Your Smartling account is structured into Projects and Jobs:
Example:
Let's take a closer look at this hierarchy.
Video walk-through: Projects and Jobs
Projects
Projects are translation environments for the various content types that you want to translate.
For example, there could be a Project for the translation of your legal documents, a separate Project for your marketing assets, a Project for your website translation etc.
Why are Projects needed?
Structuring your Smartling account into Projects ensures that any integrations with your content platforms or websites stay neatly organized and separate from each other.
Projects can also be used to provide a dedicated workspace for each department within your organization that would like to handle translations in a decentralized and independent way.
You can pre-configure your preferred default settings for each Project (such as the right set of languages or a preferred translation workflow and vendor), which helps you save valuable time during the creation of new translation requests.
How many Projects can be created within your Smartling account?
The number of Projects in your Smartling account is not limited.
Many of our clients use between 5 and 20 Projects in their account - one for each content type, source language, integration and/or team.
How long does a Project last?
In spite of its name, a Project is not limited to a certain timeline or budget.
Instead, a Project stays active indefinitely as a pre-configured translation space. New content to translate can be continuously added, in the form of new Jobs.
Jobs
Within each Project, you can then create your actual translation requests, which are called Jobs in Smartling.
For each Job, you can choose who should work on the translation by selecting the right workflow. Before kicking off the translation of a Job, you can see a cost estimate directly in Smartling.
Jobs typically have a due date (or deadline), so your linguists know exactly when the translations need to be delivered.
How many files or webpages make up one Job?
For ad hoc translation requests, a Job often consists of just one file or one webpage that needs to be translated.
However, a Job could also contain a larger batch of files or webpages, which all need to be worked on at the same time. In many cases, the creation of larger Job batches can be automated to reduce your manual effort.
The Job Lifecycle
In Smartling, when a new Job gets created, it needs to be authorized to kick off the actual translation process. The Job status then changes from Awaiting Authorization to In Progress.
Once a Job has been fully translated and has gone through all workflow steps, it is considered Completed. Optionally, completed jobs can be closed.
Of course, if a Job that is awaiting authorization or in progress is no longer needed, it is possible to cancel it.
In our Help Center, you can learn more about how to create and manage Jobs.
Summary: Projects vs. Jobs
In summary, Projects are meant to provide the right environment for the translation of your various content types. They allow you to pre-configure your preferred default settings to make the creation of your actual translation requests a quick and easy process.
Jobs, on the other hand, enable you to manage your translation budget and timeline directly in the Smartling platform, by allowing you to set up a due date and check the estimated translation cost in advance.