Pausing, sending now, and checking status

You steer the automation two ways: by dropping a specially named file into the month’s Dropbox folder (works from your phone), or by pressing a button on the automation’s page on GitHub. Neither requires any technical work.

Pause a month (HOLD)

If you want the automation to wait — a document is wrong, you want to check something with the accountant first — put a file named HOLD in the month folder. While it is there, nothing is sent. You get one email confirming the pause. Delete the file and the automation picks up where it left off, re-checking the folder on its next pass.

The file can be named HOLD or HOLD.txt, and capitalization doesn’t matter. Its contents don’t matter either — an empty file is fine. The HOLD file itself is never included in the package.

What you do (from the Dropbox app on your phone):

1. Open the Dropbox app and go to the month’s folder.
2. Tap + (create), choose Create text file.
3. Name the file HOLD and save it.
4. To resume later: delete the HOLD file from the folder.

Send right now (SEND)

If the package is ready and you don’t want to wait out the 12-hour hold, put a file named SEND (or SEND.txt) in the month folder. On its next pass — within the hour during the first 12 days of the month — the automation packages the folder and sends it immediately, then emails you the confirmation. The SEND file is never included in the package.

What you do:

1. In the Dropbox app, open the month’s folder.
2. Tap +, choose Create text file.
3. Name the file SEND and save it.
4. Wait for the confirmation email.

You can also trigger an immediate send from the GitHub page (below) with the send-now action, which runs at once instead of waiting for the next scheduled pass.

Run an action from the GitHub page

The automation lives in a private GitHub repository, and its page there has a manual “Run workflow” button with a menu of actions:

Action	What it does
check	A normal pass, the same one the schedule runs.
dry-run	Builds the complete package and emails it to you only — nothing goes to the accountant. The email shows the zip, the summary PDF, and the exact To, Cc and subject a real send would use. Use this to test safely.
send-now	Skips the 12-hour hold and sends the package immediately.
hold	Marks the month paused. Note: a pause set this way is lifted again on the next automatic pass — to keep a month paused, use the HOLD file in the folder instead.
status	Emails you the month’s current state: what stage it is at, whether the statement has been found, the files that would go in the zip, and the recent history.
diagnose	Tests the Dropbox connection and reports what, if anything, is wrong — without ever revealing the credentials. See the troubleshooting page.

You can also type a month (as MM-YYYY, e.g. 07-2026) to aim the action at a specific month. Left blank, it acts on the previous month — which is almost always the one you want.

What you do:

1. Sign in to GitHub and open the automation’s repository.
2. Click the Actions tab.
3. In the list on the left, click mexico-taxes-automation.
4. Click Run workflow.
5. Pick the action from the menu. If you need a month other than last month, type it as MM-YYYY; otherwise leave it blank.
6. Click Run workflow to confirm, then watch your inbox — the resulting email arrives within a minute or two.

Check on things (status)

Any time you wonder where a month stands, run the status action (steps above). The email you get shows the month’s stage — waiting for the statement, pending a send, paused, or sent — plus the file list and a short history of everything the automation has done for that month.