--- title: "Choose recipients and Cc" description: "Pick who a step goes to: the employee at their work or personal address, their manager, skip-level manager, buddy or HRBP, a group, a channel or a custom email address, plus up to three Cc recipients." sidebar: order: 2 area: flows feature: steps appPath: /flows/home lastVerified: 2026-10-22 version: "2026-10-16" audience: admin screenshots: - id: flows-steps-recipient-menu caption: The To list on an email step, with the relative recipients and the workspace's custom email recipients. related: - settings/general - flows/steps/set-a-step-audience - flows/steps/reference-tokens - flows/campaign-templates/create-a-campaign intercom: - id: "13930364" title: Custom Email Recipients in Workflows (Pyn 2) url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/13930364-custom-email-recipients-in-workflows-pyn-2 note: replaces - id: "9260298" title: Send messages to a Skip-level Manager in Automations url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/9260298-send-messages-to-a-skip-level-manager-in-automations note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference" - id: "8491211" title: Custom Recipients in Automation Messages url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/8491211-custom-recipients-in-automation-messages note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference" - id: "8563275" title: Send to Personal Email Address url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/8563275-send-to-personal-email-address note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference" --- Every step in an automation runs for one employee, the **principal**, but the person who receives it is often someone around them. The **To** field names that person relative to the principal, so one step reaches the right manager or buddy for every enrollment. ## Before you start - To email a shared inbox or someone outside Pyn, add them first under **Settings**, **Custom Email Recipients** and verify the address. See [Settings, General](https://support.pynhq.com/settings/general/). - Buddy and HRBP come from your HRIS or from a form; a step addressed to a relationship nobody has set is skipped for that employee. ![To lists the people relative to the enrolled employee, then the workspace's custom email recipients.](https://support.pynhq.com/media/flows/steps/flows-steps-recipient-menu.png) ## Steps 1. In Pyn, open the automation from **Flows**, **Automations**, and select the step to open it on **Configure**. 2. Under **To**, choose the recipient: - **Employee**: the principal, at their work email or Slack account. - **Employee (Personal)**: the principal at the personal email address from your HRIS. Email steps only; use it before the start date. - **Buddy**, **HRBP**, **Manager**, **Skip-level Manager**: the person in that relationship to the principal. - Under **Custom Email Recipients**, a verified address such as `people@yourcompany.com`. Email steps only. 3. On an email step, add up to three **Cc** recipients from the same list. A new **Cc** row appears after you fill the last one; select **(Clear)** in a row to remove it. 4. On a **Post to Channel** step, **To** is the channel, chosen from the channels the sender is a member of. On an **Add to Channel** step, **To** is the person added and **Channel** is the channel. 5. Select **Preview** and pick an employee under **Preview for principal** to confirm who the step resolves to for them. The preview header shows the resolved recipient. > **Note:** Tokens follow the roles, not the field. `@principal.preferredName` is always the enrolled employee; `@recipient.preferredName` is whoever receives the message. In a message to the manager, "Hi @recipient.preferredName, @principal.preferredName starts on @principal.startDate" reads correctly. ## Groups and lists of people A campaign step has a **To** multi-select instead of a single recipient: pick employee groups, individual employees and the relative recipients together, and every member receives it. See [Create a campaign](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/campaign-templates/create-a-campaign/). In an automation, narrow who gets a step with its [audience](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/set-a-step-audience/) rather than by listing people. ## What you should see The step card shows the recipient, for example **Manager**. Under [Enrollments](https://support.pynhq.com/activity/enrollments/), each enrollment's step lists the resolved person by name, or reads **Unknown recipient** when the relationship is empty for that employee. A custom email recipient removed from **Settings** disappears from every step that used it. ## Related - [Settings, General](https://support.pynhq.com/settings/general/) for Custom Email Recipients. - [Set a step audience](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/set-a-step-audience/) to send a step to only some enrolled employees. - [Tokens](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/reference-tokens/) for `principal` versus `recipient` tokens. - [Create a campaign](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/campaign-templates/create-a-campaign/) for steps sent to groups. ## Related Intercom articles - [Custom Email Recipients in Workflows (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/13930364-custom-email-recipients-in-workflows-pyn-2) — replaces - [Send messages to a Skip-level Manager in Automations](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/9260298-send-messages-to-a-skip-level-manager-in-automations) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference - [Custom Recipients in Automation Messages](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/8491211-custom-recipients-in-automation-messages) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference - [Send to Personal Email Address](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/8563275-send-to-personal-email-address) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference