Reviewing Items in Your Inbox

Anatomy of an item

Each item (a “card”) in the Inbox shows a title, a summary, the proposed action in plain language, and the evidence behind it, such as the email thread it came from. You can see exactly what will happen before you approve.

The kinds of items you will see

Email replies. The most common item. A customer emailed your helper’s managed mailbox, and the helper drafted a reply. Approving sends the email from the helper’s mailbox, continuing the same thread. You can edit the draft before approving, and your edited version is what sends. If a reply card arrives before the helper has finished drafting, approval is blocked until a draft exists; you can also just write the reply yourself.

Quote estimates. A structured quote with line items, a currency, a total, and a valid-until date, rendered into a customer email. The server recomputes the total from the line items and refuses to send if they do not match. The sent quote is saved into your Business Brain for reference. Quotes always require your approval; they never auto-send.

Booking invitations. A booking email with a calendar invitation file (.ics) attached, so the recipient can add it to their own calendar. BrainRoad does not write to your calendar or anyone else’s; the invitation travels by email only. Bookings always require your approval.

Text messages (SMS). If your account has an opt-in agent phone number (Pro only), outbound texts appear here. They always require approval; there is no auto-send for SMS.

Notes to the Brain. The helper wants to save something it learned into your Business Brain. Approving saves the note. This is the lowest-risk kind, and you can auto-approve it in Settings if you choose.

Connector calls. If you have registered a read-only connector (a trusted external API the helper may look things up in), calls to it appear here unless you have marked that connector as allowed.

Trust offers. Occasionally BrainRoad itself will offer to let the helper auto-handle routine replies in one specific email thread. These offers come from the platform, never from the helper, and approving one is always your call. See Earned Trust.

Brain findings. Attention items your Brain surfaced, such as a contradiction or a deadline. These use review verbs like Acknowledge, Snooze, and Mark done rather than approve-and-execute; they never trigger automation.

Your options on each card

• Edit: change the draft before approving. Your edits win over the helper’s version.
• Approve: the action executes immediately, and the result (sent, saved, failed) is recorded on the card.
• Decline: nothing happens. If the card belongs to an email thread where the helper had earned auto-approval, declining also pauses that trust rule as a safety signal.
• Snooze: hide the card until a time you pick. It returns to Pending when due.

Expiry and failures

• 7-day expiry. Items left pending for more than 7 days expire automatically. Expired items do not execute.
• Failed sends. If a customer email fails because the provider clearly rejected it, the card offers “Review and retry,” which reopens the preserved draft for you to approve again. It never re-sends on its own. If the failure is ambiguous (the provider may have already accepted the message), the card stays terminal to avoid sending a duplicate.
• Reminders. For real inbound customer emails with a draft waiting, BrainRoad can email you a reminder that an item is awaiting approval, once per draft version.

Business defaults

The Inbox Settings tab includes business defaults used by quote and booking cards: your time zone, currency, how long quotes stay valid, and default booking duration and location. Setting these once keeps drafts consistent.