/	standard operating procedure
sop/s	standard operating procedures
sox	Sarbanes-Oxley
soxa	Sarbanes-Oxley Act
sst	same-store
std	standard
stdd	standardized
stdg	standardizing
stdi	standardization
stds	standards
stde	standardize
stdes	standardizes
stru	structure
strud	structured
strug	structuring
strul	structural
strus	structures
t/	tax
t/b	taxable
t/d	taxed
t/g	taxing
t/s	taxes
tpl	top line
tpl/	top-line
undp	under-performing
val	value
vald	valued
valg	valuing
vals	values
valt	valuation
valts	valuations
vc	venture capital
vp	VP
vps	VPs
vp/	vice president
vp//	Vice President
whl	wholesale
whld	wholesaled
whlg	wholesaling
whlr	wholesaler

Proofing & The Importance of Accuracy when Transcribing Financial Earnings Calls

While we always strive to provide quality transcripts, the importance of accurate transcripts when transcribing financial earnings calls cannot be overstated.

Because these calls are the method that corporations use to communicate with their investors, a transposed number ($13 million versus $31 million) or a missing phrase ("profits for the quarter were $2 million" versus "profits for the quarter were $2 million per day") can make all of the difference. These transcripts are also published or sold to investors and analysts, and as such, they need to be perfect.

Most companies that transcribe financial earnings calls have separate proofreaders to double check the final transcripts (and in fact, many even have a third level to do a final check). However, it's important to keep in mind that these proofreaders are only checking your transcript to catch any small mistakes that may have slipped by; they should not have to make any significant changes. Most of the companies have sliding pay scales set up to deduct pay from transcriptionists who consistently turn in work that needs significant changes.

Here are a few tips to help you proof your transcripts:

• Some people prefer to proof the entire transcript once they've finished transcribing the audio. Others find that stopping at the end of every page or other set interval helps them to focus more as they proof. Try both a few times to see which works best for you.



• If you're proofing at the end of the transcript, take a break before you begin. It doesn't have to be very long, but stretching your legs, eating a snack and getting away from the audio for a few minutes will help you focus.



• Run your spellcheck before you begin proofing. All of those squiggly lines can be distracting! You can always go to Tools->Options->Spelling & Grammar and click Recheck Document if you want to see the names and other words that are not in the spell check dictionary during your final proof.



• If your audio is clear, you can set your player to replay the audio at a higher speed. This not only allows you to proof faster, but hearing it at a different speed often helps you to focus and to pick up things you may have missed before.



• Make sure you're paying special attention to numbers, inaudibles or terms you're unfamiliar with to ensure that you've transcribed the audio accurately.



• If you're having to make a lot of changes on your first proof, you may want to go ahead and proof it one more time before sending it.

Any other tips you've found that help you proof your transcripts?

Productivity Tips for Financial Earnings Calls

There are a few things you can do ahead of time when transcribing financial earnings calls to increase your speed. This is especially important because of the faster turnaround time (TAT) most of these require.

Here our a few of our favorite tips:

• Once you've received your contract's style guide, go ahead and set up a template that you can use for each call. Having the header/footer and any other style specifics set up ahead of time will save you a few minutes each day because all you'll need to do is add the call-specific information.



• Once you've received your assignment, you can go ahead and finish setting up your file with the company specifics.



• Doing your company research before your scheduled call means that you don't have to do it while transcribing.



• Internet Explorer 7 allows you to open multiple tabs in the same window, which we find to be a priceless tool. Alternatively, you can open multiple windows, but either way you'll want to open the main page of the company website, the executives page and their latest press release. I also like to have Yahoo! Finance and Investor Words open as well for quick research.

Even though these may seem like little things, if you're working at home and trying to balance family demands with the quick TATs, you'll find that you're much less stressed when you get as much done ahead of time as possible.

Researching Analysts for Financial Earnings Calls

During the question and answer portion of the financial earnings call several analysts will ask questions to the company representatives on the call. Identifying them can sometimes be quite the feat. However, if you're lucky, they'll be the analysts that usually handle reporting for that company, making them easy to locate.

