How to Change a User's Role

Smartling offers various different user roles to support all of the tasks involved in the localization process. Read our documentation on User Permissions for more information about each role's access.

This article explains how to change a user's role. If you want to add an additional role instead, see Give a Team Member an Additional Role.

Who can change a user's role?

Account Owners, Project Managers or Agency Account Owner can change a user's role.

• Account Owners can change any active user's role to any user role.
  See below for information on Changing the role of an invited user.
• Project Managers can change any active user's role (except Account Owners) to any role on the same permission level or lower, meaning any role except Account Owner. 
  See below for information on Changing the role of an invited user.
• Agency Account Owners can change a Translation Resource role to a Translation Resource Manager role, or vice versa. This type of role change can be performed both for active users and for invited users.

Changing the role of an invited user

Invited users who haven't completed their registration process are listed in the Invites tab of the Team dashboard.

If you have invited a new Translation Resource or Translation Resource Manager and need to change their role, you can switch between these two roles only: 

• Navigate to the Invites tab and locate the invited Translation Resource or Translation Resource Manager user.
• Click the user’s email address to open the user details page.
• Select Change Role.
• Select the desired new role and confirm by clicking "Change Role".
• When switching an invited user from a Translation Resource to a Translation Resource Manager role or vice versa, their workflow assignments remain preserved.

For all other roles, or if you need to change a Translation Resource or Translation Resource Manager to a different type of role, the user’s invitation must be cancelled and re-sent:

• Navigate to the Invites tab and locate the invited user.
• Use the actions menu to cancel the invitation.
• Then re-invite the user with the new role. 

How to change an active user's role

An active user is someone who has received an invite and completed their registration. Active users are listed in the Users tab of the Team dashboard. 

To change an active user's role, follow the steps below.

1. Go to Team > Users
2. Click on the username to access the user details page
3. Near the top right of the page, click Manage User
4. Select the action Change Role
   
5. You can now see a summary of the user's current role(s). From the dropdown menu, select which of the current roles you would like to change. Then click Change Role to proceed.
   
   ⚠️ When changing the user role of a Translation Resource or Translation Resource Manager, their existing workflow assignments will be removed and you will be prompted to add at least one workflow assignment for their new role. Existing workflow assignments are not preserved.
    
6. From the dropdown menu, select the new role that you would like to change the current role to.
7. Proceed to give the user the appropriate project access or workflow assignments for their new role:
   • If you are changing the user's role to a project-based role (Project Manager, Requester or Content Viewer), select the project(s) that the user should have access to.
     

   • If a workflow-based role (Translation Resource or Translation Resource Manager) is selected, you must configure at least one workflow assignment by clicking Add workflow assignments.
     
     Select the language pair, workflow and workflow step that the user should have access to. 
     Click "Add Assignment". You can add more language pairs and workflow steps as needed. 
     Once all workflow steps have been added for the user, click "Save Changes".
     

     ⚠️ Please note that Translation Resources and Translation Resource Managers must be granted the appropriate workflow assignments to view content in their dashboard and work on translations.

8. Click Change Role to confirm the role change.