A virtual assistant can take care of remote work such as inbox management, scheduling, customer responses, data entry and routine business administration. The useful question is which repeatable tasks you can hand over without losing visibility or giving someone responsibility they shouldn’t have. 

More than 1,060 Australians have connected with over 420 virtual assistants on Bark for different kinds of support. You can find a virtual assistant whose experience matches the work you’re ready to delegate.

This guide shows where a VA can save you time, which jobs still belong with a specialist and how to build a working arrangement that doesn’t create more management for you.

What does a virtual assistant actually do?

A virtual assistant, often shortened to VA, works remotely and provides administrative, technical or creative support.

Many work as independent contractors across several clients. Others operate through agencies or become closely involved with one business over time.

There isn’t one fixed VA job description. The role works best when related, repeatable tasks are grouped into a clear area of responsibility.

One assistant might manage incoming enquiries, update customer records and prepare a weekly report. Another could concentrate entirely on diary management, travel and meeting preparation.

The strongest tasks to delegate are usually ones that can be documented, completed securely online and handled without needing the owner’s judgement at every step.

What tasks do businesses commonly give to a virtual assistant?

Most VA work falls into a few practical areas.

A general administrator won’t necessarily have bookkeeping, design or customer-service experience.

Likewise, a specialist VA may work almost entirely within one industry or software platform.

When you write the brief, separate the skills they need from day one from the tasks you can teach once they start.

How can a VA help with your inbox and calendar?

Inbox and calendar management are common starting points because the work repeats regularly and the results are easy to check.

A VA can sort messages, flag urgent emails, archive low-priority material and draft routine replies. They can also schedule meetings, protect focus time and send reminders.

The important part is deciding what they can handle without asking you each time.

Useful rules might cover:

• Messages that need immediate escalation
• Who can be offered a meeting
• Diary time that should stay protected
• Replies the VA can send in your name
• Requests that need to be declined
• Information that must never be shared

A clear process means you don’t need to review every action while still keeping control over anything sensitive.

Meeting support can go further than putting an appointment in the diary. A VA can prepare an agenda, gather documents, record actions and follow up afterwards.

What customer-service tasks can a virtual assistant handle?

A VA can act as the first point of contact for routine customer enquiries when they have clear information and know where their authority ends.

Everyday enquiries

Typical work includes:

• Responding to website enquiries
• Confirming appointments
• Sending standard information
• Updating customer records

Follow-up and escalation

VAs can also:

• Follow up unanswered proposals
• Monitor shared support inboxes
• Process straightforward requests
• Record complaints for review

The VA shouldn’t have to make up an answer whenever something unexpected comes in.

Give them approved scripts, FAQs and examples of the tone your business uses. Set clear authority limits too, such as allowing a booking change but requiring approval before a refund.

Customer information should only be available where it’s needed for the role.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner explains that some small businesses can be covered by the Privacy Act with turnover of $3 million or less.

Whether the law applies can depend on what the business does and the information it handles.

Can a virtual assistant manage social media?

A VA can handle much of the administrative work around social media when someone has already decided the strategy and brand direction.

Publishing support

A VA can:

• Schedule approved posts
• Upload supplied assets
• Update the content calendar
• Prepare draft captions

Monitoring and reporting

They can also:

• Watch comments and messages
• Flag customer-service issues
• Collect basic engagement figures
• Repurpose approved material

Execution and strategy aren’t the same thing.

A VA can schedule posts, update your content calendar and handle routine social media admin. But if you need help deciding things like your target audience, campaigns strategy or how to spend your ad budget, a marketing specialist may be a better fit.

For social media specific requirements, a social media specialist can develop the strategy while the VA continues with day-to-day administration.

Content support works in much the same way. A VA might upload articles, format newsletters and proofread routine material while a copywriter/content writer or marketer develops the messaging and strategy behind it.

Can a virtual assistant do bookkeeping?

A VA can help with routine bookkeeping tasks such as invoices, receipts and data entry. Advice about GST, BAS obligations or tax treatment needs to come from someone who’s appropriately qualified.

