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Updated
September 9, 2020

WPML’s Transaction Center helps translation partners calculate word count estimations, view commission amounts, and approve WPML invoices.

Transaction Center is a tool for our translation partners that contains all of the financial information related to commissions and invoices.

How Transaction Center determines WPML commission amounts

There are a few factors that affect whether Transaction Center will charge a commission and how much it will be for a particular translation job. These factors include the type of client, whether content has been translated before, and the word count of a job.

Type of client

As a WPML translation partner, you have two types of clients:

  • Clients you referred to WPML – These are clients that purchased WPML through your referral link. You do not pay any commission on these translation jobs, since these are your clients.
  • Clients WPML referred to you – These are clients that already purchased WPML and found you through the WPML website or plugin. Transaction Center charges a small commission for translation jobs from these clients.

Word count

Transaction Center calculates commission based on the word count of a completed translation job. Jobs that have been canceled or submitted but not completed yet do not count as part of commission total.

In some cases, it may be unclear what counts as a word. Here are some examples of common questions:

Type of ContentIncluded in the word count?
Short, common words (I, and, or, a, the, in)Yes
Punctuation marksNo
URLsYes, as one word
File pathsYes, as one word
Hyphenated wordsYes, each word counts
HTML tagsNo
Base64 stringsYes
ShortcodesYes, however WPML 3.6 and up allows you to extract texts from Divi, Cornerstone (X Theme), and Visual Composer, so they aren’t counted.

Dates and numbers generally don’t count as words if they are part of a sentence, but there are exceptions. Please see the following examples for further clarification:

Date/Number FormatWord Count
08/05/20171
Monday, May 8th, 20173 (“Monday,” “May,” “8th”)
Lunes, Abril 4, 20112 (“Lunes,” “Abril”)
101
10 items on the list4 (“items,” “on,” “the,” “list”)
$260,950.001
$260,950.00 with interest2 (“with,” “interest”)
At 3:30 today3
⅔ cup flour3

For languages that use ideograms (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean), the characters are multiplied by the following ratios to estimate the number of words:

LanguageRatio
Chinese0.55
Japanese0.5
Korean0.5

You can use the Word Count Analyzer if you are unsure about what the word count will be. Simply enter the text you would like to count, choose the language, and it will tell you the number of words the commission will be based on.

Checking the word count of a sample text with the Word Count Analyzer

Previously translated content and duplicated sentences

Previously translated sentences are not counted in the word count for commission purposes.

For instance, let’s say a client has a page translated. Later, they add a sentence and submit the page for translation again. The word count will only include the new content that needs to be translated.

This is also the case for duplicated sentences. The word count disregards duplicates and only includes the first instance.

WPML’s commission will be based on the word count of the new content only, not the word count of the entire page.

How commissions work when using Translation Hub

When a client submits a job for translation and it appears in Translation Hub, the Transaction Center creates a new job in the client’s account.

You can see this job by going to Clients, clicking the Batches button next to the appropriate client, and clicking the Jobs button next to the most recent batch. On this page, you will see the number of words and the estimated commission.

Viewing a new translation job

Once the job is completed and uploaded back to the client using Translation Hub, the Transaction Center will also update with the final commission amount. You will see this reflected on the Jobs page and included in the current balance on the Home page.

Viewing estimated value of the next invoice on the home page

Working with invoices

Transaction Center is where you can access all of your invoices for commissions on translation jobs. Invoices are generated automatically once a month, but only when you have $100 or more of commission to pay. If your commission amount has not reached $100, you will not receive an invoice.

Paying an invoice

When an invoice is generated, it is flagged as Needs Approval. Click View to see the invoice details, and then Approve the Invoice.

Approving a new invoice

You will then receive an email with a PDF version of the invoice for your records, as well as details for how to pay the invoice. 

Invoices are marked as Paid when WPML has received your payment.

Revising an invoice

If an invoice looks incorrect, you can send it back for revision. To do this, view the invoice in question, and click Query the Invoice.

Select the client that should be revised and add a short description. Then click Ask for review.

Revising an invoice

You will receive an email once your request has been reviewed. Follow the steps in the previous Paying an invoice section to approve and pay the revised invoice.