The first place to check for analyst names would be Yahoo! Finance or the company website. If you look at the Yahoo! Finance page for Ford Motor Company (F) there is an Analyst Coverage section in the left column. Under "Star Analysts" you'll find a list of their top research analysts and other analysts. Hopefully the ones on your call can be found here.

If an analyst asks a question and is not on the analyst list on Yahoo! Finance sometimes the easiest thing to do is do a Google search. They should be introduced with their firm name, so searching the name of their firm and possible spellings of their first and last name can often lead to success. Other places to look include the previous quarter's financial earnings call transcript where the participant names should be listed at the top, the company's investor relations page on their website or possible online databases that the company you're transcribing for provided login information for. If you can't find the correct spelling of an analyst's name mark it as the company specifies and move on. You can always come back to look again if you have extra time after proofing, and sometimes you just won't be able to confirm the spelling of their name.

Company Research for Financial Earnings Calls

In most cases, you should receive your call assignment at least 24 hours ahead of time, if not more. It's good to set aside a time each day to pull together the information for each of the calls you've been assigned

Let's walk through what the research might look like if you're transcribing Ford's financial earnings call.

First, you'll visit Ford's homepage. In the upper right corner, you'll see a link to Investor Relations. Clicking on that will take you to the Investor Relations page, where you can access company reports, corporate officers (under company information) and information about the Ford brands.

You can also search Yahoo! Finance using Ford's stock symbol (F). At the bottom of the results page will be a link for "Company Profile." Opening this page will give you an overview of the business, key executives and other financial information. You can link to the company website through here as well.

It's helpful to go ahead and copy the basics of this information into a Word document, but you'll want to save the links as well so that you can have the windows open while you're transcribing for easy research. Whichever way you decide to organize the information you find, it is very helpful to have this research done ahead of time so that you're not frenetically searching for it while transcribing your call.

Text Expanders – Financial Earnings Calls: A-J

Our list today covers terms related to financial earnings calls transcription. We talked about dates, quarters, and other text expanders related to time back in April, so you will not find those entries included in our lists this week. I definitely recommend that you go back and review them if you missed them, though. Numbers are one of the main things that trip me up when I'm transcribing, so they helped my productivity immensely

Of course, this list by no means covers everything. For example, if you cover a lot of pharmaceutical calls, you will want to add some medical specific terminology. The same would go if you cover a lot of oil and gas, semiconductor, etc. But you should find most of the basics that are in a large number of earnings calls. If you feel that we've left something off that has helped you tremendously, please let us know.

The list is fairly long, so make sure you check back for K-Z later this week!

