Dreaming of laptop-lifestyle or spending more time with family at home? Considering becoming a Virtual Assistant?
Great!
To succeed as a VA though, you need to be perfectly organised, manage your time well and communicate in a timely and professional manner.
Luckily, there are some (also free!) tools that will help you with the following tasks:
- Communication with your clients - scheduling meetings, free video calls, free chats
- Graphic design - online design tools, stock photo websites
- Project management - assigning projects to your team members/ freelancers
- Time management - time tracking tools
- Social media marketing - post scheduling, creating reportsco
- Accounting & Invoicing
Grab our list of 10 must-have tools for Virtual Assistants to make sure you start off the right foot!
#1 Communication tools
Calendly
The first thing you will need as a VA is probably a tool to schedule meetings with your potential clients.
Calendly is an amazingly simple (free-mium) online tool that allows you to create availability time slots and allow people to choose a meeting time from a link:
It syncs with your Google and Apple calendar and sends you (and the person you're meeting) email reminders to your email - so you never forget a meeting again.
You can set different meeting types (although only one type can be used at a time in the free version).
You can also see all your past and upcoming meetings:
Slack
Once you get hired by your client, how are you going to discuss the details of the projects with them?
Slack is a collaboration tool that allows you to organise your communication into different channels. So - instead of talking to your clients on Messenger and losing track of all the conversations/ deadlines/ files you share, you can create a separate channel for each client and easily find things you've been discussing with them.
Slack is free up to 10,000 messages in the chat history - more than enough for starters - and the paid plans are really affordable too, once you need to upgrade.
Jitsi.meet
When you need to have a meeting with your remote clients, how are you going to organise it?
You need a simple yet reliable video call solution.
My absolute favourite video calling tool that allows you to hold video con calls with as many people as you want without registering any accounts or downloading anything - you simply generate a custom link once (such as https://meet.jit.si/PostfityDemo) and you can share it with anyone you want to invite to the video call.
The tool is basic, but includes the usual functionalities such as chat and screen sharing.
#2 Graphic design tools
CANVA
As a Virtual Assistant, you will need to create a lot of graphics for your clients, especially for social media. That's why graphic design are one of the most important tools for Virtual Assistants.
Canva is one of the most versatile tools for Virtual Assistants. It's an all-in-one graphic design tool that lets you create graphics based on thousands of templates in many formats: for infographics, social media (Facebook/Twitter covers, posts, profile pictures, ads etc.), posters, leaflets, PDFs, presentations, ebooks covers etc.
All templates come in the right dimensions for the different platforms– which saves you time figuring out what dimensions you need for different social media. And if you need to resize your already-created graphic - you have the magic rezise tool in the paid plan.
#3 Project Management tools
Even if you are only just starting out now - before you know it, you will need to collaborate with other freelancers (graphic and web designers, Google Ads experts etc.).
And you will need to make sure that everyone is on the same page regarding deadlines, task allocation, etc.
Email doesn't cut it anymore, and you need proper project management tools.
Luckily - for a small team, they are free!
Asana
Asana is a great tool that allows you to assign and manage tasks with a team of up to 15 people completely for free!
You can toggle tasks, move them around the different stages of completion on your kanban board (assigned - in progress - done), assign them to team members, send them email reminders, and see the work-in-progress either as a kanban board, to-do-list, or a calendar.
#4 Time tracking tools
Toggl
If you're billing your clients by the hour, they will sooner or later ask you for justification of your bills. Better be on the safe side and track your time from day one - set up an online time clock and track how much time exactly you're spending on each task. That way - you will also be more productive and be able to serve more clients, and have a better customer satisfaction.
Toggl is a free online timeclock that allows you to set timers and save the time you spend working on specific tasks, for specific projects, for specific clients:
It's super-easy to use and free for an individual user - perfect for a self-employed VA ;)
TMetric
TMetric is a free time tracker designed to track your time and money and collaborate with clients. But that's not all: the app comes with a great set of features to easily manage your workflow, simplify the processes of billing and invoicing, and generate the most powerful and detailed reports for data analysis and workload optimization.
The free version offers limited functionality, and if you’d like to get access to more features you can grab a paid subscription (the pricing starts at $4 per user per month).
Buddy Punch
Buddy Punch is another excellent employee time tracking app that stands out with its comprehensive range of features. It's designed to cater to both small and large businesses, offering a seamless integration into your current workflow. With the flexibility in tracking time, managing payrolls, and monitoring work hours via user-friendly dashboards and detailed reports, Buddy Punch ensures that productivity levels are maintained at high standards. The mix of free and affordable paid plans makes it suitable for all financial considerations while providing efficiency at every management level.
#5 Social Media Marketing Tools
Postify is a social media planner. It allows you to plan and publish posts - even videos - to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You can queue up to 10,000 posts.
Imagine that you plan your posts one day, and they automatically publish themselves whenever you want. You can be busy having the morning meeting or be out of the town for the weekend, but you don’t need to worry about the posts anymore. If you work with clients from all over the world, you might want to schedule your posts according to their time zones.
You can schedule posts right from the calendar view. From this view, you will also have access to tools that facilitate content creation: Holidays Calendar, Social Tips Calendar and Ideas for posts.
Postfity also allows you to create and manage post drafts. You can also easily send post suggestions for customer approval before posting.
You can try Postfity for 30 days for free. After this time, the subscription will start from $ 9 per month.
Within this price, you get the option to add 15 social profiles and schedule up to 100 queued posts at once. And the following features:
- Accurate post planning (considering time zones)
- “Publish now” – publishing posts immediately to multiple social media accounts
- Built-in image editor
- Browser extension (for Chrome)
- Calendar view
- Ideas for posts and Social Tips Calendar with content, hashtags, and graphics ready to publish
- Facebook covers planning
- Posts statistics
- Link shortening
- Creating drafts
#6 Accounting & invoicing tools
Wave
One of the most must-have tools for Virtual Assistants is an accounting software that will allow you to invoice your clients, make your invoices look professional, and keep track of your income and expenses so you can quickly prepare your accounts for tax purposes.
In my business, I have used Wave Accounting for many years.
Wave Accounting is a free online accounting tool that allows you to track your income and expenses, create and send invoices automatically to your saved customers from the tool, and take credit card payments.
It's online and it's free :)
or...FRESHBOOKS
Alternatively - when your business grows, you may need to upgrade to a more robust tool (which allows you to file VAT returns etc.) Freshbooks offers a full-on accounting as well as time-tracking, with automatic checks and balances to ensure accuracy and compliance. They also provide financial information to help you make better business decisions and facilitate working with your accountant.
Moreover - Freshbooks offers a number of customizable invoice templates that will help you match your brand identity. Here's the link to their invoice templates, many of which are free and can be put directly to use!
Refrens
A cloud-based accounting software. With its quick invoicing and easy-to-use interface, it allows businesses to send professional invoices directly to clients via WhatsApp or email. Automated payment reminders and recurring invoices further streamline the process, reducing the need for manual follow-ups.
Refrens also integrates seamlessly with accounting tasks. Your books are automatically updated based on invoices, expenses, and other accounting documents, enabling you to generate detailed financial reports and stay compliant with tax regulations. Moreover, its multi-user support and customizable roles and permissions help teams collaborate securely, making Refrens a one-stop solution for businesses looking to simplify their financial operations.
Hope this round-up of best tools for Virtual Assistants helps you start your VA career off the right foot - and save time, stress and money! Good luck! :)
