> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://missiveapp.com/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://missiveapp.com/docs/setup-guides/executives-and-assistants.md).

# For executives and assistants

An assistant can run an executive's inbox without ever seeing the mail meant to stay private, once you pick the right setup.

There are three setups that work. Which one fits depends on two questions.

## Choose a setup

**Does the executive receive personal or sensitive email in this account?** If private mail arrives in the same address the assistant will manage, plan privacy measures from day one, or move private mail to a separate mailbox.

**Will the assistant own triage, or assist while the executive keeps running their own inbox?** Some assistants see everything first and the executive only touches what is handed to them. Other executives keep working as they always have, with the assistant handling a subset.

| Situation                                                            | Setup                                                                       |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Assistant triages everything, full shared visibility is fine         | [Two-person team inbox](#set-up-a-two-person-team-inbox)                    |
| Assistant needs broad access, but some senders must stay private     | [Shared account with privacy rules](#add-privacy-rules-to-a-shared-account) |
| Executive keeps their inbox as-is, assistant handles delegated items | [Assignment-based delegation](#delegate-with-assignments)                   |

{% hint style="info" %}
The best setup is the one the executive will actually adopt. Assignment-based delegation is often chosen not because it's technically ideal, but because the executive isn't ready to change how they work. That's a valid reason.
{% endhint %}

## Set up a two-person team inbox

The assistant owns triage, and the executive is comfortable with the assistant seeing everything in the account. This is the recommended default.

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

### Create the team

Go to **Settings** → **Teams** and create a team containing only the executive and the assistant. Nobody else in the organization sees this team's conversations.

To keep the executive's notifications quiet, make them an **observer** instead of an active member. Observers see the team inbox but are only notified about what gets assigned to them. See [Team inboxes](/docs/core-features/team-inboxes.md) for more on members and observers.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Share the account

The executive opens **Settings** → **Accounts**, selects their account, and clicks **Share this account**.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Select Team Inbox delivery

Choose **Team Inbox** and select the team from step 1. New messages now land in the team inbox instead of anyone's personal Inbox.

See [Sharing options](/docs/core-features/connected-accounts/sharing-options.md) for how Team Inbox compares to Inbox delivery.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Clear the backlog

If the account arrives with a full inbox, the account owner can [mass archive](/docs/support/mass-archive-gmail-emails.md) everything before a chosen date from **Settings** → **Accounts**. Starting clean makes "if it's in the team inbox, it needs action" true.
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

### Triage from the team inbox

The team inbox is the [triage](/docs/core-features/triage-and-assignment.md) area. For each new message, the assistant does one of three things:

* **Assign it to the executive.** The conversation moves to the executive's personal Inbox. This is the handoff.
* **Assign it to themselves** and handle it.
* **Archive it.** Newsletters, confirmations, anything needing no action. Archiving from a team inbox removes it for both members, and the conversation stays searchable in the **All** mailbox.

{% hint style="warning" %}
Archive, don't trash. Trashing deletes data for everyone on the conversation. Archiving clears it from the inbox while keeping it accessible in **All**. See [how archive, close, and trash differ](/docs/core-features/conversations/faq.md).
{% endhint %}

Dragging a conversation onto a label performs a **Move to label**, which both labels and archives it. On a shared conversation that archive removes it from the team inbox for everyone, so if coworkers report disappearing emails, this is usually why. To add a label without archiving, use **Label as**.

The executive works from their personal Inbox: assignments, mentions, and conversations they watch. The account view in the sidebar (the one named after the email address) shows everything in that account at once, inbox, assigned, and archived together, so it's for searching and reference rather than day-to-day work. Most confusion in this setup comes from mixing up those views, so cover them when you onboard.

## Add privacy rules to a shared account

Same foundation as the team inbox setup, with measures for mail the assistant shouldn't see.

Sharing an account happens inside Missive. You don't need Outlook delegate access or Gmail delegation, and Missive doesn't change permissions on your mail server. Sharing is also all-or-nothing at the account level: there's no folder-level or conditional access. If the assistant previously had delegate access to specific Outlook folders only, that model doesn't translate.

{% hint style="warning" %}
Rules only apply to messages received after the rule exists, and they don't touch what the assistant can reach on the mail server directly. If the assistant already had server-side access, such as an Outlook delegate, change the account password so access runs only through Missive's sharing. For mail that must stay private, move it to a separate mailbox the assistant never gets, and share the work account fully.
{% endhint %}

### Keep specific senders away from the assistant

Deliver mail from private senders to the executive only.

| Rule type | Incoming message                             |
| --------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| Condition | From is → `private@example.com`              |
| Action    | Remove user(s) from conversation → assistant |

Build it as an organization rule if the account is shared, or as a personal rule on the executive's own account if they keep it private. Both reach the same result. Maintain one rule with the full sender list rather than one rule per sender. To also batch these messages so they arrive once a day instead of trickling in, add the action **Snooze** with a fixed time like 1:00 PM. See [Snoozing](/docs/core-features/conversations/snoozing.md).