Shortcut	Output
123r	123(R)
401k	401(k)
acr	accrue
acrd	accrued
acrl	accrual
acrs	accrues
acrls	accruals
adr/	American Depository Receipt
amo	amortize
amod	amortized
amoi	amortization
amos	amortizes
amt	amount
amtd	amounted
amtg	amounting
amts	amounts
apr	APR
apr/	annual percentage rate
arpu	ARPU
arpus	ARPUs
asp	ASP
asp/	average selling price
ata	apples-to-apples
atb	across the board
avg	average
avgd	averaged
avgg	averaging
avgs	averages
b2b	B2B
b2c	B2C
balsh	balance sheet
balshs	balance sheets
bic	best in class
bkl	backlog
bm	brick and mortar
bo/	board
bo/d	Board of Directors
bsp	basis point
bsps	basis points
btb	book-to-bill
cagr	CAGR
cagr/	compound annual growth rate
calc	calculate
calcb	calculatable
calcd	calculated
calcg	calculating
calci	calculation
calcr	calculator
calcs	calculates
calcis	calculations
cao	CAO
caos	CAOs
cao/	chief accounting officer
cao//	Chief Accounting Officer
ccur	constant currency
ccurs	constant currencies
ceo	CEO
ceos	CEOs
ceo/	chief executive officer
ceo//	Chief Executive Officer
cfo	CFO
cfos	CFOs
cfo/	chief financial officer
cfo//	Chief Financial Officer
cgs	cost of goods sold
cio	CIO
cios	CIOs
cio/	chief information officer
cio//	Chief Information Officer
cmo	CMO
cmos	CMOs
cmo/	chief marketing officer
cmo//	Chief Marketing Officer
cogs	COGS
cogs/	cost of goods sold
coo	COO
coos	COOs
coo/	chief operating officer
coo//	Chief Operating Officer
cpg	CPG
cpg/	consumer packaged goods
cpss	comp store sales
cto	CTO
ctos	CTOs
cto/	chief technology officer
cto//	Chief Technology Officer
ctri	clinical trial
ctris	clinical trials
cur	currency
curs	currencies
cx	CapEx
cx/	capital expenditure
cx/s	capital expenditures
dcr	decrease
dcrd	decreased
dcrg	decreaseing
dcrr	decreasor
dcrs	decreases
dil	dilutive
dp	depreciate
dpb	depreciable
dpd	depreciated
dpg	depreciating
dpi	depreciation
dpr	depreciator
dps	depreciates
dso	DSO
dso/	days sales outstanding
dx	distribute
dxd	distributed
dxg	distributing
dxi	distribution
dxr	distributor
dxs	distributes
dxic	distribution channel
dxics	distribution channels
dxrs	distributors
eafe	EAFE
eafe/	Europe and Australia Far East Equity Index
ebit	EBIT
ebit/	earnings before interest and taxes
ebitd	EBITD
ebitd/	earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation
ebitda	EBITDA
ebitda/	earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization
ec	economic
ecl	economically
ecs	economics
ecy	economy
ecys	economies
emea	EMEA
emea/	Europe, Middle East and Africa
eps	EPS
eps/	earnings per share
er	earn
erd	earned
erg	earning
err	earner
ers	earns
ergs	earnings
etr	effective tax rate
exp	expense
expd	expensed
expg	expensing
expi	expenditure
exps	expenses
expis	expenditures
fasr	FASB 123(R)
fcf	free cash flow
fds	fully diluted share
fdss	fully diluted shares
fek	Form 8-K
fexc	foreign exchange
fk	Form 10-K
flc	fluctuate
flcd	fluctuated
flcg	fluctuating
flci	fluctuation
flcs	fluctuates
flcis	fluctuations
fls	forward-looking statements
fmv	fair market value
fnc	finance
fncd	financed
fncg	financing
fncs	finances
fnl	financial
fnll	financially
fnls	financials
fpt	for profit
fpts	for profits
fq	Form 10-Q
fr/	franchise
fr/r	franchisor
fr/s	franchises
fr/e	franchisee
gp	GAAP
gp/	generally accepted accounting principles
gr	growth
hg	hedging
ifq	if you would like to ask a question
ilec	ILEC
indu	industry
indul	industrial
indus	industries
inr	interest rate
inrs	interest rates
inv	invest
invb	investable
invd	invested
invg	investing
invm	investment
invr	investor
invs	invests
invms	investments
invrs	investors
iwn	I will now turn the conference over to
jv	JV
jv/	joint venture
jv/s	joint ventures

Industries and Sectors for Financial Earnings Calls

Financial earnings calls often fall into different industries or sectors, and knowing a particular industry or sector's specific terminology can be very helpful.

As I mentioned before, searching for the industry or sector name along with the word "glossary" in Google can often turn up some helpful websites. It is a good idea to read through the list or at least scan it prior to your call so you have an idea of some of the terminology and it won't sound as foreign to you as you start transcribing.

Below is a list of helpful sites for some typical industries or sectors you may encounter when doing financial earnings calls. Some others to include may be medical research and the pharmaceutical industries.

Some useful glossaries for specialized industries:

Energy
http://www.energy.ca.gov/glossary/
http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumerinfo/glossary.html
http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/index.html
http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/default.cfm

Financial Services and Banking
http://www.finance-glossary.com
http://www.americanbanker.com/features/glossary.jsp
http://biotechterms.org/sourcebook/index.phtml
http://www.geneed.com/glossary/
http://www.rxlist.com/96top.htm

Semiconductors
http://semiconductorglossary.com/

Technology
http://whatis.techtarget.com/
http://www.oasismanagement.com/TECHNOLOGY/GLOSSARY/

Retail
http://retailindustry.about.com/library/terms/blglossary.htm

Insurance
http://sb.thehartford.com/learn_insurance/jargon.asp

Recording Audio with Start Stop Universal

As Tara mentioned yesterday, many times you'll have to record your financial earnings call yourself. If you don't have Total Recorder but have spent the money on Start Stop Universal you can use this to record your audio.

