Tasks in Lokalise are project-specific assignments created to have one or more contributors translate or review selected keys. This ensures that the right people work on the right content, keeping your project on track and your translations accurate.
Creating a new task
It's important to remember that a translation key cannot be assigned to a new task if it is already part of another ongoing task. To include such a key in a new task, you have two options:
Wait for the existing task to be completed: Once the task is finished, the key will be available for reassignment in a new task.
Remove the key from the current task: If you need to reassign the key immediately, go to the project editor, select the key, and use the Remove from task option available in the bulk actions menu. This will free up the key, allowing it to be included in a different task. However, if the key is already marked as completed in the task, it won't be possible to remove it from that task.
There are two ways to create a task.
Via the editor
Start by selecting multiple keys in the editor. You can do this by ticking the checkboxes next to the keys you want to include in the task.
Once selected, choose Create task... from the bulk actions menu. This will take you directly to the task creation page, where the task scope is automatically set to the keys you’ve selected.
You can add more keys to an existing task using the Add to task action from the bulk menu. It's not possible, however, to add more keys to an already closed task.
Via the Tasks page
Alternatively, you can create a task from the Tasks page in your project. Simply navigate to your project and go to the Tasks page:
Click Create a task. This will open the task creation wizard, where you can define the task's details and scope.
General task information
After clicking New task, you’ll be taken to the task creation screen where you’ll need to fill in some details:
What kind of task do you want to create? — by default, the task type is set to Translate, but you can click on this field to select a different type. Here are the task types currently supported:
Translate — translate content from the source language to the target language. In the next step, you'll assign contributors who have already been added to the project.
Review — review existing translations for the selected languages. Assignees will need to mark translations as "reviewed" within the task scope.
Automatic translation — use Lokalise AI to translate your texts into the chosen languages automatically. Check out the AI translations article for more details.
AI LQA — perform localization quality assurance on the content automatically using Lokalise AI. More details can be found in the AI LQA article.
Title — enter a name for your task that will be visible to all assignees. For example, "Translate from English to French" or "Review Dutch."
Description — optionally, provide additional information about the task. This could include specific instructions, explanations, or additional context for assignees or Lokalise AI.
Due date — set an optional deadline for the task by selecting a date from the calendar. This field is not applicable for AI-powered tasks.
Once you’ve filled in these details, you can either adjust the Advanced options or move on to the Scope and assignees step.
Advanced task options
To further customize your task, click on Advanced options.
This will present you with several settings to fine-tune how your task operates:
Auto-mark items as completed on edit — when enabled, any item added to the task will be automatically marked as completed once its translation is saved. If disabled, users will have two buttons: one to save the translation, and another to save and mark the item as completed.
Auto-close languages — if you’re working with multiple target languages, each will have its own sub-task. Enabling this option will automatically close the sub-task once all translations for that specific language are completed.
Auto-close task — when this option is enabled, the entire task will automatically close once all sub-tasks are completed. Note that closed tasks cannot be reopened.
Tag keys after the task is closed — enable this option to assign tags to the keys involved in the task. The tags will be added once the task is closed.
Lock translations — this option restricts modifications to the translations within the task to only the assigned contributors.
Include task creator as assignee — this option lets you add creator to the task, enabling to track progress directly from the incoming tasks widget.
Include task managers as assignees — add all contributors with the Manage task permission to the task enabling them to track progress. Permissions can be configured on the Contributors page.
Restrict assignees to custom translation statuses — this option becomes available if custom translation statuses are enabled in your project. When activated, you can specify which custom statuses the assignees can apply. By default, only contributors with the "Change custom status" permission can manage these statuses. However, with this option enabled, assignees can toggle the chosen statuses while the task is open. Once the task is closed, assignees without the "Change custom status" permission lose this ability.
Note that when you create a Review task, and the item within this task is marked as completed, it will automatically be assigned with the CTS configured for this option. For example, if you restrict CTS to the "approved" status only, and the reviewer marks the translation as "reviewed", it will also be automatically assigned with the "approved" custom status.
Save as task template — if you plan to create similar tasks in the future, enable this option to save your current settings as a template for later use.
Once you’ve adjusted the advanced options to your liking, click Save changes to apply them.
Adjusting scope and assignees
When assigning contributors to a task, ensure they have the necessary access to the target languages. For instance, if you select German as the target language, your assignee must have read/edit access to German; otherwise, they won’t appear in the assignee list.
Task scope — you can fine-tune the task by adjusting the filter to choose specific keys. By default, all untranslated keys are included, but you can set other criteria depending on your needs.
Source language — select the language that the assignees will translate from. In review tasks, this is the language they’ll use as a reference.
Target languages — select one or more languages that the assignees should translate into. For review tasks, this is the language that needs to be reviewed.
