Control who on your team can send
By Clint ParsleyLast updated
In short. On Team and Business, an admin can mark any member draft-only. They still build templates and sequences, but every send waits for an admin: broadcasts, turning a sequence live, and one-off emails. Test emails to their own address still work.
On the Team and Business plans, an admin can decide which teammates are allowed to send. Mark someone draft-only and they keep building work as usual, but from then on nothing they do sends an email. Sequences they activated before the change keep running until an admin pauses them. Draft-only suits a new rep who should build under review for a while before anything leaves the account.
What can a draft-only member do?
A draft-only member can build everything but send nothing except a test to their own address. At a glance:
| Action | Can send (default) | Draft-only |
|---|---|---|
| Build and save sequences and templates | Yes | Yes |
| Import contacts | Yes | Yes |
| Send a test email to their own address | Yes | Yes |
| Activate or resume a sequence | Yes | No, an admin does it |
| Create and send a broadcast, or approve an A/B winner | Yes | No |
| Cancel or delete a scheduled broadcast | Yes | No |
| Send a one-off email from the composer (mailbox or domain) | Yes | No |
| Delete a broadcast that has already finished | Yes | Yes |
In detail, a draft-only member keeps the building side. They can build and save sequences, edit templates, import contacts, and send a test email to their own address. What waits for an admin is the sending:
- Sending a broadcast, including approving the winner of an A/B test.
- Turning a sequence live, whether that's activating a draft or resuming a paused one.
- Sending a one-off email from the composer, whether it would leave from their connected Gmail or Outlook or from your sending domain.
Everything up to the send is theirs. A sequence can be built and saved as a draft for an admin to activate later. A broadcast has no saved draft, and creating one is what sends it, so a draft-only member can't create a broadcast at all; an admin builds and sends those.
Stopping a scheduled broadcast counts as sending too, so a draft-only member can't cancel one or delete it before it goes out. Any member can delete a broadcast that has already finished.
Their own mailbox counts too. A one-off sent through the composer from a connected Gmail or Outlook is still SEMAOS sending on their behalf, so it waits for an admin like everything else. Mail they write directly in Gmail or Outlook is theirs and never passes through SEMAOS. The one send that stays open is a test email to their own address from the template editor, because that only proves the template renders.
Who can change a member's send permission?
Only admins can, and only on members. Admins can always send. You can't restrict another admin, and you can't change your own permission. If you want to limit an admin, change their role to member first, then set the toggle.
How do I make a member draft-only?
Open Settings → Team to see your team roster. On Team and Business, each member row has a Send column with a toggle. Can send is the default, where the member sends like anyone else. Draft-only blocks every send except a test to their own address, and leaves build and save alone.
The change takes effect immediately, on the member's very next action, so they don't need to sign out and back in. When a draft-only member opens a sequence, the Activate button is disabled with a short note telling them to ask an admin. The one-off composer stops them at the door with the same advice.
What happens to send permissions when we change plans?
Send permissions are a Team and Business feature. The 30-day trial includes them too, since it mirrors Team. On Free, Solo, and Starter the toggle isn't available.
If you set someone to draft-only on Team and later move down to Starter, the restriction stops applying and everyone can send again, but the setting isn't erased. Move back up to Team and it's exactly as you left it. On the roster, a stored restriction that isn't currently in force reads as "not applied on your plan," so nothing about it catches you out.
What does a blocked member see?
A blocked member sees a disabled button with a plain explanation of why, not an error, and nothing in the app breaks. If a send reaches the server anyway, it comes back with a clear "sending needs an admin" message rather than a generic error, so the member can tell what is blocked and who can unblock it.