Email delegation in Google Workspace lets an employee read, send and delete messages in a colleague’s entire mailbox from their own work account, while both retain their own password and verification method.
Imagine the manager of a consulting office in Dubai will be away for a week. She wants her assistant to follow up on quotes and reply from the office address, but her mailbox also receives payroll messages. Before sending an invitation, she needs to settle one question: is the assistant allowed to see everything that arrives in this mailbox?
Email delegation in Google Workspace lets an employee open a colleague’s mailbox from their own work account and read, send and delete messages. Each person keeps their own password and verification method. Delegation covers the entire mailbox, even if both people agree to handle only messages labelled “Quotes”. In the office example, if payroll messages are private to the manager, it is better to set up a dedicated sales mailbox and delegate access to the assistant. If the sales address is simply an alias that delivers messages to the manager’s mailbox, access to it cannot be delegated separately.
Configure Email Delegation in Google Workspace Before Inviting an Employee
Email delegation in Google Workspace starts with your company’s administrator. Agree on three things: which mailbox the employee will open, which address customers will see in replies, and who will remove access when the mailbox owner returns. Record the employee’s name and the assignment’s end date so delegation does not remain in place after it is no longer needed.
An administrator with permission to manage Gmail settings opens the Admin console. Under “Apps”, they select Google Workspace, then Gmail, then “User settings”. They select the organisational unit containing the mailbox owner, open the mail delegation setting, allow users to delegate access and save the change. If the trial is for the sales team, applying it to that team’s organisational unit is enough. The delegate can be an employee from another unit, provided their account belongs to the same organisation.
In the same setting, the administrator chooses what the recipient sees: the mailbox owner’s address alone, or that address together with the address of the employee who sent the reply. If customers normally continue their conversations with a particular consultant, agree to show the sender’s identity and test what the recipient sees. For cases where the company chooses the setting for each department, Google’s administrator guide explains the available options.
Send and Accept an Email Delegation Invitation in Google Workspace
Once the feature is enabled, the mailbox owner sends the Google Workspace email delegation invitation themselves. They should have their work account open on a computer and the employee’s company email address to hand, to avoid selecting a personal account with a similar name.
• The mailbox owner opens Gmail settings, selects “See all settings”, then the “Accounts” or “Accounts and Import” tab.
• Under “Grant access to your account”, they select “Add another account”, enter the employee’s address and send the invitation. If Google requests identity verification, the account owner completes that step themselves.
• The employee opens the invitation in their work email and accepts it within a week. Once access is active, they click their account picture in Gmail and select the mailbox marked as delegated. The mailbox opens in a separate tab, while their usual mailbox remains open in the first tab.
If the option to add an account is missing, first check that you are using a browser on a computer and that the administrator’s setting applies to the mailbox owner’s organisational unit. If the invitation has been accepted but the mailbox does not appear immediately, access can take up to 24 hours to become active. Follow Gmail’s steps for delegates before sending the invitation again.
Test Email Delegation in Google Workspace, Then Remove Access
The easiest way to check email delegation in Google Workspace is to test the customer’s experience. Before the leave starts, send a message with the subject “Quote follow-up test” from a test address owned by the company. The assistant opens the delegated mailbox and replies from it. Return to the test mailbox, open the sender details, then reply to the message again. The test succeeds when the agreed sender identity appears and the second reply reaches the correct work mailbox. If the reply comes from the assistant’s own email address, they should check the mailbox address at the top of the tab before repeating the test.
When the mailbox owner returns, they open the same access-granting section and remove the employee’s name from the list of delegates. Ask the employee to open the account switcher again and check that access has ended, then record the removal date. Remove the individual delegation even if the company plans to disable the feature temporarily, because enabling it again may restore previous delegation permissions.
Help with Email Delegation in Google Workspace for Your Company
If team leave or shift changes raise the same question every month, the CDKeySell team can help you configure email delegation in Google Workspace as part of our Google Workspace management service for businesses. We review with you which mailboxes are suitable for delegation, configure the appropriate sender identity, and agree with the team lead who will test access and who will remove it when the assignment ends.
To request help, tell us how many mailboxes are involved, who needs to reply from them, and the name or address you want customers to see. For example, you can simply write: “We have a sales mailbox and two employees who take turns replying, and we want customers to see the sales address.” With this information, we can agree the scope of work with you without you sending a password or any customer messages.