How to Let Clients Edit Their Own Translations in WordPress – The WPML Agency Workflow

WPML can save you both that time. Turn on PTC and give your client a Translator role, so your client can sign in and edit any translation they want directly, without going through you. PTC translates the site automatically, and with PTC’s quality most translations need no editing at all. The few that do, your client handles in a couple of minutes.

How to Set Up the Workflow

1. Create a WordPress user for the end client

   Set the WPML role to Translator for the language(s) they’re responsible for, so they can edit translations on those languages without seeing the rest of your admin. If the client has their own translation team, use Translation Manager instead, since that role can also assign work to other translators.

2. Set up Translate Everything Automatically from the Translations Dashboard

   Click Set up Translate Everything, review the scope and cost, and confirm. PTC then translates the whole site in the background, so new pages and content updates are translated without anyone sending them for translation manually.

3. Set the after-translation behavior at WPML > Settings > AI Translation

   The recommended setting is Publish without review: translations go live as soon as PTC produces them, and your client edits in place when they spot something. Use Publish and mark for review if your client wants a visible queue of pages flagged for a once-over.

Send your client a link to How to edit a WPML automatic translation.

Your Client Will Rarely Need to Edit

PTC translates with full-page context, learns from each edit your client makes, and applies their glossary. Most pages need no editing at all. When your client does find something to fix, PTC watches the edit and turns each recurring correction into a site-wide rule, so they make the fix once and never on the next page or the next content update. The mechanism, the four kinds of pattern PTC detects, and where the suggestions land are covered on How PTC learns your brand voice and translates like you do. The translation-quality study backs the quality claim, and the translation quality guarantee fixes or refunds the rare cases where PTC falls short.

Recover Hours, Use the Free Quota, Earn Partnership Credits

You get your hours back. You stop pasting translations into WordPress on every page and every update. PTC handles new content and content changes in the background.

The quota is already in your plan. Every Multilingual CMS plan includes 22,500 free PTC words; every Multilingual Agency plan includes 45,000. That’s enough to translate a typical mid-size site into two or three languages at no additional cost. Full breakdown on How AI translation pricing works.

You take no financial risk. WPML’s translation quality guarantee fixes any translation that falls short of the standard, or refunds the words. Recommending PTC over a manual workflow doesn’t put you on the hook for anything.

You can charge each client for their AI translation, if you want. In each site’s WordPress admin, WPML > AI Translation Billing > Usage reports shows words used and prepaid balance for that site. For consumption across all your client sites at once, sign in to your WPML.org account; the agency view there breaks down spend per site. You can rebill that consumption to your client as a line item, and given the hours you’re saving them a fair markup is reasonable. Many agencies do this. The procedure is on Bill your clients for AI translation.

Your translation sales earn you partnership benefits. Translation sales you drive count toward Agency Partnership Program tiers, which deliver renewal discounts on your WPML subscription and VIP-tier support priority.