---
title: What gets processed
description: When an email is processed, which emails are read in full, and how a failure is contained.
sidebar:
  label: What gets processed
  order: 2
---

6 rules, in register order, from R9 to R14; numbers do not run in sequence. [Back to the index](/business/business-rules).

## R9 — An email is processed when it has no finished run

Every stored email gets one processing job when it arrives. A sweep every five minutes adds one again for an email that has no run, or whose run is open with no job waiting, so an unfinished email is picked up again.

## R10 — A client email that is not a copy is read in full

Nothing judges whether an email "changes anything technical" before it is read. A copy (R2a) is not read again. Every other email is processed, and a later email on a known enquiry is linked to it and read by the change reader for what it asks to change.

A re-send with new files, or with new words beyond a greeting or filler such as "PFA", even a short note such as "revised qty 10" or a colleague's "client now wants 20", or one arriving more than 30 days later or sent separately to another office, is not a copy, and is read like any other message.

## R11 — No stage ever stops the queue

A failure is recorded against that item; the rest of the batch continues.

## R12 — An email whose processing keeps stalling is taken off the queue

The sweep re-adds a stalled email at most three times per run. After that the run is failed and the email is marked for review, instead of being retried again.

## R13 — Reprocessing replaces the answer; it never patches it

## R14 — Among completed readings, the newest wins