Routine financial admin

A VA can commonly help with:

• Issuing approved invoices
• Entering transactions
• Organising receipts
• Updating customer or supplier records

They might also:

• Follow up overdue payments
• Prepare records for the bookkeeper
• Maintain expense spreadsheets
• Reconcile information under supervision

The position changes when the work becomes a BAS service.

The Tax Practitioners Board defines BAS (Business Activity Statement) services around advice or decisions concerning BAS obligations or entitlements where the client relies on that service.

Someone providing BAS services for a fee generally needs the appropriate registration.

A general VA shouldn’t independently advise on GST treatment, determine BAS liabilities or lodge a BAS unless they’re legally permitted to do so.

For that work, use a registered bookkeeper or accountant. Your VA can still organise the records and keep the routine administration moving.

How can a VA help with research and projects?

Virtual assistants can save a lot of time when the job is gathering and organising information rather than making the final decision.

They can compare suppliers, build contact lists, organise survey responses, research software or prepare a first-pass summary.

The quality of the result usually comes down to the quality of the brief.

Instead of asking someone to “research competitors”, tell them:

• Which businesses to include
• What information to collect
• Which sources are acceptable
• How recent the information should be
• How you want the findings presented
• Which conclusions you’ll make yourself

A VA can also keep projects moving by updating task boards, recording meeting actions and following up with owners.

They shouldn’t be made responsible for outcomes they can’t control. The project owner still needs to make decisions, remove blockers and manage the work itself.

What travel and event tasks can a virtual assistant manage?

Travel support can include comparing flights, arranging accommodation, creating itineraries and keeping booking details in one place.

Give the VA your preferences before they start.

Airlines, baggage, seating, cancellation terms, hotel standards and maximum travel times are all much easier to manage when they’re documented.

For regular travel, a written profile also avoids answering the same questions every time.

Event administration can include:

• Sending invitations
• Tracking responses
• Preparing attendee lists
• Confirming suppliers
• Distributing documents
• Recording dietary or accessibility needs

A VA can organise the administration around an event.

Venue selection, production, catering and complex supplier management can require a dedicated event professional instead.

What’s the difference between a virtual assistant and an executive assistant?

There can be a lot of overlap in the actual tasks, but the working arrangement is often different.

These are general patterns rather than fixed legal definitions.

Calling someone a virtual assistant doesn’t automatically make them a contractor. For many incorporated businesses, the Fair Work Ombudsman considers how the working relationship operates in practice.

That can include how much control the business has, who carries financial risk, who provides the tools, whether work can be delegated, how hours are set and how ongoing the arrangement is.

Different rules can apply in some situations, so the contract label alone isn’t enough. The way the relationship actually works matters too.

What tasks are better kept outside a general VA role?

A VA can take a lot of routine work off your plate, but some tasks are better handled by you or by a specialist.

Legal, tax and financial advice

A VA can organise documents, update records and prepare information for your accountant, lawyer or adviser.

If a task involves interpreting the law, giving tax advice or recommending financial products, bring in someone who’s qualified to do that work.

Employment decisions

A VA can help coordinate interviews, collect documents and keep onboarding organised.

More sensitive decisions around pay, performance, disciplinary action or redundancy are usually better handled by the business, with HR or legal support where needed.

Payments and financial access

A VA can prepare invoices, track payments and keep records up to date.

For stronger financial controls, keep final payment approval separate from the person setting up the payment.

Business strategy

Research, reporting and competitor tracking are all useful tasks to delegate.

You’ll usually want to keep final decisions about pricing, hiring, positioning and major customer relationships with the people responsible for running the business.

Work that needs to happen in person

A remote VA won’t be the right fit for tasks that involve site visits, handling stock or licensed trade work.

Those jobs are better suited to a local employee, contractor or relevant specialist.

How should you protect business information when hiring a VA?

A virtual assistant may need access to email, calendars, cloud storage, customer records and accounting software.

