Email delegation to executive assistant, with you approving every send
InboxManager makes email delegation to an executive assistant simple and safe. Your assistant works in your Gmail or Outlook mailbox with the AI doing the first pass: sorting, summarizing and drafting. The assistant edits the drafts and queues the important ones for you, and you approve from your phone in a few taps. Every plan includes at least one owner and one assistant, so delegation is part of the product from the first day.
How delegated email works in InboxManager
Delegation usually breaks down in one of two ways. Either the executive keeps checking everything because they cannot see what the assistant did, or the assistant waits for answers that never come because the executive is in meetings all day. InboxManager gives both sides a shared view of the same lanes and a clear handoff point.
- 01 The AI sorts every message into Important, Needs reply, Waiting, Newsletters, and Spam and cold pitches.
- 02 The assistant works through Needs reply, edits AI drafts and decides which ones can go out under their own judgment and which ones need the executive.
- 03 Drafts that need the executive go to an approval queue with a one-line note from the assistant.
- 04 The executive approves, edits or sends back each draft, and the assistant sees the result immediately.
Permissions that match how you actually work
Not every executive wants the same level of delegation, and not every assistant should see everything. Permissions are set per assistant and can be changed at any time.
- 01 Draft only, the assistant prepares replies and every send needs your approval.
- 02 Send routine replies, the assistant can send scheduling, logistics and confirmation replies, while anything you mark as sensitive goes to approval.
- 03 Private senders and labels, threads from people or labels you choose, such as your family, your board or HR, stay hidden from the assistant.
- 04 Read only for a mailbox, useful for a second mailbox the assistant should see but never answer from.
Every action is recorded in the audit log, so you can check who drafted, edited and sent each reply.
Approving drafts from your phone
The approval queue is built for the five minutes between meetings. Each item shows the three-line view from the AI email summarizer, the assistant's note and the draft. You tap approve and the reply is sent from your mailbox, or you change a sentence and send it, or you add a one-line instruction such as "say yes but ask for the numbers first" and the draft goes back to the assistant. Nothing in the queue is sent until you decide, and drafts created by the AI are never sent on their own under any permission level.
A day with an executive and an assistant
Take the CEO of a 120-person manufacturing company and the executive assistant who has managed her calendar for three years. Before InboxManager, the assistant had full access to the inbox but no way to know which replies the CEO wanted to write herself, so most threads sat flagged until evening. Now the assistant starts at 8:00 with the Needs reply lane. Twenty-three messages need an answer. Fourteen are scheduling and logistics, and the assistant sends them after small edits to the AI drafts, which her permissions allow. Six go to the CEO's approval queue with notes such as "board member, wants your view on the Q3 numbers, draft keeps it short." Three are from senders the CEO keeps private, and the assistant never sees them. Between two meetings at 11:20, the CEO approves five of the six from her phone and sends one back with "decline politely, suggest January." By noon, nothing important is waiting on her.
Follow-ups and briefings for both sides
The email follow up reminder works for the assistant too: threads the CEO is waiting on are tracked, and the nudge is drafted for the assistant to review. Each person gets their own daily email briefing, with the CEO's version showing only what is waiting for her and the assistant's version showing the full workload for the day.
Built into every plan, from one assistant to a whole office
Starter includes one owner and one assistant, which covers the most common setup of a founder or executive with a single assistant. Plus and higher plans add more users, so one assistant can support several executives, or a chief of staff can join the same mailboxes. Admin roles, the audit log and data retention settings let the person responsible for IT see who has access to which mailbox. Delegation works the same in Gmail through the official Google API and in Outlook through Microsoft Graph, so an assistant can handle one executive on Google Workspace and another on Microsoft 365. Details on access are on the email data privacy page.
| Plan | Users per month |
|---|---|
| Starter | 1 owner + 1 assistant |
| Plus | up to 5 |
| Pro | up to 25 |
| Enterprise | up to 100 |
All limits, including mailboxes and drafts, are on the pricing page.
Works with sorting and drafting
Delegation is only as good as the first pass, which comes from the AI email organizer and the AI email response generator. For team addresses such as info@ handled by several assistants, use the shared inbox software, and read more about the executive setup on the executive email management page.
Does my assistant need a separate email account
No. Your assistant signs in to InboxManager with their own login and works in your connected mailbox under the permissions you set. You do not share your password, and you can remove access in one click.
Can I hide some emails from my assistant
Yes. You can mark senders, domains or labels as private. Threads that match are not shown to the assistant in any lane, summary or briefing, and they are never drafted for the assistant.
Can the AI send replies on behalf of my assistant
No. AI drafts are never sent on their own. A reply goes out only when you or your assistant presses send, and only within the permissions you have given the assistant.
What happens when my assistant leaves
Remove the assistant from your workspace and their access ends immediately. The audit log keeps the record of what they drafted and sent, and you can invite a new assistant who starts with the same lanes and rules.
Hand off the inbox without losing control
Connect Gmail or Outlook, invite your assistant and approve what matters from your phone.