How long is a piece of string or, in this case, that piece of urgent transcription?

Email received yesterday from a company needing VERY URGENT – no need to shout – four calls to be transcribed by the end of the day. Providing the length of the recording time is far more useful as I can then gauge how long the transcription will take and this also avoids emails going backwards and forwards requesting further information. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking so, in this instance, as it was VERY URGENT, wouldn’t a phone call have been a much more expeditious means of getting this VERY URGENT typing underway? Now, where did I leave that crystal ball…?