Sending schedule and limits

Every email you launch leaves your own connected mailbox, and three settings decide when: the mailbox's limits, the project's sending window and the sequence's own timing. Emails due inside the window go out in order, inside the mailbox's daily cap. Nothing leaves before you launch it.

You meet these settings in three places: the "Sends" chip on every sequence under Outreach, the "Sending window" card in the project's settings, and the launch confirmation, which shows the first email's time before you launch.

The three settings

Mailbox limits

Open the "Sends" chip on any draft and expand "Mailbox limits". Set the days, "From" and "Until" in the mailbox's time zone, "Per day" (every sequence and project on the address counts toward it, and anything past the cap waits for the next day) and "Gap (sec)" (the shortest pause between two emails, which protects the address's deliverability). Press "Save limits".

A new mailbox starts at Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00 London time, 50 emails a day and a 90-second gap. Any member can change them.

The project's sending window

Open the project's settings and jump to Send schedule. The "Sending window" card shows what your mailboxes currently allow, one entry per distinct mailbox window. Check "Set a window for this project", pick the days, the start and end times and a time zone, then press "Save window". Owners and admins can set it.

The window narrows the mailbox's own window and never widens it, because that window protects the sending address and is shared with your other projects. An hour outside every mailbox's window never sends, whatever you set here. If your window never overlaps the mailbox window, the save warns you ("Saved, but this never overlaps the mailbox window…"): change the days or hours until the two overlap. Pick at least one day, or nothing will ever send. The mailbox's daily cap applies either way.

A sequence's own timing

The "Sends" chip names the timing the sequence will use: its own days and time ("Mon–Fri · 09:00", "Thu · 16:00"), plus "starts <date>" when a start date is set. A sequence without timing of its own follows the mailbox window: its chip reads "Sends any day" until you open it, then shows the mailbox's days and hours. Open it to:

• Pick days under "This sequence sends…". With days picked, each email waits its delay, then goes on the next picked day.
• Set "At (optional)", a time of day in the mailbox's time zone.
• Set "Don't start before", a date. It is offered on drafts, and on a launched sequence until its first email has gone. Blank means start as soon as launched.
• Apply a preset, or "Save current timing as a preset" to reuse it on any draft.
• Check "For every draft in this project" to make this the project's timing: its drafts take it now, and every new draft starts with it.

The panel warns when the timing fights the mailbox: "The mailbox never sends on those days", or that a time outside the mailbox hours will go at the start or end of those hours instead. Under the settings, "First email goes <day, time>" shows the earliest slot the timing and the mailbox hours allow. Clicking away saves; Escape drops unsaved edits. "Clear" returns the sequence to the mailbox window ("Timing cleared: sends whenever the mailbox allows").

To set timing on many drafts at once, check them and press the calendar button in the selection bar. The "Timing for N drafts" dialog changes only the blocks you check, and review sign-offs are kept: timing is not copy.

How the first email gets its time

When you press "Launch <Name>…", the confirmation lists each sequence with "from <mailbox> · N emails" (plus its own timing, when it has one) and "First email: <day date time> (<time zone>)". That is the earliest slot the start date, this sequence's timing, the project window and the mailbox hours allow, in the mailbox's time zone.

Two things can still push the real send later: the mailbox's daily cap, and emails already queued ahead of it. The tracker shows the queue-aware time after launch. For a single sequence, "Launch & send now" launches and sends the first email at once, outside the send window and the daily cap. It is never offered on a bulk launch.

Follow-up timing

A draft shows each follow-up as "+3 days", and the email's own line reads "Sends 3 days after the last email, if no reply". The wait counts from when the previous email actually went out, not from the day it was booked. After its wait, a follow-up follows the same timing as the sequence: the next picked day, at the picked time, inside the window.

Until the previous email has gone, a follow-up's date is an estimate, marked "(est)". Once booked, it shows its slot ("Thu 09:00"). On a live sequence you can still edit the emails that have not sent; changing a wait moves its send date.

Follow-ups stop the moment the person replies. The sequence moves to "Replied" or "In conversation · follow-ups off". If you press "Resume sending" while you are talking to them, it asks you to confirm ("Send anyway") before the next one goes. An out-of-office reply pauses the sequence, and it resumes on its own the working day after they are back ("Resumes 3 Oct"). An out-of-office reply with no return date, or one away for more than 60 days, waits for you to resume it by hand.

Queued sends

An email booked for a time the queue cannot keep shows "(queued)": it is booked, and the mailbox's daily cap and the emails queued ahead of it are holding it back. It goes once the cap and the gap allow, inside the window.

The daily cap counts from midnight in the mailbox's own day. The Engine room's "N sent today" counts from midnight UTC, so the two figures can differ. On In flight and the live stages, the "List | Month" switch shows the send plan as a calendar, sent, booked and estimated; see The tracker and calendar.

When a send fails

A send that does not go through holds its sequence and moves it to "Needs you", with the reason in words at the top of the sequence window. There are three outcomes, and each asks something different of you.

• Failed to send. The provider refused the email, so nothing went out. The lead line reads "Follow-up 1 failed to send." (or "The first email failed to send.") with the provider's words in plain language. Fix the cause, then press "Resume sending" and the email is booked again at the next allowed slot.
• Delivery unknown. The provider accepted the email and then reported an error, so it may already have reached them. It never re-sends on its own. Check the Sent folder in the mailbox first, then press "It was sent" (records it and books the follow-up, sends nothing) or "It wasn't, send it" (queues it to send again).
• Bounced. The sequence reads "Bounced", with "An email bounced, so delivery failed." A hard bounce adds the address to Do not contact, and the sequence is finished. To pitch someone else at the page, add or research another contact on the page's detail panel, then promote the page again from Opportunities; the bounced address stays blocked. Bounces never count as replies.

Two holds come from your plan rather than from a send. A mailbox past your plan's count shows "Not sending: over your plan's mailbox limit": the mailboxes connected first send, and this one waits and still receives replies. While the account waits on a plan, a send you try reads "Replies still arrive, and nothing was sent. Choose a plan in Billing and sending starts again." After a failed payment, the same line asks you to pay the open invoice in Billing instead.

What goes out, and when

Sequence emails sign off with the mailbox's sign-off name, when one is set. The signature is added at send, never baked into the draft: a draft shows "+ signature at send" with the footer on hover.

Limits

Good to know

• Timing is not copy. Changing days, time, waits or the start date keeps a draft's sign-off; changing the sender clears it.
• Every send time on a sequence is in the sending mailbox's time zone. A project window has a time zone of its own, and the two can differ.
• If the provider only asks to slow down, the email is tried again on its own a little later, and nothing is asked of you. If it keeps refusing, the send fails as above.
• The live stages and the Tracker list the 300 most recently active sequences. Older ones are not listed, but they keep sending on their schedule.