First you want to click on File, New and name your file that you will be recording. I usually name these files something similar to the name of the call to avoid any confusion, especially if you're doing more than one call per day.


Next you need to pull up the audio from the web cast so you can hear it on your computer. Start Stop will record what it hears playing on the computer, so if you can hear it through your headphones, SS Universal is going to record it.

Once you have your audio playing, which will usually be music prior to the call starting, you are ready to record. Hit the Record button on the main player screen. You can click the Stop button when the call is finished to stop the call. Pretty straightforward.


Once you are finished recording you will need to save your file by going to File, Save As and then saving. Your file will be saved as a .WAV file.


Start Stop Universal also allows you to save files as MP3s or as TrueSpeech compressed .WAV files. It is best to first save as a .WAV file and then go back and change the file if you would like it in a different format. Both of these offer compressed formats to make sending the file easier, which may be nice if you are recording on one computer and sending it to the computer you will be working on.

Researching Financial Terminology for Financial Earnings Calls

In many ways, financial/investing terminology is a language all to itself. Reading financial earnings calls transcripts or press releases is a good practice that helps you develop your understanding of these terms, but chances are you will still come across some that you haven't used before for at least your first few earnings call seasons. In these situations, it's important to know what you DON'T know so that you can research anything that is at all unfamiliar.

For example, a speaker may say what sounds like "S. G. N. A.," but what they're really referring to is SG&A, which is selling, general and administrative expenses.

Another example of an acronym that has a misleading pronounciation is CAGR, or compound annual growth rate, which is not prounounced as "C. A. G. R." but rather as "kay-ger."

Others include:

• ARPU (which, by the way, I love to say!), average revenue per user, or "ar-poo"
• EBITDA, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or "ee-bit-ah"
• GAAP or non-GAAP, generally accepted accounting principles, or "gap"

There are many, many more of these acroynms that are not necessarily easy to decipher when spoken, so you'll want to use the context and the common terms list at the end of this post to help you figure out the terminology used.

The following sites all offer comprehensive, searchable databases as well:
Investor Words
Yahoo! Finance
Investopedia

Finally, here is a list of terminology. Please note that this list is not comprehensive, but it does cover a lot of the most common terms. I hope to continue adding definitions to the list for your reference, but having the correct term in front of you is more than half the battle!

