The XTRF Platform offers you several automations for Smart projects. By using those automations, you can preconfigure and unify your projects, avoid repeating actions, and make project management as frictionless as possible. Smart automations can be managed on three levels:
Global level - in
Configuration menu > Projects and Quotes > Automations (Smart). The automations configured there will be applied to all new Smart projects and quotes.Process level - in Add a Smart process template. The automations configured there will be applied to all Smart projects and quotes that use the specific process template.
Project level - in the project’s Process, Jobs, and Finance cards. The automations configured there will be applied only to the current project.
This article describes the global level automations from the Configuration menu > Projects and Quotes > Automations (Smart).
At the top of the Automations for Smart Projects and Quotes page, you can check the results of using automations on the Home Portal.
Scroll down to see the automations settings.
Automatic CAT Project Creating
This automation is exclusively configured in the Process Template Designer (see the Add a Smart process template article).
Automatic Job Dates
This automation calculates jobs' planned start dates and deadlines in Smart projects and quotes. The calculations are based on the Volume provided in the Order/Quote card and the selected vendor’s productivity (see the Price Profile section, step 10).
If no vendors are assigned to jobs, the dates will be calculated based on the default productivity set for each job type (see Add a job type).
If productivity isn’t defined for the selected vendor and job type, the minimum job duration will be applied.
For the first job in the project, the planned start date and time will be the same as the project creation date. If the project is created outside working hours, the planned start date of the first job would be set to the next working day.
This automation schedules jobs within the time frame defined by default vendor availability hours and vendor's availability during weekends (see the Availability tab article). If you do not wish the automation to schedule deadlines for weekends, make sure to have Treat Weekends (Sat-Sun) as Work Days for Vendors option unchecked.
To activate the automation, toggle the On/Off switch in the top right-hand corner of the automation card.
PMs can always change job and project dates manually. Manual changes in dates cancel the automation, and no further changes in the project’s Volume will affect the job scheduling.
To learn more, see the Configure the Automatic Job Dates guide.
Automatic Jobs Splitting
This automation creates separate jobs for each target language added to the project.
To activate the automation, toggle the On/Off switch in the top right-hand corner of the automation card.
From the Step Types for which Jobs will be automatically split drop-down list, select the steps that should have split jobs.
Automatic Vendor Assignments
This automation is exclusively configured in theAdd a Smart process template.
Automatic People Assignments
This automation assigns a project manager to projects and quotes depending on the selected service.
This automation is permanently enabled.
To change the assigned person, select another assigning rule (Logged-in User or Assign PM from Client profile) or a particular Home Portal user from the Project Manager drop-down list.
To change the assigned person for a specific service, click the Add Service button in the top right-hand corner of the automation card. The Add Service pop-up window appears.
Check the boxes for the selected service(s).
Click the Add Service button. The new service appears in the Service list.
Select the desired rule or user from the Project Manager drop-down list.
To delete the assignment for a specific service, click the
icon.
Automatic CAT Analyses
The automation works only for projects with a memoQ-integrated process and starts after creating the linked project in memoQ.
This automation adds CAT analyses for each language combination used in the project. Every time you upload one or several work files and related bilingual documents are imported from memoQ new CAT analyses are also imported. When you add another file for the already used language, a new CAT analysis file for this language is created. You can choose which CAT analysis file - the first or the last - should be used in financial calculations on the project level or in the Automatic Receivables and Automatic Payables automation settings.
For more information about memoQ-integrated projects, see the memoQ section of the Knowledge base.
To activate the automation, toggle the On/Off switch in the top right-hand corner of the automation card.
To enable or disable the automation for a specific service, click the Add Service button in the top right-hand corner of the automation card. The Add Service pop-up window appears.
Check the boxes for the selected service(s).
Click the Add Service button. The new service(s) appear in the Service list.
Switch the toggles in the Default State column according to your needs.
The analyses are imported only after the file importing process is finished.
Automatic Files Delivery
This automation sends the clients an e-mail with a link to the ZIP package of ready files. You can configure which files should be delivered and when.
To activate the automation, toggle the On/Off switch in the top right-hand corner of the automation card.
In the When files should be delivered section, select one or several actions that will trigger the delivery.
From the Which files from the last job(s) in process should be delivered drop-down list, select the types of files you want to deliver to clients and click the Done button.
The e-mail sent within this automation is based on the E-mail/Text Message to Client: When files are delivered in Smart Project template. To edit this template, go to the Configuration menu > Templates > Notifications > Templates tab.
To learn how to configure this automation per project, see the section about File Actions in Files card article.
Automatic Receivables
This automation adds one receivable for each language combination in a project.