Task assignees — choose the project contributors who will participate in the task. For each contributor, you can specify which languages they should work on. As you define the task scope and select target languages, the system automatically suggests possible assignees for each language. You can review or adjust these assignees by clicking on each language box to add or remove contributors before finalizing the task.
Remember, only contributors with read/read access to the target languages will be available for assignment. If a contributor lacks the necessary permissions, they won’t be listed.
Once everything is set, click Create task. All selected assignees will receive a notification about their new task.
The newly created task will then be visible on the Tasks page.
Important notes on adjusting task scope and assignees
Source and target language restrictions — once you have selected a source language for a task, that language cannot be used as a target language within the same task.
Assignee access requirements — contributors can only be assigned to a task if they have at least read language access right to the task's source language and edit language access right to the task's target language.
Task scope limitations — you cannot create multiple active tasks simultaneously with the same scope (i.e., the same keys) if they share the same target languages, even if the source language differs.
Multiple active tasks — it is possible to create multiple active tasks with the same scope (i.e., the same keys) simultaneously, as long as the language pairs are different.
Non-admins and CTS — if you're adding contributors without the "Change custom status" permission, and they need to assign custom translation statuses to the assigned items, make sure to enable Restrict assignees to custom translation statuses in the advanced task settings.
Chained tasks
Lokalise allows you to create chained tasks, enabling multiple revision cycles within your project. This feature is useful when you need to ensure thorough review and refinement of translations through successive stages. For more details on how to set up and manage chained tasks, refer to the Multiple revision cycles article.
Task templates
Task templates are a great way to streamline the process of creating recurring tasks in Lokalise. These templates allow you to set up typical tasks quickly by reusing pre-configured settings.
Creating task templates
To create a task template, follow these steps:
Go to the Tasks page and click Create a task.
Fill in the General information as you normally would.
Open the Advanced options and check the box labeled Save as task template. Provide a name for your template.
Move to the Scope and assignees section, setting up the task scope, languages, and assignees as needed.
Create the task, and your template will be saved for future use.
Using task templates
When creating a new task, you'll notice a Create task from template dropdown on the General information step.
Select a template from the dropdown, and the general information will be automatically populated based on the template. You can adjust these details as necessary.
The Advanced options from the template will be locked, meaning you cannot modify them when using the template.
Target languages and assignees will also be inherited from the template, though you can still adjust the task scope as needed.
Template-based tasks will include a special note in their description indicating which task was used as a template.
Deleting templates
To delete a task template, simply delete the original task from which the template was created.
Template with two chained tasks
You can create a task template that includes two chained tasks, such as a translation task followed by a review task. To do this:
Create a new translation task and save it as a template.
Then, create a new review task linked to the translation task from the previous step.
Now, when you create a new task based on this template, it will automatically include both the translation and review tasks.
Task flow
Incoming task widget
When you assign a task to contributors, they’ll receive a notification email as well as a notification in their Incoming task widget. This widget helps contributors keep track of their assigned tasks and manage their workload efficiently.
Translation status
Translations included in a task have a status of either completed or uncompleted. The status updates automatically when a translation is updated or can be manually changed by clicking the status icon in the editor.
If the Auto-mark items as completed on edit option was disabled during task creation, contributors will see two options when saving translations:
Save translation only
Save translation and mark the item as completed
Closing languages
If the Auto-close languages option was not enabled when the task was created, contributors must manually mark languages as done once they are 100% completed. When a translator marks a language as completed through the Incoming task widget, project admins will receive an email notification.
Closing tasks
Once all languages within a task are marked as completed, project admins can close the task to archive it. If the Auto-close task option was selected during task creation, the task will automatically close once all languages are completed. Note that once a task is closed, it cannot be reopened.
If no action has been taken on a review task within a certain timeframe, an automated reminder notification will be sent to the assigned reviewers. This helps ensure timely responses and prevents reviews from being overlooked.
The reminder is triggered after a predefined period, typically within a few days of inactivity. These notifications are automatically managed and do not require manual setup.
How file reimport affects existing translation tasks
TL;DR: For file reimports with Replace modified values enabled, existing tasks are updated only for non-segmented Web and mobile projects.
Changed source text resets affected items to uncompleted in active and completed-but-not-closed task languages.
Removed keys are removed only from active task languages.
Closed task languages never change.
New keys are not added to existing tasks automatically.
For Web and mobile projects, existing translation tasks stay in sync when source content is reimported through a file upload with Replace modified values enabled. This helps keep task progress, word counts, and uncompleted item filters accurate when source content changes after a task has already been created.
This behavior applies to direct file imports, including manual uploads in the Lokalise UI and API file uploads. Direct source text edits made in the editor or through API key updates do not trigger task recalculation.