Terms/Acronyms	Definition
accrual, accretive, accrue	growing in size
ADR	American Depository Receipt
ANDA (ay en dee ay)	abbreviated new drug application
annualized	financial figurextrapolate a value for a given time period to reflect a full year value
antigens (medical term)
AP	accounts payable
apples-to-apples	to compare like values
ARPU (ar poo)	average revenue per user
APR	annual percentage rate
ASP	average selling price
assay
AR	accounts receivable
B2B	business to business
backwardation	when futures prices are lower in the long term than the near term
Big Pharma, pharma	short form for pharmaceutical companies
BOE	barrel of oil equivalent
book-to-bill ratio (semiconductor industry)
BP	basis point
BPD	barrels per day
brownfield
buy side/sell side	analyst coverage of stocks
CAGR	compound annual growth rate
CapEx	capital expenditures
cath lab (medical term)
churn	rate of customer attrition
CLEC (see-lek)(telecom)	competitive local exchange carrier
COGS	cost of goods sold
comp, comps, comp store sales
contango	upward sloping forward curve in the futures market
covenant	loan agreement
CRM	customer relationship management
de novo	financial reports of a new/young company
dilutive
DSOs	days sales outstanding
EAFE	Europe and Australia Far East Equity Index
e-business
EBITDA, EBIT, EDITDAX (ee bit uh)	earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization
e-government
EITF (accounting standards)	Emerging Issues Task Force
EMEA	Europe, Middle East and Asia
EPS	earnings per share
escrow
ETA/ETD	estimated time of arrival/departure
fab, wafer fab	short for fabrication
FAS 142, FAS 143	financial accounting standard
FASB 123(R), FAS 123(R)
FASB	Financial Accounting Standards Board
FDA	Food and Drug Administration
FERC (ferk)	Federal Energy Regulatory Commissions
FFO	funds from operations
FICO	credit score
FIFO	first in, first out
FIN (financial standard)
First Call	analyst reference
fiscal
follow-up	additional question
Form 10-K, 8-K 10-Q	SEC forms
free cash flow
FX	foreign exchange
GAAP, non-GAAP (gap)	generally accepted accounting principles
FY	fiscal year
GM	gross margin
greenfield
headcount
HMO	health management organization
ILEC (eye-lek)
in vivo
IPO	initial public offering
JV	joint venture
kinase
LIBOR	London Interbank Offered Rate
LIFO	last in, first out
link-quarter
liquidity
LOE	lease operating expenses
LY, HY, FY, FY '04	last year, half year, full year, full year ‘04
M&A	mergers and acquisitions
mark-to-market
Mcfe (resource sector term)
MD&A	management discussion and analysis
metric, metrics
Mmbtu (exploration)	one million British thermal units
NAREIT	board governing REITs
NDA	new drug application
NOI	net operating income
NOLs
NYMEX	New York Mercantile Exchange
OEM	original equipment manufacturer
OpEx	operating expenses
OPM	original product manufacturer
P/E	price/earnings (ratio)
P&L or P/L	profit and loss
pharmacokinetics, pharmacogenomics
Phase I, II, III, IIa	clinical trials on medical/pharma calls
pari passu
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
pro forma
protease inhibitor
proteomics
puts, swaps, calls	stock trading terms
Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q4 '04, Q2 '03	1st quarter, 2nd quarter, etc.
QA	quality assurance
Q	abbreviation for Form 10-Q
queue	line up, as in queue for Q&A period
R&D	research and development
ramp up
reagent
Regulation FD, Reg FD
REIT (reet)	real estate investment trust
Reuters
RevPAR	revenue per available room
ROA	return on assets
ROE	return on equity
ROI	return on investment
ROIC	return on invested capital
run rate
S&P	Standard & Poor's
SAC	subscriber acquisition costs
Safe Harbor provisions
Sarbanes-Oxley Act, SOX, SarbOx
SEC	Securities and Exchange Commission
SG&A, G&A	selling, general and administrative costs
share repurchase
Six Sigma
SKU (skew)	stock keeping unit
spend (noun)	the amount spent
spud (oilfield term)
stent, shunt
stock buy-back
TBA/TBD	to be announced/determined
the Street (the City in the UK)	the analyst community
The Patriot Act
top line, bottom line
tranche, traunche
true up
turnkey system
turns (inventory)
VoIP	Voice over Internet Protocol
webcast
website
wellhead
YTD	year to date

Recording Audio with Total Recorder

Many companies require you to record the earnings calls yourself from the live webcast. If you've never recorded a webcast before, you might be a little intimidated by it, but it's really quite simple. Total Recorder is a relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use audio recording software. If you'd like to practice recording with the instructions below, I'd recommend using some of the sites for practice audio discussed previously as sources.


1. Open Total Recorder and select File>New. This will prevent you from accidentally recording over any other files accidentally.




2. Open the website you will be recording the webcast from. Generally they will play music until the webcast starts. Click on the record button, which is the button with the red dot in the lower right.




3. When the webcast is finished, click on the stop button. This is the button in the lower right with the black square on it.




4. Click on File>Save As, name your file, and save it to a location where you can easily find it.



Now you just need to load the audio into your player and start transcribing your call!

Financial Earnings Calls -- An Overview

A financial earnings call is a conference call in which a publicly-traded company announces their earnings results from the prior quarter and/or year. These calls generally follow a specific format. Most companies try to keep the calls under an hour.

Transcriptionists will transcribe the calls within a short turnaround time and are responsible for the specific formatting and accurate details that are covered in the call. Some companies have one transcriptionist type the entire call, while other companies break the call up between several transcriptionists to do in even shorter turnaround times.

