Delivery and Exit
Sending windows, sender name and reply-to, unsubscribing, exit criteria, and what happens when a send fails.
These settings apply to every step in a sequence. They live in the editor's right-hand rail, under Delivery, Email, and Exit criteria.
The Sending Window
The sending window records the span of the day this sequence is meant to send in — a start time, an end time, and the timezone they are measured in. New sequences start at 09:00–17:00 in your organization's timezone, or US Central if your organization has not set one. Both times are chosen in half-hour marks.
The window means nothing without its timezone. Set the timezone to where your congregation reads their email, not where your staff sit, if the two differ.
Business Days Only
Business days only records that the sequence should send Monday through Friday rather than any day of the week. It is on for new sequences.
This is a separate setting from the business days unit on a wait. The unit counts the gap between two steps; this switch is about which days the sequence sends on.
The sending window and Business days only are saved with the sequence and will govern delivery once the sending engine ships. Set them now so a sequence is ready; do not rely on them to hold an email back today.
Sender Name and Reply-To
Sequence email goes out with your organization's email settings: the From line always shows your church's name, and replies go to the reply-to address configured for your organization.
Under Email in the rail — and again on the Settings tab — a sequence carries its own:
- Sender name — the name that fills
{{sender_name}}in your emails, falling back to your church name when blank - Reply-to — a reply address for this sequence
- Unsubscribe link — wording for an unsubscribe link
Both the sender name and the reply-to are optional and are saved with the sequence; they will override the organization defaults once the sending engine ships. The Unsubscribe link wording is not in use — every sequence email relies on the mail client's own Unsubscribe button, described below, and the choice is not saved.
Parable sends sequence email on its own infrastructure, not from a staff mailbox. That is what keeps it authenticated, lets it carry working unsubscribe headers, and lets a bounce or a complaint suppress an address for the whole organization. There is no mailbox to connect and no delegated sending to set up.
Unsubscribing
Every sequence email carries the standard one-click unsubscribe headers, so the Unsubscribe button that Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook, and most other clients show at the top of a message works. That button is handled by Parable directly: someone who uses it is suppressed straight away, with nothing for your team to process. The headers cannot be switched off.
Nothing is added to the body of the email, so there is no unsubscribe link to click inside the message. Replies go to your reply-to inbox and do not unsubscribe anyone — someone who replies asking to be removed has to be added to your suppression list by hand.
When someone unsubscribes, three things happen at once:
- Their address is suppressed for your whole organization.
- Every sequence they are currently in exits them.
- They will not be enrolled in any future sequence while the suppression stands.
Suppression is organization-wide, not per sequence. Someone who leaves your lapsed-giver follow-up will not receive your first-time guest follow-up either.
Exit Criteria
Exit criteria end a person's run early, before the remaining steps send. They are checked before every email, so a person who qualifies between two steps never gets the next one.
Unsubscribed is always active and cannot be turned off. It is listed in the rail as a fact, not a switch.
Add any of these with the + beside Exit criteria:
| Criterion | Exits when |
|---|---|
| Donation received | The person gives |
| Follow-up contacted | A care follow-up for them reaches contacted, or any later state |
| Follow-up resolved | A care follow-up for them is resolved |
Exit after is a time limit for a run, in days from the moment the person was enrolled. It is checked before each email, the same as the other criteria, so a person who was enrolled longer ago than the limit is exited instead of being sent the next step. Leave it blank for no limit: people then continue through the sequence until they complete it or another exit criterion applies.
Donation received is the exit criterion most first-gift and lapsed-giver sequences want. It is the difference between a thank-you and a person who has already given being asked again three days later.
Unsubscribing always ends a run. So does archiving the sequence: an archive is the end of the road, and it exits everyone still in the sequence. A Paused sequence is different — it sends nothing, but people in it hold where they are and pick up where they left off when it is enabled again. Pause if you might switch the sequence back on.
When a Send Fails
If one step cannot be delivered, the sequence carries on to the next step rather than dropping the person. A failure is one email, not the end of the follow-up.
A bounce that means the address is not deliverable, or a spam complaint, is different. Parable suppresses that address for the organization the same way an unsubscribe does, and the person's active runs exit.
Each step is sent to each person once. A retry after a delivery problem will never send a congregant the same step twice.