To activate the automation, toggle the On/Off switch in the top right-hand corner of the automation card.
To enable or disable the automation for a specific service, click the Add Service button in the top right-hand corner of the automation card. The Add Service pop-up window appears.
Check the boxes for the selected service(s).
Click the Add Service button. The new service(s) appear in the Service list.
Switch the toggles in the Default State column according to your needs.
To configure the settings of a specific service-related receivable, click the
icon. The Edit Automatic Receivable pop-up window appears.
In the Job Type section, select the desired job type from the Use specific Job Type drop-down list.
In the Quantity section:
Decide whether the receivable should only be based on the full CAT analysis or the total quantity.
Decide which CAT analysis file should be used - the oldest or the newest.
Select a calculation Unit.
Click the Done button.
The Use Job Type set within Service and Use Project Volume options are not active yet.
You can edit automatically created receivables n the Receivables tab.
Automatic Payables
This automation adds one payable for each language combination in each job within a project.
To activate the automation, toggle the On/Off switch in the top right-hand corner of the automation card.
To enable or disable the automation for a specific service, click the Add Service button in the top right-hand corner of the automation card. The Add Service pop-up window appears.
Check the boxes for the selected service(s).
Click the Add Service button. The new service(s) appear in the Service list.
Switch the toggles in the Default State column according to your needs.
To configure the settings of a specific service-related payable, click the
icon. The Edit Automatic Payable pop-up window appears.
In the Quantity section:
Decide whether the payable should only be based on the full CAT analysis or the total quantity.
Decide which CAT analysis file should be used - the oldest or the newest.
Select a calculation Unit that matches the units assigned to a job type (see the System Values: Advanced - Job Types article).
In the Percentage Rates section, decide whether the rates should be taken from the vendor’s or client’s price profile.
Click the Done button.
The Use Project Volume option is not active yet.
You can edit automatically created payables in the Payables tab.
Automatic PO Sending
This automation sends the vendors an e-mail with a purchase order (PO). The PO is sent after the payable is ready and the job gets the correct status.
To activate the automation, toggle the On/Off switch in the top right-hand corner of the automation card.
In the Send PO When section, select the job’s status that will trigger the sending:
When the job is accepted, and payables are prepared
When the job is started, and payables are prepared.
Uncheck the Send PO to external (non-in-house) vendors only to send the purchase order to all vendors.
The e-mail sent within this automation is based on the When purchase order for jobs is sent to vendor in Smart Project template. To edit this template, go to the Configuration menu > Templates > Notifications > Templates tab.
To learn more, see the Configure the Automatic PO Sending guide.
Automatic Quote Approval
This automation converts quotes to projects after the client approves the quote.
Clients can approve Smart quotes either on the Client Portal (if enabled) or on the Decide on Quote page that appears after clicking the Decide on Quote link in the automatic e-mail notification. When the Automatic Quote Approval is switched on, the client's approval will change the Smart quote's status to Approved and convert the quote into a project. Respective e-mail notifications will be sent to the client and project manager. All files and data entered in the quote will be transferred to the project.
To activate the automation, toggle the On/Off switch in the top right-hand corner of the automation card.
To learn more, see the Configure the Automatic Quote Approval guide.
Automatic Document Delivery in CAT Tool
This automation is exclusively configured in theAdd a Smart process template.
Automatic Job Starting
This automation is exclusively configured in the Add a Smart process template.
Automatic CAT Job Finishing
The automation works only for projects with a memoQ-integrated process.
This automation is permanently enabled.
This automation sets the Ready status for CAT tool-linked jobs after the vendor finishes their work in the CAT tool. The automation checks the status of the documents in the CAT tool. When all the documents assigned to a specific step receive the Finished status, the corresponding jobs in XTRF are marked as Ready, and the next job gets the Started status (if the appropriate auto-starting strategy is selected. To learn more about job auto-starting strategies, see the Add a Smart process template section below).
This automation can’t be applied to:
Vendors who need to log the time spent on this job. To change this setting, go to the
Configuration menu > Portals > Vendor Portal > Job Manager settings and select which vendor group can declare time spent on jobs. You can also select the jobs for which time logging will be possible.Vendors who work on a CAT tool job offline. They need to upload files on the Vendor Portal and click the I Finished The Job button.
Vendors who want to deliver only part of the job. They need to upload files on the Vendor Portal and click the I Completed Part of the Job button. Otherwise, the automation will mark the job as Ready despite partial delivery.
Project managers can manually switch job statuses regardless of this automation. However, we advise against changing the status to Ready while a vendor still works on the job.
The document delivery can also be automated (see the Automatic Document Delivery in CAT Tool section above).