A) Full call method – These calls are usually assigned several days ahead to a single transcriptionist. The transcriptionist is responsible for recording the live webcast via Total Recorder or another recording software such as Start Stop. The transcriptionists immediately begins transcribing the call upon completion of the call. The TAT for this method is generally 5-6 hours, which includes completely proofing the call to audio.

B) Segment method – These calls are generally broken up into 5-10 minute segments, and the transcriptionist is required to download the segment, type it immediately, do the basic research and perhaps utilize glossary lists provided by the transcription company, and return it to them ASAP, meaning 20-40 minutes on average. The transcription company then compiles all the segments into one complete transcript.

Due to the nature of the timing of companies filing their quarterly reports, financial earnings transcription has a certain seasonality to it. Peak times are in January, April, July, and October and usually last for a period of about three weeks. The January season is a little more drawn out with a lot of research firm sponsored conferences mixed in.

Transcribing financial earnings calls requires you to have the ability to work well under pressure and have excellent research skills. You also need to have some familiarity with financial jargon. We will go over the terminology and research for these calls later this week in greater detail and also ways to stay productive under the stress of the turnaround time and how to make the most of the season.

We're looking forward to a full week of financial information to share with you and hope everyone will find it a valuable resource. Thanks for reading!

Financial Earnings Calls Week

As Shaina mentioned last week, this week will be entirely dedicated to discussion financial earnings calls and related topics.

You'll find:

• An overview of financial earnings calls – the what, when, why and how
• How to record your calls in a couple of our favorite programs
• Common terminology
• The most common industries and sectors
• How to most efficiently and effectively research your calls
• Standard financial transcription styles
• The importance of proofing
• More financial text expanders
• Other productivity tips to help you increase your speed and efficiency
• A list of companies who specifically hire independent contractors (ICs) for financial transcription

Please let us know if you have any specific questions, and we'll do our best to answer them!

Text Expanders – Financial Earnings Calls: Dates, Quarters, etc.

It's getting close to one of the peak seasons for financial earnings calls. If you're not familiar with financial earnings calls, a financial earnings call is a conference call in which a public company announces their earnings results from the prior quarter and/or year.

These calls generally follow a specific format. A Safe Harbor statement is read at the beginning to shield the company from any liability should forward-looking statements differ from actual future results. Then the CEO will speak for a while, usually followed by the CFO giving a presentation on the specific financial numbers. Often the CEO will come back and speak briefly on the company outlook and target numbers for the future. Then the call is opened up for questions in what is referred as the Q&A or question-and-answer session. This gives analysts and shareholders the opportunity to ask the management questions about the results, rumors, their outlook, etc. Most companies try to keep the calls under an hour, and I've been told by CallStreet that an average call lasts 52 minutes.

Generally the turnaround time on earnings calls is very quick. The three of us have an extensive amount of experience with these types of files, so we have amassed a large number of shortcuts to increase our speed. We'll be posting these shortcuts on an ongoing basis, so please check back. Even if you don't transcribe earnings calls, we've found that many of these shortcuts can be used in our general work, as well.

Today we'll start with shortcuts pertaining to dates, quarters, etc.

Shortcut	Output
oo	'01
ot	'02
oth	'03
ofo	'04
ofi	'05
os	'06
ose	'07
oe	'08
oni	'09
te	'10
fiq	first quarter
fiq/	first-quarter
foq	fourth quarter
foq/	fourth-quarter
lq	last quarter
lq/	last-quarter
ly	last year
ly/	last-year
pq	prior quarter
pq/	prior-quarter
py	prior year
py/	prior-year
q1	Q1
q2	Q2
q3	Q3
q4	Q4
qoq	quarter over quarter
qoq/	quarter-over-quarter
qtr	quarter
qtrs	quarters
qtrl	quarterly
qtd	quarter to date
qtd/	quarter-to-date
qtq	quarter to quarter
qtq/	quarter-to-quarter
sq	second quarter
sq/	second-quarter
tq	third quarter
tq/	third-quarter
yoy	year over year
yoy/	year-over-year
ytd	year to date
ytd/	year-to-date

In case you're wondering what the reasoning is behind the hyphenated words, it's because when these phrases are used as a noun they are not hyphenated, but when they're used as an adjective, they would be hyphenated. We'll delve into further discussion on this topic in a later post.