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    • Start your first project

    Discover how to handle project invitations, interact with clients, utilize the Smartcat Editor, manage project statistics, arrange payments, and address disputes for effective translation project management.

    Response to the invitation

    Have you been invited to a project? Congrats! Improving your profile has indeed paid off. Now it’s your move!

    1. Respond to the invitation by accepting or rejecting it. Don’t leave the customer hanging.

    2. Study the project details including net rates for repetitions and matches, payment terms, and other information.

    3. If you have any questions, you can contact the customer using the built-in chat.

    Getting started

    Does the job look appealing? Go ahead and take the opportunity then.

    First, accept the invitation. Depending on the project settings, you either will be able to start right away or will have to wait for the customer’s approval. Once you’re approved, you will receive a notification about that.

    Linguists use the Smartcat Editor to work on translation projects whether a project is assigned or created by a linguist. The Editor is a convenient tool that breaks documents into manageable segments. You can view the original text in the left column while translating in the right column. Once you have done translating a segment, you need to mark it as confirmed (the corresponding hotkey is Ctrl+Enter).

    Please keep in mind that in projects with several assignees, the first one who confirms a segment will be paid for that segment. Let the client know if you have spotted an error in the original text while translating to point it out. This will also show the client that you care not only about the quality of your work but also about the quality of the client's project.

    Some projects may include translation memories and glossaries, which output, as well as comments, can be viewed right in the Editor. Do not use AI translation unless you are working on the post-editing of AI-translation output.

    By the way, you can check the project statistics anytime right on the project page. (Here is more about statistics and cost calculation).

    Completion

    Once you have completed the task, you are welcome to get in touch with a client via the built-in chat. Clients have to accept your work before they could form an invoice on their end to pay you. You may need to reply to a few questions or make some adjustments before a client confirms that the task is completed.

    Getting paid

    Payment will be made as outlined in the project details. You will receive your earnings within 5 business days after a client successfully processes the payment to Smartcat.

    Make sure that you have selected a payout method that works for you to receive earning on the My Payouts page.

    Payment disputes

    It's important to check a client's dispute resolution policy for missed deadlines or low-quality translation on the project page.

    FAQ

    I cannot complete a project or document. What should I do?

    If you cannot complete a project, it means that one or a few segments are still not confirmed. In this case the button Done is inactive, and a document (and a project as well) does not change its status to Completed.

    To check if there are any unconfirmed segments, you can use the hotkey F9 in the Editor or the button Go to the next unconfirmed segment on the tool panel.

    What is the right way to accept a job invitation?

    Before you agree to participate in a project, we suggest you do the following:

    1. Review the document for possible errors that can hinder your work and if there are any, notify the client about them. 

    2. Estimate the word count and determine how much you can translate without compromising on quality. The client can assign the rest of the text to another translator thus speeding up the process.

    3. Discuss special terminology with the client, if you found any. You can also ask for a glossary or other reference material. 

    4. Before getting started, discuss the deadline, cost, and volume of work to be completed. Ask if there are any special requirements that may affect these aspects. If multiple participants will be working on the same document and the segments will not be split between them, ask the client to provide a list of segments assigned to you.

    5. If it was the client’s choice to use AI translation in the project, ask them via built-in chat whether they expect post-editing of AI translation output or unaided human translation from scratch. Please avoid using AI translation without prior approval from the client.