---
title: "Understanding Custom Emails: Triggers, Delays, and Scheduling"
description: "How custom WooCommerce emails work: triggers that send them, delays for scheduled emails, and where each is configured."
url: "https://wpfactory.com/docs/custom-email-insights/"
updated: "2026-09-27"
category: How to
tags:
  - Additional Custom Emails for WooCommerce
---

# Understanding Custom Emails: Triggers, Delays, and Scheduling

A custom email in [Additional Custom Emails & Recipients for WooCommerce](https://wpfactory.com/item/custom-emails-for-woocommerce/) is an email you define yourself: you choose the event that sends it, who receives it, and what it says. This article explains the concepts that drive every custom email, so the rest of the settings make sense.

Each email is configured under **WooCommerce > Settings > Emails**: open the custom email to reach its fields.

### Enable and disable

Every custom email has an **Enable this email notification** checkbox (option `enabled`, default **Yes**). When it is off, the email never sends, no matter what triggers fire.

### Triggers

A **trigger** is the event that sends the email. You can select as many as you like in the **Triggers** field. The groups available are:

- **Order status updated to**: fires when an order reaches a status, for example "Order status updated to Completed".
- **Order status updated from to**: fires only on a specific transition, for example "Pending payment to Processing".
- **New order**: fires when a new order is placed. "New order (Any status)" fires regardless of the initial status, or you can pick a specific status.
- **Extra**: password reset, order fully or partially refunded, new customer note, low or no stock, product on backorder, product published or updated, customer created, and customer address saved or changed.
- **Subscriptions** and **Renewals**: shown only when WooCommerce Subscriptions is active.

**Note:** new orders in WooCommerce are created with the "Pending payment" status by default. If you use a "New order" trigger for a specific status, the order must actually be in that status when it is created for the email to send. This is the most common reason a "new order" email does not appear.

Which groups are offered here is controlled by the **Enabled triggers groups** setting under WPFactory > Custom Emails > General. You can also add your own triggers with the **Custom triggers** setting. Both are free.

### Delay (scheduled emails)

The **Delay** field holds the email back for a set time after its trigger fires. Set a number in **Delay** and pick a **Delay unit** (seconds, minutes, hours, days, or weeks). For example, a delay of 1 week on an "Order status updated to Completed" trigger sends a follow-up email a week after the order completes.

Delay is a **free** feature. Delayed emails are queued by your chosen scheduler (WP Cron or Action Scheduler) and appear in the **Scheduled** list at **WPFactory > Custom Emails > Scheduled**, where you can cancel any pending send.

To make sure a delayed email is still relevant when it finally sends, pair it with the **Require order status** or **Exclude order status** options in that email's Order Options: the delayed email is skipped if the order has moved to a status you excluded.

### Where this is configured

Enable/disable, triggers, and delay are all on the email's own settings page under **WooCommerce > Settings > Emails**. The trigger groups and custom triggers that feed the Triggers list are under **WPFactory > Custom Emails > General**.

### Get more from your store emails

One fully featured custom email is free, delays and all. [Additional Custom Emails & Recipients for WooCommerce](https://wpfactory.com/item/custom-emails-for-woocommerce/) Pro lets you run as many as you need, each with its own triggers and timing. [See what Pro unlocks](https://wpfactory.com/item/custom-emails-for-woocommerce/).

Related articles

- [Custom Email Triggers Reference](https://wpfactory.com/docs/custom-emails-triggers-reference/)
- [Send a Custom Email from the Order Screen](https://wpfactory.com/docs/send-custom-email-from-order-screen/)
- [How to Add Custom Triggers](https://wpfactory.com/docs/add-custom-triggers/)
- [Order Targeting: Send Custom Emails Only for Certain Orders](https://wpfactory.com/docs/advanced-admin-order/)
- [Crafting Custom Email Content: Subject, Type, and Body](https://wpfactory.com/docs/crafting-email-content/)

 

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