### Keep private workstreams out of sight

* **Restricted** [**organization labels**](/docs/core-features/understanding-label-types.md)**.** A label limited to **Admins and autoshared users** is visible in other admins' sidebars, but they won't see the private conversations inside it unless they're participants.
* **Notes without email.** Executives who email themselves ideas end up writing rules to hide that mail from the assistant. Use a **New conversation** instead (the arrow next to the compose button): a comment-only conversation with no email, visible only to you. Label it, snooze it, or add an email later with the pencil icon.
* **A second organization.** For executives who don't want the rest of the company to see that a private team exists at all, a separate organization containing only the executive and the assistant is the strongest boundary.

{% hint style="info" %}
Email labels sync with your mail server; organization labels exist only in Missive and can't sync back to an Outlook folder or Gmail label. If the executive files into hundreds of server-side folders, don't mirror that structure with organization labels. You'd be maintaining two disconnected systems.
{% endhint %}

## Delegate with assignments

The executive's account stays exactly as it is. The assistant works through assignments.

### Use assignments as the handoff, not labels

A common homemade version of this setup is a label like "Needs reply" acting as the executive's to-do pile. We don't recommend it, because it breaks in two ways. Moving a conversation to a label is two actions, applying the label and archiving, and an archived conversation no longer counts as open, which silently breaks any rule with an **Unreplied and open after** condition. And labels carry no due dates and send no notification.

Assigning a conversation keeps it open, places it in the assignee's **Assigned to me** section and personal Inbox, and reopens it for them when replies arrive. If the executive prefers their label, keep it and let [rules](/docs/advanced-features/rules.md) maintain it, so the label appears when something is assigned to the executive and clears when they close it:

| Rule type | User actions → Assignee change |
| --------- | ------------------------------ |
| Condition | Added assignee is → executive  |
| Action    | Add label(s) → "Needs reply"   |

| Rule type   | User actions → Conversation closed |
| ----------- | ---------------------------------- |
| Condition 1 | Action initiator is → executive    |
| Condition 2 | Assignee is → executive            |
| Action      | Remove label(s) → "Needs reply"    |

| Rule type   | Incoming message (optional reminder)           |
| ----------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| Condition 1 | To is → `executive@company.com`                |
| Condition 2 | Unreplied and open after → 1 day               |
| Action      | Send automatic response, or Notify → assistant |

You can measure **Unreplied and open after** in business hours instead of calendar hours. See [Conditions](/docs/advanced-features/rules/conditions.md).

{% hint style="warning" %}
Keep automatic-response rules disabled while the executive's out-of-office responder is active. Otherwise senders receive two auto-replies.
{% endhint %}

A simpler version: skip the label and have the executive work from **Assigned to me**, the same list with due dates and reopening built in.

### Handing off: assignments and tasks

Assigning a whole conversation puts it at the top of the assignee's Inbox and in their Tasks view; you can give the assigned conversation a due date from the right sidebar. [Tasks](/docs/core-features/tasks.md) are more granular: each one lives inside a conversation with its own assignee and due date.

The Tasks view shows both conversations and individual tasks assigned to you in one place, so you don't have to choose one over the other. What matters is the due date: when the Tasks view is grouped by due date, an assigned conversation with no due date lands in the **Anytime** section at the bottom, where someone working strictly by due date never looks. Give every handoff a due date, or agree that the Tasks view gets checked daily.

For FYIs that need no action, use an `@mention` instead of an assignment or task, and collect mentions somewhere findable:

| Rule type | User actions → New comment |
| --------- | -------------------------- |
| Condition | Mention is → assistant     |
| Action    | Add label(s) → "FYIs"      |

### Cut the noise in both directions

* If the assistant's own account is shared with the executive for monitoring, put the executive in the **Auto-archive** section of that account's sharing settings. They can still search everything in **All** without being notified for every message.
* In **Settings** → **Preferences** → **Notifications**, both people should set **Send email notifications for missed mentions and assignments** to **Never**. In-app notifications are unaffected.

### Rules on a shared executive account

Once an account is shared with anyone, it's linked to the organization, and personal rules no longer trigger on it. Use organization rules, and scope them with the condition **Email account is** → the executive's address, so a rule built for the executive can't fire across the whole company. Broad conditions like **From is present** match everything.

