Devorgilla, I’ve not encountered any problems putting ingredients in and leaving until the time comes for the machine to start the kneading and baking process. However, I think it has a timer limit of about 12 hours, if memory serves me right, so if I wanted bread to be ready for about, for example, 8am, I’d put the ingredients in the pan when I was ready, eg about 8pm and set it on its timer, but I can’t really see a problem loading your pan up ready before then (maybe leave the water until you switch it on), and then set it going a bit later - just don’t forget to switch it on! ?. Hope that helps.