Hiring a virtual assistant: what to delegate first

A good virtual assistant (VA) can give you back hours every week. The leaders who get the most from one usually start small, document as they go, and set up access properly from day one. The ones who struggle tend to hand over everything at once, or nothing at all, and share their personal passwords in a text message. This guide walks through what to delegate first, how to find and onboard the right person, and how to give access without putting your business at risk.

Step 1: Find out what to delegate

Before you hire, spend one ordinary week writing down what you actually do, roughly in 30-minute chunks. Then sort each task into one of these groups:

Group	Examples	Delegate?
Repetitive and rules-based	Scheduling, inbox sorting, data entry, invoice chasing, updating spreadsheets	Yes, first
Needs some judgment, low risk	Drafting routine replies, researching vendors, booking travel, preparing meeting packs	Yes, after a few weeks
Needs your judgment or relationships	Pricing, hiring decisions, key client conversations, strategy	Keep, or delegate preparation only
Sensitive or high-risk	Payroll changes, bank transfers, legal documents, firing	Keep, or delegate with strict approval steps

A useful question for each task: "Could I write instructions for this in under a page?" If yes, it is a good early candidate.

Common first tasks

Inbox triage: sorting, labeling, archiving newsletters, flagging what needs you, drafting routine replies for your approval
Calendar management: booking meetings, handling reschedules, protecting your focus blocks
Follow-ups: chasing overdue replies, invoices and approvals
Research: comparing vendors, finding venues, gathering background before a meeting
Admin: expense receipts, travel booking, CRM updates, filing documents
Meeting prep: gathering the agenda, last notes and relevant documents into one place

Step 2: Decide what kind of help you need

VAs vary a lot. Some are generalists, others specialize in bookkeeping, social media, customer support or executive assistance. Think about:

Hours: a few hours a week, part-time or close to full-time?
Time zone: do you need overlap with your working day, or is it fine for work to happen overnight?
Skills: general admin, or something specific?
Tools: will they need to know your project tool, email platform or CRM?

Also decide how you will engage them: through an agency, a freelance platform, or directly. Whether someone counts as a contractor or an employee depends on the rules where you operate. In the US, the IRS has guidance on this (linked below); elsewhere, check with an accountant.

Step 3: Hire for reliability and communication

Skills can be taught. Reliability and clear communication are harder to teach. When you interview:

Give a small paid test task similar to the real work, like "sort these 20 example emails and draft replies to three."
Notice how they ask questions. Good assistants clarify before guessing.
Ask how they handle confidential information and what they do when they are unsure.
Check references if you can.

Step 4: Give access safely

This is the part most people get wrong. A few rules make a big difference.

Give them their own accounts. Wherever a tool lets you invite users, invite the VA with their own login and the lowest permission level that does the job. This is safer than sharing your login and lets you remove them later without changing your own password. See Delegate access vs. sharing a password.

Use delegation for email and calendar. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 both let you give another person access to your mailbox and calendar without giving them your password. See Delegating an inbox in Google Workspace, Sharing a calendar or Shared mailboxes in Microsoft 365.

Share any passwords through a password manager. If a tool has no way to add users, share that login through a password manager's sharing feature, never by email, text or chat. See Sharing passwords safely and Using a password manager.

Require two-factor authentication. Ask your VA to turn on two-factor authentication on every account they use for you. See Setting up 2FA.

Keep an access list. A simple spreadsheet listing every system, the access level and the date granted. You will need it when you change roles or part ways.

Set money rules in writing. For example: "Never change bank details, pay a new supplier or buy gift cards based on an email request, even one that looks like it is from me. Call me first." This protects you both from business email compromise scams, which often target assistants.

Avoid giving full admin rights

It is tempting to make your VA an administrator "to save time." Admin rights usually include the power to add users, change security settings and delete data. Give the access the task needs, and raise it later if there is a real reason.

When the engagement ends, remove access the same day. The team offboarding security guide has a checklist.

Step 5: Onboard with written instructions

Your VA cannot read your mind. For each task you hand over:

Record yourself doing it once (a screen recording with you talking through it works well).
Have the VA write it up as a short checklist.
Review the checklist together and correct it.
Keep it in a shared folder so it improves over time.

Over a few months this becomes a library of how your work gets done. The operations guide on writing SOPs goes deeper.

Step 6: Agree on how you will communicate

Decide early:

Where requests go: one channel (a project tool, a shared task list), not scattered across text, email and voice notes
When you check in: a short daily or weekly check-in
What "done" looks like: what they should report back, and how
What needs your approval: for example, anything sent to a client in your name

A simple system for this is in Working with a VA and AI together.

Common mistakes

Delegating chaos. If your own process is a mess, handing it over just moves the mess. Tidy it first, even a little.
Sharing your personal login. It breaks two-factor authentication, leaves no audit trail and makes offboarding painful.
Not trusting them with anything real. If you only give trivial tasks, you will not get the time back.
No feedback. Short, specific feedback in the first few weeks shapes how they work for years.