Last updated September 24, 2026
Most advisors trust their automations for confirmations and receipts, and want a second look at the ones that matter — the final-payment nudge, the pre-cruise checklist, anything going to a client mid-negotiation. Until now the only way to get that second look was to switch the automation off and remember to send it by hand.
Ask me first is the middle option. The step still fires on schedule, still merges in the client's name and their real balance, still uses your branding and signature. It just stops one step short of sending and waits for you.
Nothing changes unless you turn it on. Every automation step is set to Send it for me and stays that way. Turning one step to Ask me first affects that step only — on every trip that automation runs.
It saves straight away.
The choice only appears on Send email steps. If you later re-point that step at a different action — a task, a tag — it goes back to sending automatically, because there is nothing to review.
When the step's moment arrives, the email is written and parked rather than sent. You will find it in four places:
| Where | What you see |
|---|---|
| Automations → Activity | A Waiting on you panel listing every held email across all your trips, oldest first — and a count on the Activity tab itself |
| The trip → Messages → Emails | A "1 email ready to send" strip, and the email itself under Needs you with a READY TO SEND badge |
| Your dashboard | It joins Needs attention today, above your overdue tasks, with a Review link straight to the trip |
| Your daily digest | A ready to send section at the top of the morning email |
You do not have to go looking. If one is waiting, the dashboard tells you the next time you open JourneyFuse.
Automations → Activity is the place to work through a backlog. It is the only view that spans every trip, so if three clients are waiting on you it shows all three together, longest-waiting first, with the count on the tab so you can see there is work without opening it.
Each row's Review takes you to that trip's Messages → Emails with the email open. The approve, edit and skip buttons deliberately live there rather than on the list — approving is a decision about one client on one trip, and it is worth having the trip in front of you when you make it.
Click the email to expand it. You see the real thing — merged, branded, with your signature — exactly as the client would receive it. Then three choices:
"Skip this one" is not the same as switching the automation off. It skips this email, on this trip, once. The step stays armed for every other trip and for this trip's later steps. If you want an email to stop everywhere, edit the automation instead.
Every held email shows its age, and the colour is the quick read:
| Colour | Age | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Grey | Under a day | Normal. It parked recently and you have not had a chance yet. |
| Amber | A day or more | Worth a look today. |
| Red | Three days or more | The email is losing its moment. |
Three days is the line because these emails are timed against the trip. A "60 days before you sail" note going out three days late is still broadly true; a week late is not really the email you wrote, and it may be better to skip it than send it.
A red row is also a signal about the automation itself. If the same step keeps ageing to red, either it does not need reviewing — switch it back to Send it for me — or its timing is wrong.
Approved emails go out with the next automation pass, which runs every 15 minutes. So an email you approve at 9:05 leaves by about 9:15. It is not instant, and the confirmation says so — if you need something in a client's inbox this minute, use Email Client on the trip instead.
Edit opens the email's body and subject. The most common use is adding a line — "bring ponchos, forecast is rain all week" — to an otherwise standard email.
Two things are deliberately not editable:
{{client_first_name}} and {{balance_due}} in the editor where the preview showed the real name and the real number.That second one looks like a bug and is the opposite. Because an approved email waits for the next automation pass, anything you freeze into it can go stale in between — if a payment lands in that window, a hard-typed balance would reach the client wrong. Leaving the fields as fields means the numbers are worked out at the moment it sends, while your wording is kept exactly as you wrote it.
Your edit applies to this email only. The saved email is untouched, so the next trip gets the original. If you want the change every time, edit it in Automations → Emails, or choose Edit for every trip from the row's ⋯ menu.
You do not have to wait for the send day to personalise an email. On the trip's Messages → Emails, open the row's ⋯ menu on any upcoming automation email and choose Edit for this trip. Change the subject or the wording, then Save for this trip.
Removing the automation from the trip, or adding it again, rebuilds its emails from the automation's wording. Any Edit for this trip changes on that trip are lost, so make them after the trip's automations are settled.
Three controls can stop an automated email from going straight out. They stack, so it helps to know which one is holding an email:
| Control | Where | What waits |
|---|---|---|
| Ask me first | One step, in its automation | That one email, under Waiting on you and the trip's Needs you |
| Hold for review | Send mode in Inbox → Outbox | Automated client emails wait in the Outbox until you send or discard them |
| Block all | Send mode in Inbox → Outbox | Nothing goes to clients. Use it while testing |
A step set to Send it for me still waits in the Outbox when your send mode is Hold for review. The Automations page says so at the top: Client email is set to "Held for review", so everything waits for you.
Holding everything defeats the point: you end up with a queue you rubber-stamp, which is slower than letting it send. It earns its keep on:
Leave confirmations, receipts and welcome emails on Send it for me. Those are the ones nobody needs to proofread, and they are most of the volume.
{{client_first_name}} and the rest fill in withThis is part of JourneyFuse’s travel advisor CRM: client email, automations and follow-ups on every trip.
Find and file automation emails in Automations → Emails: Family and When filters, folders, and categories you name yourself.
One page that lists every email JourneyFuse can send your clients without you writing it: what it says, how many went out lately, what sets it off, and where to switch it on or off.
Where to see whether a client opened an email you sent, which emails can show it, and where link clicks are tracked.