Source text changes
If the source text of an existing key is updated during file reimport, Lokalise updates the affected task items based on the current task language status:
For active task languages, affected items are reset to uncompleted. This lets translators know that the source content has changed and needs to be translated again. Word counts are also updated.
For completed task languages that are not closed, affected items are also reset to uncompleted. Word counts and completion percentage are recalculated, so the task reflects the remaining work accurately.
For closed task languages, nothing changes. Closed task languages are treated as finalized records and are not modified by later reimports.
Removed keys
If a key is removed from the project during file reimport, Lokalise updates the affected task items based on the current task language status:
For active task languages, the key is removed from the task. Task statistics are recalculated automatically, so translators no longer see work items for keys that no longer exist.
For completed task languages that are not closed, the removed key stays in the task with its current status. This preserves an accurate record of completed work for reporting, billing, and reconciliation.
For closed task languages, nothing changes. Closed task languages remain finalized records and are not modified by later reimports.
New keys
New keys added during file reimport are not automatically added to existing tasks. To translate newly added keys, add them to an existing open task manually or create a new task.
Summary
Reimport event | Active task language | Completed task language, not closed | Closed task language |
Source text changed | Affected items reset to uncompleted; word counts update | Affected items reset to uncompleted; word counts and completion percentage update | No change |
Key removed | Key is removed from the task; stats recalculate | Key stays in the task; status is preserved | No change |
New key added | Not automatically added | Not automatically added | No change |
Scope and limitations
This behavior applies only to non-segmented Web and mobile projects when source content is reimported through a file upload with Replace modified values enabled.
The following project types and update methods are not covered:
Marketing and support projects using CMS integration-managed imports, such as Contentful or Storyblok. These integrations handle content updates differently at the platform level.
Segmented projects of any type.
Direct source text edits made in the Lokalise editor or through API key updates. These updates do not trigger task recalculation.
If you're unsure which project type you're using, your Account manager or CSM can confirm.
Working offline
Lokalise enables you to work on the tasks offline by downloading XLIFF files and modifying those via an editor of your choice. Learn more about this feature in the Offline translation article.
Task filter
Filtering keys
In the project editor, we've introduced two new preset filters to help you and your translators quickly find the keys you need:
Uncompleted items filter: Displays only the keys that still need to be completed within the task (those with an uncompleted status).
All items filter: Shows all the keys associated with the task, regardless of their status.
These filters make it easier to focus on the most relevant items during translation and review.
Filtering tasks
You can also filter tasks on the Tasks page (not in your project editor). To do this, click the Filter dropdown and adjust the filtering options to suit your needs.
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Once you’ve set your criteria, simply click Apply. For example, you might choose to display only active translation tasks, making it easier to manage ongoing work.
Translation memory and tasks
When task assignees work on a task, they receive inline suggestions from the translation memory (TM) that match the source and target language pair defined in the task's scope. As translations are completed within the task, new entries are automatically added to the TM using the task's language pair. For example, if the task involves translating from French to German, the TM entry will list French as the source language and German as the target.
The system calculates TM leverage based on the language pair selected for the task. This means that the leverage can vary for the same task scope if different source languages are chosen. The system searches for TM entries that were previously translated from the task's source language to the specified target languages.
It's important to note that TM suggestions are specific to the task you’re working on and may not appear in other projects, especially if the base language of the other project differs from the source language of the current task.
Task reports and vendor rate profiles
All the reports operate based on the task source language as well. Language-specific rate cards are assigned based on the matching source and target languages in the task, e.g. FR → RU rate card will be applied to the task where source is French and target language is Russian.
Task reports and vendor rate profiles are also based on the task's source language. Language-specific rate cards are applied according to the matching source and target languages in the task. For example, a rate card for French to Russian (FR → RU) will be applied to a task where the source language is French, and the target language is Russian.
This ensures that the correct rates are applied for each specific language pair in your tasks.
Task analysis
To understand how word counts are calculated and how to read detailed user reports, refer to the Translation reports and word count article.
You can also browse task analysis in Excel format directly from the Tasks page. Here’s how:
Navigate to the Tasks page.
Click on the Analysis dropdown under the task you want to analyze.
There are three types of reports you can generate:
Initial analysis — available immediately after task creation, this report provides a general overview of the task, including the title, assignee, languages involved, word count, and the total number of keys.
Final report — this report becomes available once the task is completed or closed. It offers insights into the task, including the total contributions made by each assignee, broken down by language pair. It also details the number of words translated or reviewed.
Detailed translation report — also available after task completion or closure, this report provides an in-depth look at all contributions made within the task’s scope. It includes information on who edited or reviewed each key, the word count, the project the key belongs to, and other relevant details.
