The Most Important Virtual Assistant Tools For Smooth Business Process Outsourcing

 

The Most Important Virtual Assistant Tools For Smooth Business Process Outsourcing

Hiring a virtual assistant has become common practice, and business owners are investing in software that helps them save time and money.
But some of that effort and money often ends up wasted because business owners invest in the wrong tools that don’t allow them to effectively manage VAs.

Through many years of experience with managing large teams of VAs, we have come up with a great list of productivity tools that will make your life much easier.

Below we list 15 of the best virtual assistant software packages.

Our Recommended Virtual Assistant Software Tools

Many of these tools have a free version available and they cover functionality for time tracking, social media management, and project progress.

1 – Trello

Trello is an easy-to-use online organisational tool that allows virtual assistants to monitor everything that is being done, however big or small the project is.

Trello’s excellent “cards” function allows the virtual assistants to see the overall picture. You can attach files to the cards as well as write notes and add a checklist.

You can also see the cards under individual lists. This allows the business owner to see how far your virtual assistant has got with each task, and enables you to effectively manage your working day or prioritise individual projects.

There is a front and back end to each card. The front part of the card displays icons giving you a mini overview of the info on that card. The back end of the card displays full detailed information relating to the project it is assigned to.

2 – Hubstaff

Another excellent bit of software for tracking time is Hubstaff. It allows you to see how much time your virtual assistant has spent on each task you have set. It goes into details, such as how many keyboard strikes and mouse clicks they have made.

It also has the functionality to display screenshots randomly so you can check what your virtual assistant is working on at any given time.

Time is money, right? With Hubstaff, you can pay your virtual assistant through their timesheets which are linked to Paypal. This way, you know that you are paying them for the exact hours they have worked.

Hubstaff also has an excellent dashboard system that allows you and your team to see a full overview of all the important projects your company is undertaking. A nice feature on the dashboard is you are able to see when each member of staff is online and what tasks they are performing.

3 – Slack

Slack is known to be one of the leading VA software tools. Slack is ideal for communicating within your company and makes emailing redundant.

Slack also allows group chats between your employees who work through subject-related channels.

Business owners turn to Slack due to its ease of use for virtual assistants, which allows them to easily converse with people in all departments through a company.

Virtual assistants can be included in any group chat by management. This saves wasting time trawling through a clogged-up email inbox and social media posts.

Slack allows you to send and receive files and documents even when you are not in the office. This allows you to stay in touch with your virtual assistants when you are in a business meeting offsite.

The high-quality video calling functionality allows for client communication with multiple clients at any given time.

4 – Flock

Like other project management tools, Flock is one of the leading tools for virtual assistants to help the business owner keep a close eye on the progress of a project.

Flock also enables you to speak directly to your virtual assistants in online group chats or private chats through its control access.

As one of the leading tools for virtual assistants, Flock can allow VAs to schedule reminders, create lists of things they need to do, and also send and receive voice notes. All these functions are ideal for social media marketing.

5 – Velocity

The Pivotal Tracker is one of the standout features of the project management software tool Velocity. The tracker can measure how much time your VA is taking to perform any given task. This is good to use for virtual assistant training.

The software will gauge how long a project will take to complete based on the speed your staff is working at. It acts like a time doctor, which means you can move the deadlines if you can see you are ahead or behind schedule.

As with most things in business, it comes down to trial and error to see what works best for you. Velocity allows the business owner to set different timescales and deadlines that only they can see without interrupting the project’s workflow.

This is a good feature as it allows management to see if their workers could be more productive on any given task.

6 – MS Teams

Microsoft Teams is a world-leading virtual assistant software platform that used to be called Skype for Business before its name change.

MS Teams allows you to make video audio calls to people within your company and clients outside your office space. Your VA can also use MS Teams to arrange any meeting you may need to schedule. This means they can schedule meetings easily.

Microsoft ecosystem is commonly used throughout many companies, which makes using MS Team easy as it integrates seamlessly.

MS Teams also acts like many other file storage apps in that it allows easy file sharing between its users.

Seamless file sharing is a real standout feature.

In addition to performing basic tasks, MS Teams has advanced features like the WhoBot feature allows VAs to gain any information they may require about anything or any person working within your organisation at a click of a button.

7 – Zoom

Zoom saw its profile boom thanks to the worldwide pandemic, which saw many people turn to online tools to help them interact with loved ones during periods of isolation.

Zoom’s world-leading software allows easy-to-use video conferencing, which enables the user to contact other users anywhere in the world to hold business or personal virtual meetings.

Virtual assistants can carry out group chats with anyone from inside or outside the business and also hold webinars.

It also can provide virtual conference rooms. Zoom is a must-have for businesses and the general public alike thanks to having a clear audio system, high definition video output, and screen sharing functionality.

