What does a virtual assistant do? 50 tasks
What a virtual assistant does, in 50 real tasks across inbox, calendar, customers, books, sales and social, plus what to keep yourself and how to hand work off.
By Anyro, founder of StaffPickPublished 4 min read
Contents
- Inbox and calendar
- Travel and personal admin
- Customers
- Money (support, not decisions)
- Sales support
- Marketing and social
- E-commerce
- Research and data
- Hiring and team admin
- Projects and operations
- What to keep yourself
- Generalist or specialist?
- How a VA works with you day to day
- How to decide what to hand off first
- Questions people ask
- Sources
A virtual assistant is a remote assistant who does the routine work that keeps a business running: email, calendar, customers, admin, and often a specialist area such as bookkeeping or social media. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics sums up the in-office version as "routine clerical and organizational tasks", from answering phones to "basic bookkeeping". A VA does the same, from anywhere, in your tools.
Here are 50 real tasks, grouped the way most businesses hand them off, plus what to keep yourself.
Inbox and calendar
- Sort the inbox into "needs you", "handled" and "waiting on someone".
- Draft replies for you to approve, then send approved ones.
- Unsubscribe and filter the noise.
- Book meetings and send agendas.
- Resolve calendar clashes and reschedule.
- Prepare a one-page brief before each important meeting.
- Take notes and send follow-ups with owners and dates.
- Track your deadlines and remind you two days ahead.
Travel and personal admin
- Research and book flights, hotels and transfers.
- Build a day-by-day itinerary with confirmations.
- Manage renewals: domains, subscriptions, insurance.
- Order supplies and gifts.
Customers
- Answer routine questions by email and chat with approved replies.
- Process returns and refunds within limits you set.
- Chase unanswered tickets and keep the help desk tidy.
- Request reviews from happy customers.
- Collect feedback and summarise it monthly.
Our customer support page covers this as a dedicated role, and outsourcing customer support explains the options.
Money (support, not decisions)
- Send invoices and chase overdue ones.
- Log bills and receipts.
- Categorise transactions for your bookkeeper.
- Prepare a weekly cash summary.
Full bookkeeping is a specialist role: see what a bookkeeper costs and our bookkeeper page.
Sales support
- Research prospects and build lead lists.
- Keep the CRM up to date after every call.
- Send follow-up emails from your templates.
- Book meetings for you from inbound enquiries.
- Prepare proposals from a template.
Phone prospecting is its own job: see what an appointment setter does.
Marketing and social
- Schedule social posts from your content calendar.
- Reply to comments and messages, and flag leads.
- Turn one long piece into short posts.
- Format and send your newsletter.
- Update the website's simple pages and product listings.
- Pull a monthly report of what worked.
For a dedicated hire, see what a social media manager costs.
E-commerce
- Upload and update products and prices.
- Process orders and track shipments.
- Answer pre-sale questions.
- Watch stock levels and flag reorders.
Our e-commerce page covers this as a specialist role.
Research and data
- Research suppliers, tools or competitors and summarise options.
- Clean and dedupe spreadsheets and contact lists.
- Enter data from forms, PDFs or receipts accurately.
- Build simple dashboards in Sheets or Excel.
Hiring and team admin
- Post job ads and screen applications against your criteria.
- Schedule interviews.
- Prepare onboarding checklists and accounts for new starters.
- Keep the team's shared drive organised.
Projects and operations
- Run your weekly task list in a project tracker.
- Write and update process documents (SOPs) as they learn the work.
- Chase colleagues and suppliers for updates.
- Coordinate events and webinars.
- Keep a log of logins and renewals in a password manager.
- Send you a short end-of-day update: done, in progress, blocked.
What to keep yourself
- Decisions that commit money, such as approving payments, discounts or contracts.
- Professional advice: legal, tax and financial advice belong with qualified professionals.
- Anything that needs a licence, such as showing property in most US states. Our real estate VA guide explains where that line sits.
- Your relationships with your biggest clients and your team. A VA can prepare and follow up; you stay the person they deal with.
Generalist or specialist?
A generalist covers the first ten categories and costs least. A specialist (bookkeeper, social media manager, video editor, developer) costs more per hour but needs less checking in their area.
| Route | Published price |
|---|---|
| Freelance VA on Upwork | $10–20 an hour typical, from past contracts worldwide |
| Full-time VA in the Philippines, hired direct | $480–900 beginner, $800–1,100 intermediate, $1,200–2,000 expert, a month (OnlineJobs.ph, April 2026) |
For every role and country, see how much a virtual assistant costs or use the cost calculator.
How a VA works with you day to day
The arrangements that last share a simple rhythm:
- A shared task list in one tool, so nothing lives in chat messages.
- A weekly plan you agree on Monday: the priorities, the deadlines and anything new.
- An end-of-day note: what got done, what's waiting on you, and what's blocked.
- Agreed response times for messages during their working hours.
- Written processes for repeated tasks, which the VA updates as they improve them.
How to decide what to hand off first
- For one week, write down every task you do, roughly how long it took, and whether it needed you.
- Circle the ones that are repeatable and that someone else could do from a written note.
- Hand off the three that take the most time first, with a short written process for each.
Then follow the steps in how to hire a virtual assistant.
Our virtual assistant page shows tested VAs, the tools they know and what they charge.
Questions people ask
What does a virtual assistant do day to day?
A typical day is clearing and sorting your inbox, keeping your calendar straight, answering routine customer questions, updating spreadsheets or your CRM, and working through a task list you agree each week. Specialist VAs add bookkeeping, social media, sales support or e-commerce work.
What skills does a virtual assistant need?
Clear written English, fast and accurate typing, comfort with common tools (Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, a project tracker, a CRM), good judgement about what to flag, and reliability: doing what they said, when they said.
How much should I pay a virtual assistant?
On Upwork, virtual assistants typically charge $10 to $20 an hour, from past contracts worldwide. A full-time VA in the Philippines reports $480 to $2,000 a month on OnlineJobs.ph (April 2026), from beginner to expert. A specialist costs more than a generalist.
Can AI replace a virtual assistant?
AI tools handle drafting, summarising and scheduling suggestions well. A VA does the parts that need judgement and follow-through: chasing people, handling exceptions, keeping systems tidy and noticing when something is off. Many VAs now use AI tools to do more in the same hours.
Sources
Each figure in this guide comes from one of these pages, checked on 27 Oct 2026. Prices and rules change, so open the source before you rely on a number.