Common Duties of An Administrative Assistant

by Kristen White Blogger

If you are starting your own business, there is a lot to know and a lot of decisions to make in regard to who you should bring on board with you in your company’s early stages. If you want somebody that can help with daily tasks that may take up too much of your own time, or want to relegate a set of duties to another person, then there’s always the administrative assistant to think of.

For those who aren’t aware of what an administrative assistant does, here are some common duties:

Answer Customer Questions

Companies that provide a phone number will have it generally leads to the administrative assistant. An administrative assistant will answer phone calls and address questions or concerns that the person on the other end might have. If you often have a lot of clients and customers who want your answers or opinions, then an administrative assistant is one good way to address this problem so that you’d no longer be wasting your time on the phone.

As for email, general email addresses will also go to this assistant, in which he or she will reply at his or her convenience to any question or concerns. Companies normally have both means of communication, with phone service being the faster means of communication, and email allowing you to provide more details at a later time.

With a virtual administrative assistant, the phone number you provide should go to their phone so that they can answer any call that comes in. This, however, also means that you wouldn’t have any phone number that goes to your own office, so consider whether or not you want your phone duties to permanently go to a virtual assistant.

Book Appointments

While on the phone or via email, your administrative assistant can also schedule appointments for customers, clients, and patients, whether they are looking to see you or another person who works for you. Administrative assistants will also remind anyone involved of upcoming appointments and can also reschedule and cancel appointments at your command.

Virtual assistants can email you your schedule for the day so you have the right times for who to see and when. You can count on them to keep a calendar of appointments for not just you, but other employees, too.

Generate Reports

Administrative assistants also use computer software to create general financial reports. They record how much money you make, how much is spent, and how much is saved every month or three months, as a means to record long-term financial progress. Administrative assistants will either do this task with spreadsheet software, word-processing software, or specialty software. They will report to you to review your financial earnings and expenses so that you can plan a course of action for what to do next.

Virtual assistants will typically have their own software where they can create financial reports, and these reports will typically be emailed or faxed over to you for review.

In this day and age, these are the common tasks that an administrative assistant does. They work to serve not just business owners, but also clients and customers who want their needs addressing.

Fortunately, you won’t have to hire an administrative assistant, so long as you have yourself a virtual administrative assistant. Virtual assistants can do around the same set of jobs as a regular assistant, only that they’ll work for you from another location. These assistants offer you flexibility so that they have time to work even when it’s during your after-hours. Consider a virtual assistant today for around-the-clock help.