The security features on Zoom, such as a secure user ID system along with waiting rooms and passcode, give the user peace of mind. So Zoom is a great tool for you to use for all your audio and video calls.

8 – Google Meet

Google Meet can handle basic tasks as well as is an excellent tool for making video and audio calls. The software started life as Google Hangouts but soon became Google Meet.

Holding virtual meetings with clients is fairly easy as you can conduct video calls whenever needed.

Google Meet also allows the user to share links and share your screen, which is handy when conducting a business account meeting.

Adding live captions to your video presentation calls makes it far easier to get your point across to clients.

Thanks to their high tech software-generated programming systems, all these features are unique to the Google workspace.

9 – Asana

Asana can be a little bit tricky to get to grips with at the start, but it is worth pursuing because it has a lot of cool features which are available in the free version.

Business owners can organise their time to suit their needs thanks to the time tracking features of Asana. The task management and scheduling tools will help you with all elements of your business, including when you want to schedule social media posts for all your social media accounts.

Each user can be assigned a certain task depending on what part of the business they work in. For example, both the social media manager and the VA will be able to use this software.

As the business owner, the free version still allows you to hide information from your team, making it a good project management tool for your virtual assistant business.

10 – Celendly

Calendy is proving popular with those in the virtual assistance field as it enables your VA to schedule meetings with clients easily, even when they operate in different time zones.

All you need to do is send your Calendy link to your client. From here, they can decide which time is best suited to all for your upcoming virtual events or other meetings.

You don’t have to stress about getting the time difference wrong, as with Calendy, the time is displayed in whichever time zone the person you sent the link to is in.

You can also set time buffers, scheduling notices, and daily meeting limits, which means your time is managed properly.

Small businesses love that you can accept credit card and Paypal payments, which makes it easier to keep a watchful eye on all the payments your company receives through sales. This also helps when generating sales leads as it can automatically track income.

11 – Google Calendar

When it comes to tools for VAs, business owners jump at the chance of using a free software tool. If you have a Gmail address, then you will have Google Calendar free to use as well.

G Suite helps you manage your dairy, as well as your business schedule, and thanks to it being easy to use, your VA will also enjoy using it.

Being able to prioritise which task you need your VA to perform first will only help with time tracking, which always helps a company stay on top of everyday demands.

The colour-coded system within Google Drive Calendar makes it simple to spot which events are upcoming so that you can plan accordingly.

In addition to this, you can also share your calendar with other staff users. This is made easy as it syncs nicely with Google Docs and Google Drive.

12 – ProofHub

We all need to keep track of time during each working day, and ProofHub allows you to do this when managing projects. You can set customised workflows and also make sure that every team member is doing the tasks assigned to them by using the chat facility.

Different charts can be easily displayed whenever needed so that you can see if your project is going to plan.

ProofHub also keeps a close watch on the costs of your project to ensure you come within budget. This is seen as a good financial tool and the most popular accounting software because if your project is going over budget, you can change the limits if needed.

13 – GoToMeeting

Video conferencing platform GoToMeeting, or GoTo for short, is a web-hosted service created by LogMeIn.

Users from small business owners to large companies can conduct team conferences as you can share whatever is on your desktop.

You can also reach out to future clients, customers, and fellow work colleagues in real-time, thanks to it being Internet-enabled.

14 – Chanty

When using Chanty, your VA can use an inbox feature to transfer data, files, and message archives from other platforms, namely Slack and Flock. It is easy to switch between each tool if and when you need to.

Chanty works well with many worldwide leading apps. This means your social media scheduling is made easier. Life is made easier when dealing with your different social media platforms due to fast file sharing and a high capacity for storage.

You can also archive messages and data for when you need it at a later date. This feature is not always available on other tools.

15 – Yast

Yast is a tracking platform that is known for being simple and effective. For example, with just one click, you can manage your time by starting and stopping it.

The timeline is colour-coded and allows you to easily see which projects have taken up most of your time. The software also allows you to input a team member’s email, which will share a timer with them so that they don’t miss their deadline.

With Yast, you can also manage your timesheets easily by saving them as a CSV file, Excel, or PDF. Printing reports can be done for each team member or printed as one team report.

Your time totals and subtotals for your users are displayed on your dashboard. We think the best feature of Yast is it can track time on your mobile.

Keep Your Virtual Assistant Work Organised

All these tools, which can also be used as social media management tools, will help you to get the best out of your workers, including your VA.

They are all designed to help your business become more time and cost-efficient.

And while project management, communication, and time tracking tools can make things a lot easier for your relationship with a VA, you can also outsource a lot of that effort to a vendor company.

Contact us today to find out how we can help you hire, train, and manage teams of VAs so that you can get on with the dollar-productive tasks in your business.

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