Frequently asked questions

Most of our day-to-day work involves proofreading, editing, writing, advisory support and comms coaching. We proofread, edit and format a wide range of materials; produce reports, briefings and publications (e.g. annual reports and impact reports); and write leaflets, brochures and other short-form materials. We can also help with some of the random tasks that end up with comms because they don’t fit anywhere else – such as researching contact details or media lists, updating spreadsheets, organising photoshoots or sourcing translations.

Our advisory and coaching support involves helping communications teams and individuals think through challenges, evaluate current systems and processes, and explore new directions. We can also act as a thinking partner for teams and individuals, providing process and systems support and career clarity to improve comms efficiency.

We don’t offer a reactive service (media enquiries/crisis comms) but apart from that, if it’s comms and it can be done remotely, chances are we can probably help. If you have a task that’s not listed here, drop us a line at projects@sortedcomms.co.uk and we’ll let you know.

Yes! We know what we’re good at and we stick to that. Things we don’t do include:

Long-form writing: We don’t offer long-form writing that requires in-depth research and interviews, including blog posts, case studies, press releases, thought leadership pieces, white papers, or articles.

Technical analysis: We often work on technical documents to make sure the copy flows and the content is accurate and well presented, but we can’t crunch the data and do statistical analysis.

Strategic planning: While we know what a comms strategy looks like, strategic planning and campaign development are not our forte; we work best as a delivery team.

Reactive work: We don’t have the connections and insider knowledge that you do, so we leave the firefighting to you. We don’t provide media handling, crisis comms or other kinds of reactive or ‘on-call’ services.

Creative-led projects: Our team is fantastic at adding pizzazz to your copy, but if you need graphic design, video editing, a full rebrand or a creative campaign, we’re not the best fit.

Our real strength is proactive ‘calm comms’ – the things that so often get pushed aside when you’re busy – annual reports, newsletters, leaflets, presentations, posters … we’re an extra pair of hands that you can rely on to get those things done.

Yes, absolutely. We have some examples of our work here on our website and there are testimonials at the bottom of most of our website pages.

If we send you a proposal for work, we will include testimonials and examples of relevant previous work within the proposal. If you would like to see anything else, just drop us an email and we’ll be happy to send you some relevant examples.

There are a number of factors that affect how long a piece of work takes. We’ve devised a calculator which gives us a good idea of how long something will take. If you’re able to tell us the nature of the work involved (e.g., editing or proofreading) and the word count then we can crunch the numbers and give you a pretty good estimate.

You can find out how long we estimate for some example tasks here.

If you’d like us to quote for your project, please email projects@sortedcomms.co.uk.

We aim to respond to all emails within 24 hours.

As a guide, please allow about a week for tasks that take a few hours, but we can usually respond more quickly when needed.

If you have a lot of work that needs doing at the same time, we may contact you to discuss timelines and priorities to make sure we get everything done in the order that you need it.

If you need us to join a video call, please aim to give us two working days’ notice so that we can manage our diaries. We understand that there are times when urgent things come up unexpectedly; with less than two working days’ notice of a call, we will do our best to attend, but cannot guarantee availability.

All of our team work flexible hours, managing their time to fit with business need and personal commitments. If there’s a meeting that needs attending between about 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday we should be able to cover it as long as we have a bit of notice.

Our central Projects mailbox is monitored regularly during the working week (except public holidays) and gives you one point of contact. We aim to reply to all emails sent to that mailbox within 24 hours.

We all work flexibly and many of our team are part-time, so just email our central mailbox projects@sortedcomms.co.uk and we’ll sort it out for you.

Our Projects mailbox is monitored regularly during the working week (except public holidays) and gives you one point of contact. We aim to reply to all emails sent to that mailbox within 24 hours.

If you’d like an update on any task at any time, just email projects@sortedcomms.co.uk and we’ll be able to give you the latest details.

When we send your monthly statement we can also send a list of all the tasks we have open and the time we’ve spent on them so far if that would be helpful.

We offer a range of flexible package options as well as an ad hoc hourly rate for smaller jobs. If you’re not sure which will best fit your needs, please contact us for a chat. Behind the scenes, we have a calculator that we can use to get a good idea of how long a piece of work will take and we can use that to help you decide which package to choose.

No. We do not provide a design service, but we can put you in contact with our trusted design suppliers directly.

The start date of your package is the date we raise the invoice. The start date and expiry date will be shown on your statements.

We use a task management system which allows us to track all our work and record how long we’ve spent on each task or project. We use this information to send you a statement of hours at the beginning of each month so you can see your balance. If you’d like to know how long any individual task has taken or would like an hours update at any time during the month, just let us know and we can give you up to date figures.

Through our task management system we track all our work and record how long we’ve spent on each task or project. If your hours are close to running out, the system will flag that to us. You will also be able to see your hours in your statement each month.

If you run out of hours and would like to send more work, we will invite you to buy a new hours package (either the same or a different one). Alternatively, we can switch to working on an ad hoc basis. We will always ask you to confirm whether you would like us to switch to ad hoc before we start work at that rate.

Our standard packages are all valid for a set period of time. At the end of the period, any hours remaining may be rolled over to the next month up to a maximum of one year from the package start date. Once the package validity has expired, hours rolled over are subject to a 10% deduction each month.

Yes. Once we’ve received your signed client set-up form, we can get started. Packages start on the date we invoice for them. If you’d like us to start work before then (e.g. if we need to wait for a purchase order for the invoice), we’re happy to do so using our ad hoc rate. Work charged at the ad hoc rate is invoiced at the start of the next calendar month – so we can start working on your tasks straightaway. We’ll track all our time and switch to a package as soon as we’re able to raise an invoice for it. Any time we spend on ad hoc work will be shown separately on your statement.

All our packages are invoiced in full upfront when we receive your order.

Any time spent working on an ad hoc rate is tracked and will be invoiced at the beginning of the next calendar month.

If you have asked us to quote for a project such as an annual report, payment will usually be split across three invoices – one at the start, one in the middle, and one at the end of the work. This will be detailed in our project proposal.

Note that if we send you a draft or proof of work and do not receive any feedback for 14 calendar days, we may deem the work to be complete and raise the associated invoice.

Our payment terms are 30 days from date of invoice.

Payment should be by BACS if possible. We can also accept card payments.

All costs are subject to 20% VAT.

You can read our full terms and conditions of business here.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and take the security and confidentiality of your information very seriously.

Our systems are regularly reviewed to keep us up to date and in line with the latest guidance to make sure our customer data is protected to the highest standards.

We are able to tightly control access to any individual files or folders and are happy to sign an NDA or similar document if required. Our privacy policy is available here.

No, we don’t. We have always been a fully remote team and we don’t have any physical premises. We’ve been working this way since 2013 and are very accustomed to meeting people and taking briefs via video call, phone or by email.

If you have any specific questions about how it all works, just drop us an email and one of our friendly team will be in touch.