This article guides you through the first steps of working in Smartling as an Agency Account Owner user, and is for anyone who may manage translation projects for clients within a Language Services Provider. Here are your first steps in Smartling:
- Step 1: Agree on the workflow configuration
- Step 2: Activate your Smartling account
- Step 3: Enable email notifications
- Step 4: Invite your team
- Step 5: Assign Tasks
- Step 6: Manage Deadlines
- Step 7: Assess Quality control
- Step 8: Run Word Count reports for Invoicing
If you prefer watching to reading, check out our full video walk-through here.
Step 1: Agree on the workflow configuration
To be considered fully translated in Smartling, content has to pass through a set of steps (or tasks), called a workflow. Every workflow must contain a Translation step. Many workflows also include one or two proofreading steps following the Translation step (e.g., an editing step for your team, and a step for the client’s internal review).
Smartling offers flexibility in workflows that can be fully customized by your client. They can give you access to one or more of these workflow steps and configure them based on your requirements.
Regarding task delegation, the content assignment feature allows you to distribute each new Job to your preferred linguists. In addition, you can allow your team to proactively claim (or accept) Jobs to speed up the delivery.
Both of these settings can be enabled by your client for each workflow step that your team will work on. We recommend discussing your preferences with your client before getting started.
Step 2: Activate your Smartling account
Once your client has requested a Smartling account for you, one of our representatives will create your Smartling account. To confirm your registration and set up a password, please visit the login page and reset your account password.
You will then receive an email with instructions to set up your login credentials.
Smartling is a cloud-based TMS, so you can log into your Smartling account anytime, directly from your browser. Similarly, you can create Smartling accounts for all of your linguists - free of charge and without having to download or install any software.
Step 3: Enable email notifications
Automated email notifications inform you in real-time about new translation tasks and action items. You can customize your notification preferences in your Smartling profile to receive the alerts that you need to stay on top of your work.
Step 4: Invite your team
Collaboration is fundamental in localization. You can create a user account for each of the translators who will work on your client’s content - completely free of charge.
Choose their user role, insert their email address, select the language pair(s) and workflow step(s) that they should work on.
With their Translation Resource profile, linguists have access to the Smartling dashboards where they can view a list of the Jobs that they should work on, and access the CAT Tool with just one click.
Step 5: Assign Tasks
Based on the workflow configuration discussion with your client, if you agreed to distribute new tasks manually to your linguists, click the Require Assignment filter in your Jobs dashboard to locate all the Jobs requiring your action and easily assign Jobs to your translators and editors.
Step 6: Manage Deadlines
In Smartling, the deadlines for your Jobs are communicated via due dates. Your client can set up an overall Job due date, as well as task due dates for the individual steps that your team is working on.
To help you meet your SLAs, you also have the option to proactively set up task due dates for any steps in the translation process that your team is involved in.
We would recommend discussing the preferred way of setting up due dates, as well as your team's SLA's, directly with your client.
Step 7: Assess Quality control
Smartling offers a variety of features that help your team deliver great quality translations: from Visual Context and configurable Quality Checks in the CAT Tool, to easily accessible Style Guides and Glossaries.
To further understand your client's preferences, we would recommend running a String Changes report regularly. This allows you to learn about any changes that were made to the translations that your team delivered.
Your client also has the option to perform LQA (Linguistic Quality Assurance) on your translations for measurable and objective feedback about the translation quality.
Step 8: Run the Word Counts report for Invoicing
Smartling offers a Word Counts report that you can use as a basis for your invoices. To create an invoice for your client, you can run and download your Word Count report in Smartling, which includes the number of weighted words submitted by your team in the selected date range. You can then process this report (for example, in a pivot table) to add all of your pricing information, project management fees etc.