The 90% English test: a language inventory worksheet for multilingual companies

Short answer

Where the 90% English criterion applies, a company should list each system that holds records it might license, count the records in scope, estimate each system's English share by sampling, and total English records over all records. Report the result with its scope: which systems were included, the unit counted and how the sample was drawn. Removing a mostly non-English system from scope can lift the share, but the scope must match what would actually be licensed.

Visual briefFull-size diagram
Two horizontal bars measured against a 90% line: all four systems together reach 92.4% English, and the same inventory without call transcripts reaches 95.9%.
Illustrative inventory for a fictional 300-person company in India. Shares are company estimates from sampling.

How should a company inventory language coverage for the applicable 90%-English sourcing criterion?

System by system, at metadata level, with counts and sampled shares the company produces itself. The partner's job is to ask for the summary, not to see the records.

First, check whether the criterion applies

The published geography reads: Companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify, as do companies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia when at least 90% of the data is in English.

So the inventory matters for a company in, for example, India, Singapore, the UAE or Brazil. A company in Germany or Quebec does not need it to qualify on location, though language can still affect which datasets fit. The qualitative guide to English documentation covers quick signals; this page is the quantitative worksheet that follows.

The five columns of the inventory

ColumnWhat goes in itWho fills it
SystemA plain-text name such as the helpdesk, CRM or document libraryCompany
Record typeTickets, call notes, transcripts, SOPs, project filesCompany
Records in scopeCount of records that could be licensedCompany
English shareSampled percentage of records whose main language is EnglishCompany
English recordsRecords in scope multiplied by English shareCompany, checked by SourceX

Use ISO 639 language codes when recording what the sample found ("eng", "hin", "ara"), so mixed results are recorded the same way across systems. The Library of Congress maintains the ISO 639-2 code list as its registration authority. A company can sample with a detection service: Google Cloud Translation's v3 detection, for example, returns a language code with a confidence score between 0 and 1. Google's older v2 method marks its confidence fields as deprecated and advises against thresholds based on them, so a company using it should spot-check results by hand.

A worked inventory: 92.4% or 95.9%?

Illustrative only. A fictional 300-person customer operations company in India runs support for international clients. Its operations lead samples a few hundred records per system and reports these estimates. None of this is SourceX data.

SystemRecord typeRecords in scopeEnglish shareEnglish records
HelpdeskResolved tickets400,00097%388,000
CRMAccount notes120,00092%110,400
Call platformCall transcripts80,00070%56,000
Document librarySOPs and knowledge base2,000100%2,000
All four systemsMixed602,00092.4%556,400
Without transcriptsMixed522,00095.9%500,400

Both totals clear 90%, but the margin differs, and the reason is visible: the transcripts mix English with Hindi, pulling the overall share down. If the transcripts are not part of what the company would license, leaving them out is accurate scoping. If they are part of it, the 92.4% figure is the honest one. Choosing scope to pass the test, rather than to describe the offer, would only be undone at review.

Three ways the arithmetic can mislead

  1. Unequal record sizes. One SOP can hold more text than a thousand ticket lines. Counting records weights them equally; counting words would not. Note in the inventory where long and short records sit together.
  2. Mixed-language records. Decide one rule (main language by majority of text, or a separate "mixed" tally) and apply it to every system.
  3. Thin samples. A share from twenty records is a guess. Sample randomly across years and teams, and say how many records were checked.

The terms state the 90% threshold but not the unit of measurement, so treat the inventory as the company's evidence for review, not a final ruling. SourceX confirms how the criterion applies to the records actually proposed.

What else the partner should confirm

Language is one test among several. The company also needs 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), a documented operating history, rights to license the records (client-owned records in an outsourcing business often are not the company's to license), and an authorized contact. The BPO screening worksheet addresses the client-ownership question directly; the manufacturing and engineering and design worksheets cover other sectors. Partners outside the company's country can read the guide for global partners, and the company fit checker runs the basics in a minute.

Keep every question at metadata level: which systems, how many records, which years, what share is English, who owns them, who can authorize a licensing discussion. Never ask for samples, exports or screenshots. What stays unknown until SourceX reviews the company: whether the records match current dataset demand, the rights review result, the final language measure and any offer.

The company's compensation and the referral reward

The company is paid its Actual Supplier Payout under its own agreement; SourceX funds the partner's reward separately, so the reward never reduces the company's payment. Illustrative only: an Actual Supplier Payout of $120,000 would mean a reward of $30,000, and $400,000 would reach the $100,000 per-company cap. Full calculation and status rules are on the rewards page.

Next step

Refer a company. Earn up to $100,000. Default reward: 25% of Actual Supplier Payout, capped at $100,000 cumulatively per referred company. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.

If the company's inventory clears the threshold for the records it would license, register as a partner, confirm the remaining criteria on who qualifies, and keep the geography wording from the program terms on hand when you explain it to the owner.

  1. Step 1Share your linkSend your personal link to a company you know.
  2. Step 2Company appliesThe company applies itself at /apply.
  3. Step 3Company signs and is paidThe company signs, delivers its data and is paid by SourceX under its agreement.
  4. Step 4You get your rewardYour 25% of the actual supplier payout. A reward becomes payable after SourceX has paid the referred company under its signed agreement and the payout conditions in the program terms are met, including finance approval and your tax and payment details.

Common questions

Does the 90% English rule apply to companies in the U.S., Canada or the EU?

No. Under the published geography, companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify on location; the 90% English condition applies to companies in the other listed countries and regions.

Is the 90% measured by records, words or file size?

The terms state the threshold, not the unit. Inventory by record count first, note where long and short records are mixed, and let SourceX's review settle the measure for the records actually proposed.

Should the partner run the language sample?

No. The company runs any sampling on its own systems and shares only the summary shares. The partner never handles records, exports or samples.

Sources

  1. refer.sourcex.si/terms
  2. loc.gov/standards/iso639-2
  3. docs.cloud.google.com/translate/docs/reference/rest/v3/DetectLangu…
  4. cloud.google.com/translate/docs/reference/rest/v2/detect

Free resources

Know a company with valuable proprietary data?

Become a referral partner, get your link and introduce the company’s CEO (in an owner-run company, usually the owner). Referral partners can join from most countries. We can't work with partners in countries or regions under U.S. sanctions or on U.S. restricted-party lists. The companies you introduce should be based in the U.S., Canada and the EU, or in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia with at least 90% of their data in English.

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