Assistants without admin access can build rules in a sandbox: create your own free Missive organization, build and test the organization rule there, then export it as a `.missiverule` file for an admin to import. Rules referencing labels won't carry over, since labels are organization-specific.

## Common pitfalls

**Archiving doesn't sync between you.** With **Inbox** delivery (the account shared so its mail lands in each person's own Inbox rather than a shared Team Inbox), each person's archive affects only their own inbox: the assistant reaches inbox zero while the executive's inbox never moves. Share with **Team Inbox** delivery instead, where one archive clears it for both.

**Conversations disappear after you delegate them.** When the executive assigns a conversation to the assistant without watching it, Missive treats the work as delegated and stops resurfacing it for the executive, including future replies. To supervise everything the assistant sends, create this rule, and enable **Automatically watch conversations when commenting** and **when starting a draft** in the executive's [watching preferences](/docs/core-features/conversations/collaboration.md#automatic-watching):

| Rule type   | Outgoing message                           |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| Condition 1 | Sender is → assistant                      |
| Condition 2 | Email account is → `executive@company.com` |
| Action      | Watch → executive                          |

Note that typing someone's name in a comment does nothing; only a bold `@mention` notifies them.

**Reminder rules never fire on labeled conversations.** Moving to a label archives the conversation, and archived conversations fail every **Unreplied and open after** condition. Assign instead of moving.

**Gmail's Important label triggers label-based rules.** Gmail applies its Important label automatically, and it syncs into Missive as a real label, so rules with a **Label is present** condition fire on mail nobody labeled. In Gmail, go to **Settings** → **Labels** and uncheck **Show in IMAP** for Important. Mail keeps syncing; the phantom label doesn't.

**Privacy rules don't clean up the past.** Remove-from-conversation rules apply only to mail received after the rule exists, so set them up before sharing the account, not after.

**Delay-based auto-archive rules age badly.** Rules that archive mail hours after reception are hard to reason about later, because the delay attaches to the email that triggered the rule, not the newest message in the thread. The pattern that holds up: archive on arrival anything that comes in pre-labeled, work the rest from the inbox, and pin labels to the sidebar with unread counts. Agree with the executive on which senders are safe to auto-archive before enabling any of it.

**Configuration advice from general AI chatbots.** External chatbots regularly invent Missive rule conditions and settings that don't exist. Use this documentation or the AI assistant inside Missive (the question mark in the bottom-right corner), which answers from verified docs.

## Executives and assistants FAQ

### Can I give my assistant access to only certain folders?

No. Sharing an account is all-or-nothing; there's no folder-level or conditional access, unlike Outlook delegate permissions. If parts of the account must stay private, use privacy rules or move private mail to a separate mailbox the assistant can't access.

### If my assistant archives an email, is it archived for me too?

It depends on the sharing method. With **Team Inbox** delivery, archiving from the team inbox clears it for every member. With **Inbox** delivery, each person archives independently. Archiving also syncs to the mail server on a shared account.

### Why don't I see replies on conversations I assigned to my assistant?

Because you aren't watching them. Assignment auto-watches the assignee, not the person who assigned. Watch the conversation before assigning, enable auto-watch preferences, or create the watch rule above.

### Can a rule hide my existing emails from my assistant?

No. Rules act on messages received after the rule is created. Existing mail stays visible to anyone the account is shared with.

### Can my assistant send email as me?

Yes. With a shared account, the assistant composes and sends from that address directly in Missive, with no delegate configuration on the mail server.

### Can AI draft replies with my executive's availability?

Yes, through the [AI assistant](/docs/ai/using-ai/assistant.md). Create a saved [prompt](/docs/ai/using-ai/prompts.md) that drafts a reply using calendar context (**Add context** → calendar, then select the executive's calendar). The **Create draft with AI** rule action can't read calendars; it only sees the email and the prompt text.

### Should we hand off work with tasks or assignments?

Either works, and the Tasks view shows both in one place. Assignments hand off a whole conversation and keep it open for reminder rules; tasks are more granular, each living inside a conversation with its own assignee and due date. What actually causes misses is a handoff with no due date, since it lands in **Anytime** when the view is grouped by due date, so set a due date either way.

## Next steps

* [Team inboxes](/docs/core-features/team-inboxes.md) and [Triage and assignment](/docs/core-features/triage-and-assignment.md)
* [Sharing options](/docs/core-features/connected-accounts/sharing-options.md) for how Team Inbox and Inbox delivery differ
* [Rules](/docs/advanced-features/rules.md) for the privacy and reminder rules above


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