But this doesn’t mean giving them the same access as the business owner. You can make changes as and where you need.

Account security

Useful controls for external professionals can be:

• Giving each person their own account
• Using a password manager
• Enabling multi-factor authentication
• Limiting access to relevant systems

Data and access management

Take an extra measure of security by considering:

• Removing permissions when work ends
• Keeping customer data out of personal accounts
• Recording how incidents should be reported
• Reviewing permissions as responsibilities change

The agreement should cover confidentiality, ownership of work, storage locations and what happens to business information when the engagement ends.

For sensitive data, ask where the VA is based, whether they use subcontractors and whether information may be stored or accessed overseas.

What should you delegate to a VA first?

The best place to start is with work that happens regularly, takes up more time than it should and doesn’t rely on complex judgement.

Start with repeatable tasks

Inbox sorting, calendar management, data entry and appointment confirmations are useful starting points because the outcome is easy to define and review.

Rather than handing over a broad frustration like “help me stay organised”, give the VA a task with a clear routine and boundary.

For example:

Check the shared inbox twice each weekday, answer booking enquiries using the approved templates and flag complaints or refund requests for me.

That gives the VA a clear idea of what to handle independently and when to bring you back in.

Look for tasks with clear boundaries

A useful way to narrow down what to delegate first is to consider:

• Does this happen repeatedly?
• Can I explain the result I want?
• Can it be completed without a high-risk decision?
• Can access be limited to what’s needed?
• Will handing it over genuinely free up useful time?

Tasks that meet most of those criteria are usually easier to delegate without creating extra supervision.

Add more once the process is working

Start with one process rather than handing over several unrelated tasks at once.

Once the VA understands the routine and you’re happy with the result, you can add related work or give them more responsibility.

Bark’s virtual assistant cost guide can help you get a sense of the budget before comparing quotes.

How do you choose the right virtual assistant?

A good brief makes hiring much easier.

List the tasks, likely hours, systems involved and any deadlines or response-time expectations.

Then separate experience that’s essential from tools or processes the person could learn once they start.

Experience and working style

Useful things to look for include:

• Similar work they already handle
• Tools they use confidently
• Availability and response times
• How they manage urgent requests

Security and accountability

It’s also important to understand:

• How they protect confidential information
• Whether any work is subcontracted
• How they record completed work
• What their fee includes
• How the arrangement can be changed or ended

A short paid trial can tell you more about communication and accuracy than another round of interview questions.

Judge the result against the standard you agreed, not whether they complete the task exactly as you would.

Once the scope is clear, you can compare virtual assistants using the same task list so you can see what each quote actually covers.

How should you set up the working relationship?

Even an experienced VA needs some onboarding.

Give access gradually and document the processes they’ll repeat. Screen recordings, checklists and examples can be more useful than one long introductory meeting.

Work and payment

Your agreement should cover:

• Scope of services
• Hours or deliverables
• Fees and payment terms
• Notice and termination

Information and ownership

It should also deal with:

• Confidentiality
• Ownership of documents and content
• Data handling
• Use of subcontractors
• Return or deletion of information

The paperwork should reflect how the working relationship operates day to day.

If a contractor starts working fixed hours, only for your business and under close supervision, the arrangement may need reviewing.

The Fair Work Ombudsman explains the factors that can help distinguish an independent contractor from an employee.

How do you make virtual support worthwhile?

A VA is most useful when they can take ownership of a defined process instead of waiting for isolated instructions throughout the day.

Agree on a regular check-in, decide what needs immediate escalation and choose a simple way to report completed work.

You can track practical results such as enquiries answered, appointments booked, invoices followed up, records updated and work completed on time.

The goal isn’t to fill every hour you’ve paid for. It’s to remove work that keeps pulling you away from customers, staff, delivery or growth.

Start with one responsibility that’s easy to define and review. Add more once you know the arrangement is working and the VA understands where their responsibility ends.

When you’re ready to see who could take that work on, browse virtual assistants on Bark and compare free quotes against the same task list before deciding who to hire.