Work orders and jobs

Overview

This manual deals with the management of work orders and jobs in the translation center. Other features are described in the remaining manuals for administrators:

Management of work orders

To view your work orders select 'Orders → View work orders' in the top dropdown menu.

The orders will be displayed sorted by date of creation and displaying the jobs they contain. You can click on top of each box to access the work order, or at the bottom of the box to access to one of the jobs.
The Search orders button will let you search orders based on keywords, order status and client. You can also select to display canceled orders (hidden as default).

To create a new work order select 'Orders → Create new work orders' in the top dropdown menu.

Select the client on whose behalf the work order is being created.
Select the primary contact account (representative of the client that will participate in the work order)
Enter a work order title for your reference
Select a field of specialization (broad or detailed). This is only a reference for the volunteers, as this information is not yet used for the filtering of translators.
Enter the source language (only source languages with associated translators will be shown)
Enter the deadline for the work order (deadlines can't be shorter than 24 hours or longer than 30 days)
Enter notes or special instructions for the W.O. This information helps translators decide whether to accept the job and to do it properly. Helpful information includes, for instance, the target audience and variant, CAT tool analysis of the files to be translated and any special instruction related to the project or client.
Enter any optional post-assignment instructions that will be shown to the assigned translator(s) only after they accepted the job. This is useful for jobs with strong confidentiality requests.
Upload the source file(s). Word count is tentative, you may want to replace it with a trusted value by simply overwriting this field.
Upload optional files as supporting materials for help or reference for the work order, such as glossaries, translation memories, dictionaries, templates, etc.
For both source files and supporting material please note that:

maximum upload file size is 10MB. A "heavy" file can be made "lighter" by deleting non-essential pictures.
allowed file extension are doc, pdf, ttx, rtf, txt, odt, docx, odg, xls, xlsx, csv, tmw, zip, iix, mdf, mtf, ots, xml, idt, log, wps, ppt, xlf, pptx, srt, tmx, sdltm, xliff

Click on "Continue"

Now, for each target language:

Select the target language. The number of providers in the language pair will be shown. Only language pairs with registered volunteers will be presented.
Enter the deadline only if different from the one selected for the work order
Indicate deadline flexibility as Urgent, Normal default value) or Flexible.
Select "Manual queue" only if you want to force the invitation queue to be manually launched by the PM (this option should normally be left unchecked)
Upload supporting files that are specific for this target language (supporting files for all target languages should be uploaded in the previous page)
Click on "Save and create more jobs" if you will add more target languages, or on "Save and continue" to save all created jobs and continue to review your order.
Review your work order and, if OK, click on "Submit work order".

The option 'Orders → Translation job wizard' offers a simplified procedure for work order creation, but a company that has learned how to manage the translation center will obtain more features from the normal procedure described above.

To assign a task to a specific translator:

Select Manual queue where you select the target language in the work order creation process (so que queue will not launch automatically for that language).
Once the job was submitted, click Edit task in the task(s) you want to assign, then click on Manually assign provider, select the corresponding translators and click on Assign provider.

To manage the translators queue, select Manual queue where you select the target language in the work order creation process and, after releasing the job, click on Manage invitations once the message in the Sourcing box has changed from "Building the list of eligible providers to invite" to "Waiting for queue activation by the PM".

You will be presented with the translators in the notification order (batches of 5 every 15 minutes), including information on words delivered, active tasks and date and time of incorporation to the translation center.
The Send direct message feature will let you send a message to the translator, and this message will be stored in the job and in the translator's profile.
You will be able to remove any translators from the queue before notifications are sent to them.
Translators added to the translation center after a work order was created, or excluded from the queue, will not be notified. They will be presented as available translators and you will be able to add them to the queue at a later time. You may need to restart the queue after doing so.

Features in the work order page

The Work order page includes information on the work order, the project manager, the status and a link to each of the associated jobs, as well as some management tools:

A Comments feature for communications between project manager and client that will not be visible to the translator(s). A file can be attached to these messages.
The Edit order feature, to modify the work order title, the notes or special instructions, the primary contact account and the general manager.
The Add job feature to add a target language to the work order, with the same associated information: special instructions, dedicated deadline, deadline flexibility and the option to have a manual queue.
A Manage sources feature to add source files to an already created (but not yet complete) work order, or delete an already uploaded file (by clicking on the little cogwheel to the left of the file name).
A Cancel order feature to cancel a work order. This will be visible only if no task has been accepted or assigned in any of the tasks associated to jobs in the work order.

Management of jobs

A job page includes four tabs on top:

Overview: general information on the job
Source files: files to be translated, uploaded in this work order
Supporting material: not to be translated, only for reference.

Click on "Manage supporting materials" to add reference files and to delete them (by clicking on the little cogwheel to the left of the file name).

Information on the client

In the main (overview) tab presents a summary of the information entered for the job, including subject area, client, deadline, flexibility, source words, source and support files, and the notes and instructions.

Below the summary you will find the Workflow areas:

Sourcing: related to the assignment of tasks to translators
Translating: Includes all the tasks to be translated or edited.
Delivery: Includes the files translated into the target language or edited. These files will automatically appear in the delivery area when tasks are completed.
The comments area for communication among translators, the client and the PM.

These players will be able to see your comments and will receive a notification when they are posted.
Files can be attached to the comments.

In the boxes corresponding to tasks in your job you will find:

The deadline for delivery

The file to be downloaded by the translator for translation or editing.

A button for the service provider to upload the translated or edited file.

You will be able to edit the file name shown or the word count for the corresponding file by clicking on the little cogwheel to the left of the name of the file, click on "edit file info", editing the fields and clicking "submit".

Once the processed file was uploaded you will see a button to "mark task as complete".

To the right of this screen you will find boxes displaying the status of the job, people on the job and members online.

You will also find a job options box with the following features:

Edit job will let you modify the Notes or special instructions independently for each of the jobs in a work order.
Add a task will let you enter a task of translation, editing, revision, proofreading, quality assurance or other.

You can add a deadline and post-assignment instructions to the new task, and also upload a document and manually assign the task to a service provider.

View work order will take you to the work order page.
View job posting will take you to the job posting page, where translators are invited to evaluate and eventually accept your translation requests.

At the top right in that page you will find a "manage this job posting" link that will enable you to edit the job title, and close the job (this is seldom used, as the job will close automatically once all the tasks are accepted by the translators).

Extend deadline(s) will let you extend the deadlines for one or more activities (accepting the job invitation and/or delivering the corresponding tasks).
Manage assignments is a page that displays, and allows the designation of

Job manager: have full control of the job and its workflow

Job client: act as if they posted the order and are allowed to interact with it in that manner.

Job editor: Providers that are able to accept editing tasks for this job.

Cancellation: If no tasks have been assigned yet you can click on Cancel work order to cancel single-job work orders, or on Cancel job to cancel individual jobs in a multi-job work order.

Once at least a task has been assigned in a job, the assignment must be revoked before the cancellation is allowed.

Creating Editing tasks in a job

Once a job has been translated by one or more of your translators in a job, you may want to add an additional editing task.
To do so, you should click on the "Add a task" in the right-side menu in the job page and then:

Select task type as 'Editing'
Enter a deadline for the task
Save task

In the following page you will be able to:

enter any post-assignment instructions, that will be presented in the task box.
Assign and upload an existing document (usually the one delivered by the translator) as source file for the editing
Alternatively, you can upload a new source file document (useful if you has several sections translated separately, so you can assemble them off-platform and upload them as a whole document for editing).
Then you should select the provider that will act as editor and assign the task to such provider

Click on "Return to job" to exit the task-editing mode.