need a way to track translation status and approvals

A good way to track translation status and approvals is to use a simple workflow with clear states, owners, and timestamps.

Recommended status flow

You can use statuses like:

1. Not started
2. In progress
3. Ready for review
4. Reviewed
5. Approved
6. Published / Delivered

If you need more control, add:

• Needs changes
• On hold
• Rejected

What to track for each translation

For each item, keep these fields:

• Content ID / name
• Source language
• Target language
• Translator
• Reviewer / approver
• Current status
• Submission date
• Review date
• Approval date
• Due date
• Comments / change requests
• Version number

Simple approval workflow

A basic process could be:

1. Translator completes draft
2. Status changes to Ready for review
3. Reviewer checks quality
4. If good, status changes to Reviewed
5. Approver gives final sign-off
6. Status changes to Approved
7. Publish or send to production

Tools you can use

Depending on your setup:

• Spreadsheet: easiest for small teams
• Trello / Asana / Jira: good for workflow tracking
• Google Sheets + forms: simple and collaborative
• Translation management system (TMS): best for larger teams, e.g. Lokalise, Smartling, Crowdin, Phrase

Example table

Content	Language	Translator	Reviewer	Status	Due Date	Approved By
Help article 1	ES	Ana	Luis	Ready for review	Oct 10	—
App screen 5	FR	Maria	Sophie	Approved	Oct 8	Sophie

Best practice

• Use one source of truth
• Require approval before publishing
• Keep an audit trail of changes
• Define what each status means so everyone uses it consistently

If you want, I can also give you:

• a Google Sheet template
• a workflow diagram
• or a database schema for tracking translation status and approvals.