Do sequence delays include business days only?

Last updated: May 5, 2026

When setting up email sequences, it's important to understand how delays between emails are calculated, especially when they span weekends. Here's how our system handles delays:

Delay Calculation

  • Delays are calculated based on calendar days, not business days.

  • Weekends are included in the delay count.

When Delays Start Counting

  • Delays begin immediately after the previous step completes, not at the start of the next send window

  • Delays are calculated as exact 24-hour periods from completion time, not day boundaries

Precise Timing with Steps Outside Send Windows

Example with mixed step types:

  • Email 1 goes out Thursday at 2:00 PM

  • LinkedIn step completes at 6:30pm Thursday (outside your 8am-6pm send window)

  • Email 2 has a 1-day delay

  • The 1-day (24-hour) delay starts counting immediately at 6:30pm Thursday. When the delay finishes on Friday at 6:30pm, the email will be queued for sending on Monday at 8am (the next available send window)

Sending Behavior

  • Emails are only sent on business days (excluding US holidays by default), regardless of when the delay ends.

  • If a delay ends on a weekend, the email will be queued for sending on the next business day.

Send Window Behavior for New Enrollments

Key Clarification

  • When a contact is added to a sequence outside your send window (even with zero delay), the first email will be queued for the next available send time within your send window.

  • Send windows apply immediately when contacts enter the sequence, not just to delayed emails.

Practical Example

If a contact is added at 6:00 PM and your send window is 8:00 AM–4:00 PM, the first email (even with 0‑day delay) will be queued to send the next business day at 8:00 AM.

Example

Let's say you set up a sequence with the following parameters:

  • Email 1 on goes on Thursday

  • Email 2 goes out 4 days later

The next email would typically be queued for sending on Monday (4 days later), assuming there's no backlog on the mailbox that would further delay the send schedule.

Important Notes

Advanced Email Timing Features

Fractional Delays for Custom Timing

  • You can set fractional delays (e.g., 2.04 days) to create custom timing offsets and avoid obvious sequencing patterns

  • This helps make your email sequences appear more natural and less automated

Automatic Throttling System

  • The system automatically throttles emails with a 4-8 minute buffer between sends to improve deliverability

  • This throttling occurs regardless of your sequence delays and helps maintain sender reputation

  • Each mailbox has a daily sending limit of 25 emails per day, operating on a rolling 24‑hour window rather than resetting at midnight. This means those slots become available again based on when they were used in the previous 24 hours.

  • The throttling buffer is applied on top of any mailbox backlogs or daily sending limits

Impact on Send Timing

  • Actual send times are affected by both your configured delays AND automatic throttling

  • When planning sequences, account for both the delay calculation and the additional throttling time

  • Multiple sequences sharing the same mailbox will all be subject to the same throttling rules

  • Emails are sent in FIFO (first-in-first-out) order across all sequences sharing the same mailbox, so backlogs from other sequences can delay your emails

Troubleshooting Stuck Emails in Sequences

If your sequence emails appear to be stuck in the queue for extended periods beyond normal delays, check if your sequence has been paused. Paused sequences will cause all queued emails to remain indefinitely in the queue and will not send until the sequence is reactivated. This is different from normal delays caused by backlogs or daily limits - paused sequences completely halt email delivery rather than just delaying it.

Additionally, if your sequence's first step is a manual task, it must be completed before any automated emails in the sequence can send. Incomplete manual tasks will prevent the sequence from progressing.

Distinguishing Between Approval and Completion

  • Approving: Reviews and accepts the email content

  • Completing: Finalizes the task so emails actually queue for sending

Verification Method for Manual Task Status

  1. Navigate to Outbox > Scheduled

  2. Open one of the queued email items

  3. Check for a concrete scheduled send time

  4. If no specific send time is shown: The manual email task hasn't been fully completed

  5. If a specific send time is displayed: The manual task is complete and emails are properly queued

Quick Fix

  • Navigate to your sequences dashboard

  • Check the status of your sequence

  • If paused, reactivate the sequence to resume email delivery

  • Check the scheduled send time: click into the specific queued email to view its scheduled date/time

  • View mailbox backlog: go to Dashboard → Health → Email Backlog to see which mailboxes have the most/least backlog and remaining daily send capacity

  • Reassign enrollments: move the enrollment to a mailbox with available capacity shown in the Email Backlog dashboard

  • If experiencing backlog delays, consider adding additional mailboxes to increase daily sending capacity

  • Temporarily pause lower‑priority sequences sharing the same mailbox to free up capacity

The system automatically throttles emails with a 2‑4 minute buffer between sends to improve deliverability.

When enrolling contacts during active send windows, emails typically send within a few minutes, subject to mailbox capacity and queue position.