How-to guide
Regular checks
A short weekly and monthly round through SemPost that catches failed posts, accounts to reconnect, stopped rules and low credits before they cost you a post.
SemPost tells you when something needs you: a status on the page, a line under an account, an email to the owners and admins. A few minutes a week, and a little more once a month, make sure none of it waits unread. Go through the list below, in this order: each check says where to look and what to do with what you find.
Owners and admins fix most of what the list turns up. Editors can press Check on accounts and stores, and everyone in the workspace can look at the approval queue, the post history and analytics.
Every week
The approval queue
Open the Approval queue.
- Waiting lists the posts that wait for approval. Approve or reject them before their time: a waiting post isn't published when its time comes, and an automation post still waiting two hours after its time expires and never goes out.
- Drafts also holds the posts SemPost held back, each with its reason: fix them and send them on, or delete them. See Fix a post a safeguard held.
- Approval health, above the tabs, counts the period's Expired posts and shows under Waiting now how long the oldest waiting post has waited.
When automation rules post every day, look every day. Owners and admins also get the email "Posts are waiting for your approval" when a waiting post's time is less than 24 hours away. See The approval queue.
Failed and expired posts
On the Posts page, in Post history, press Filters and choose Failed and Expired under Status.
- Open each post. A failed post's details give the reason, and Posts that didn't go out gives the fix for each one.
- A failed or expired post isn't sent again: once the cause is fixed, create it again if you still want it.
Social accounts
Open Settings › Social accounts. Each account under Connected accounts should say Connected.
- Needs reconnecting: an owner or admin presses Reconnect and allows access again with the same account. In live mode, the posts due for the account wait up to 24 hours and go out once it's reconnected.
- The network's permission could not be renewed automatically and ends on …: press Reconnect before that time, then Check to read the new date.
- A YouTube channel that says Until it's confirmed that this channel does not publish content made for kids, posts to it fail when their time comes.: an owner or admin presses Confirm under it.
- Last check: says when SemPost last checked the account. Check asks the network again at once.
See Nightly checks and reconnecting and the messages in Connection problems.
Automation rules, RSS feeds and stores
- On the Automation page, each rule's status is next to its name, with a line below that says why. A Waiting rule goes on by itself once the reason is gone. A Stopped rule never starts again by itself: fix the cause, then press Switch on. A Paused rule stays paused until someone presses Switch on: check that it's meant to be.
- On a rule's card, an account marked Stopped had its posts fail three times in a row. Fix the account in Settings › Social accounts, then press Resume beside it.
- When the rules say Automation is paused for the workspace; it goes on where it left off when you resume., someone paused all automation: press Resume on the Automation page when you're ready.
- Under Blog sharing (RSS), each feed's row shows On, Paused or Error, with Last read and Last shared. On Error, the row says why: fix the feed, then press Resume. A feed that can't be read for 7 days stops.
- In Settings › Store connections, each store shows Connected or Needs reconnecting, and when it was Last checked:. For Needs reconnecting, fix what the reason names in your store, then press Check.
See Rule statuses and warnings and Store checks, reconnecting and removing.
Credits and the budget
- In Settings › Billing, look at your credits and at Spending, which charts the credits spent each day. Credit activity lists every movement, such as an AI job, with the balance after it.
- In Settings › Budget, compare today's and this month's spending with the Daily cap (credits) and Monthly cap (credits). If a cap stops work you want, an owner or admin raises it and presses Save budget; if spending grows faster than you'd like, lower it.
- An automation rule's preview warns At this pace your credits last about … days. when they would run out within a week.
- When credits run out, nothing new is generated and rules that can't pay for their day stop. Posts already planned still go out. The owner buys a credit pack or a bigger plan in Settings › Billing.
See How credits work.
A look at analytics
Open Analytics and choose 7 days: the tiles and charts show how the week went, and Data as of says when the numbers were measured. Posting consistency names an account that has had no post for 7 days or more, and Products lists the products you haven't posted about in the last 60 days.
Owners and admins can get the week's numbers by email every Monday morning: switch on Weekly summary in the Emails card of Settings › Profile. See Read your analytics and The weekly summary email.
Every month
Plan limits
Plan and use in Settings › Billing shows each limit of your plan and what you use of it, with full beside the ones you've reached. A full limit stops you from connecting another account or store, inviting a teammate or switching on another rule. Free room by removing what you no longer use, such as an account you don't post to or an invitation nobody accepted, and by pausing a rule you can do without: paused rules don't count. Or the owner moves to a bigger plan.
If Settings › Social accounts says … social accounts are over your plan's limit, make room by the day it names: after that, the most recently connected accounts over the limit are disconnected. See Plans and what they include and A button is greyed out or missing.
The team and two-factor authentication
- In Settings › Team, check that everyone still needs access, with the role they have. Pick a lower role from the menu in a member's row, or remove someone with Remove from team.
- Under Pending invitations, press Revoke on an invitation nobody accepted: until it expires after 7 days, it takes a seat.
- Owners and admins see 2FA on or 2FA off on each member's row. To require it of everyone, an owner or admin who uses 2FA switches on Require two-factor authentication for the team in Settings › Workspace and saves.
- Used most of your recovery codes, or lost them? Press New recovery codes in Settings › Security.
- To see who changed what, an owner or admin opens Settings › Audit log.
See Invite your team and choose roles and Two-factor authentication.
Connected assistants
Open Settings › Connected assistants.
- Your assistants lists the assistants you connected, with what each may do and when it was last used. Owners and admins also see Connections in this workspace, with the person who made each one. Press End connection on one that's no longer used. A connection not used for 30 days closes by itself.
- Waiting for your confirmation lists your assistants' requests. Each is valid for only 10 minutes, so answer it when your assistant asks rather than waiting for this check. If you didn't ask for something, press Open, then Decline.
- The day after an assistant changes something in the workspace, its owners get the Assistants' daily summary email: read it to see what your assistants did.
Email preferences
Open Settings › Profile.
- Your email should show Verified: the weekly summary, the special days emails and the assistants' daily summary go only to a verified address.
- In the Emails card, choose what you want to get: Weekly summary (owners and admins), Assistants' daily summary (owners), Weekly special days email and Reminders of the days you follow. An email you once left with its one-click unsubscribe stays off until you switch it on here.
- Emails about problems, such as a failed live post, an account or a store that needs reconnecting, or a rule that stopped, go to the workspace's owners and admins. Make sure someone who reads their email has one of these roles.
If an email still doesn't arrive, see Emails don't arrive.
When a check finds a problem
Start troubleshooting here names the page that fixes each problem.