How to Set Up and Manage Delegate Access in Microsoft Outlook for Assistants and Teams

Executive assistants, office administrators, and team leads frequently need to schedule meetings, triage incoming emails, and send confirmations on behalf of managers or colleagues. Rather than sharing account passwords—which violates security compliance and multi-factor authentication (MFA) protocols—Microsoft Outlook provides Delegate Access. This native permission system allows an account owner to grant fine-grained permissions to colleagues to manage calendars, respond to emails, and schedule meetings while logging actions under their own identity.

Understanding Delegate Permissions Levels in Outlook

When granting delegate access in Outlook, you can calibrate permissions individually for your Calendar, Tasks, Inbox, Contacts, and Notes:

• Reviewer: The delegate can view items in your folder but cannot create, modify, or delete anything (read-only access).
• Author: The delegate can read existing items and create new ones (such as adding an appointment), but can only modify or delete items that they created personally.
• Editor: The delegate has full control to create, modify, and delete all items within the folder regardless of who created them.
• Send on Behalf vs Send As: By default, delegates receive Send on Behalf permissions. When they compose an email, recipients see: “Jane Assistant on behalf of John Executive”. Full Send As permissions (where the assistant’s name is concealed) require tenant administrator configuration in Exchange Online.

Configuring Delegate Access in Microsoft Outlook on Desktop

To grant a colleague delegate permissions using desktop Outlook for Windows:

1. Launch Microsoft Outlook on your PC.
2. Click the File tab in the upper-left corner of the ribbon.
3. Under Account Information, click the Account Settings drop-down menu and select Delegate Access.
4. In the Delegates dialogue box, click Add.
5. Type the name or email address of the colleague you wish to appoint as your delegate in the Global Address List, select their profile, and click Add, then OK.
6. In the Delegate Permissions configuration window, set access tiers for each folder:
   • Calendar: Typically set to Editor for executive scheduling.
   • Inbox: Set to None (if privacy is required) or Editor/Reviewer for inbox triage.
   • Tasks / Contacts / Notes: Set according to workflow needs.
7. Tick the checkbox labelled Delegate receives copies of meeting-related messages sent to me to ensure meeting invites route directly to your assistant.
8. Optionally, tick Automatically send a message to delegate summarizing these permissions to notify them immediately.
9. Click OK and click OK again to save your settings.

Protecting Private Calendar Appointments and Messages

If you maintain personal doctor appointments or confidential executive interviews on your schedule that your delegate should not see:

• Private Permission Toggle: In the Delegate Permissions dialogue, ensure the checkbox labelled Delegate can see my private items remains unticked.
• Mark Items Private: When creating a sensitive calendar appointment or email, click the padlock icon labelled Private in the ribbon. Word and Exchange will conceal the subject and details from the delegate, displaying only blocked-out “Busy” time slots.

Accessing a Delegated Mailbox as an Assistant

Once you are appointed as a delegate for another user, opening their folders is seamless:

1. Open Outlook on your computer.
2. Click File > Open & Export > Other User’s Folder.
3. Type the name of the executive who granted you permissions.
4. Select the Folder type (e.g. Calendar or Inbox) and click OK.
5. The delegated folder mounts directly in your Outlook folder tree, allowing you to create calendar events and reply to correspondence on their behalf.