Business leaders, small business owners, and many people who have little time need help with running their lives. Because of this, virtual assistants, also known as executive assistants, are in high demand. When securing contracts for administrative support for your new career, you might get carried away. However, you need to ensure that your business has developed a contract to help you manage your work.
In this article, we will discuss how you can create a scope of work template for virtual assistant jobs which help you run your virtual assistant business easier. And as a result, you will spend less time on various administrative tasks and work less. The contract template will save you hours. But we will also discuss how Indy allows freelancers, like virtual assistants, to run their small businesses much more effectively.
Why Write a Virtual Assistant Contract?
While most virtual assistants have exceptional organizational skills, that doesn't mean that the business goals of the client and the virtual assistant are aligned. If neither of you knows what the other's role in the contract is it can lead to a poor conclusion of the task.
The virtual assistant contract allows both parties involved to have clear expectations about the role, the tasks to be done, and the payment schedule. And the virtual assistant contract is a legal document that can ensure that neither party can take advantage of the other.
It also means that payments are made quickly because there is a legal agreement that says how and when payments should be.
In addition, it provides a virtual assistant with the opportunity to generate more revenue if the client requests further tasks to be done that are not in the agreement. A virtual assistant can then detail what charges can be made, based on the time that is spent on the task.
What is Included in the Virtual Assistant Contract Template?
The idea of the virtual assistant services agreement is that anyone could pick up the document and run the service, what the jobs for everyone are, and be able to replicate it without you. There are numerous sections often included in the virtual assistant contract template. These include the following:
Introduction
In the introduction, you are providing the reader with a review of the virtual assistant job description. It should detail very carefully who has responsibility for what task. This will include the name of the virtual assistant, the hiring business, the number of hours or tasks that are to be completed, and general information about the cooperation.
Deliverables
In the next section of the virtual assistant job description contract, you need to list the deliverables which are agreed with the client. For example, you might need to include tasks such as scheduling meetings, monitoring performance on social media platforms, and other day-to-day tasks that are essential for the client.
The section also needs to detail how the virtual assistant is going to maintain the quality of the services that have been delivered, while also working independently from the client. Certain terms might be useful to include in this section such as communicating professionally, and company culture.
There might also need to be a list of the tools that you expect to be able to use. For example, MS Office or graphic design software tools might be required for the role.
Timeline
All virtual assistant contracts should include a timeline. As virtual assistants tend to work for a set number of hours in addition to specific tasks, then the virtual assistant should indicate what hours they're going to be available for, when these are available, and what communication channels are going to be available.
It is also important that virtual assistants demonstrate what they need by what time to complete roles. For example, to complete social media work, or to adjust customer spreadsheets, then you need to specify this inside the document at what point the client needs to supply the right information.
In addition, when scheduling meetings, you might need to determine at what time and information needs to be provided before you can move towards setting up the meeting.
Tasks
Numerous tasks are often required of the virtual assistant. The virtual assistant job description can be very different from one job to job. Therefore, it is important to consider the job description for each client. For instance, for one client you might offer social media management and MS Office work. However, for other clients, you schedule meetings more and manage their email, process legal documents, and more.
Listing these down and who is responsible for them is very important. For this role, it is sometimes typical for a bullet point list to be used.
Resources
Resources are going to be a simple issue when it comes to offering virtual assistant services to clients. For this, it might be best to list some of the tools that you will need the client to offer or give you access to. For example, social media account information, Google Calendar (or other online calendars), MS Office, Google Sheets, and more.
Roles
A virtual assistant can have many responsibilities and these need to be listed within the document. And in addition, the virtual assistant can list all the responsibilities of the client. This can include when the potential client is going to make payments, and who does what job.
For the virtual assistant job description of larger organizations where there might be more than one person to complete daily tasks, the virtual assistant company might want to assign a team player to certain roles.
Management
Management of the virtual assistant role is important. You need to list the person responsible the performance of the contract. In most freelance contracts, this is a combination of the client and the freelance virtual assistant.
All the tasks carried out by the virtual assistant should be checked against the virtual assistant job description. The client should also be included as part of the job description template.
As part of this, the client needs to be provided with a way to cancel the contract. The final payments need to be arranged and details about logins that the client might need.
Signatures
Be sure that you have a section in the virtual assistant job description where both the virtual assistant and client sign to acknowledge they have read the contract, and understand their responsibility and what you're offering.
How Can Indy Help a Virtual Assistant?
When working as a freelance virtual assistant, then you want to spend less time on your administrative tasks and more time as the executive assistant to your client. Indy can help you with that.
Among other useful features, Indy app includes a comprehensive Proposals tool, that will make your proposals pop and get you noticed in the crowd of virtual assistants. With the Tasks tool, you’ll be able to plan all things that need to be done and with the Calendar tool, which integrates with Google Calendar, you will never miss a meeting.
Thanks to handy automation and integrations with external tools you will be able to forget about all those repetitive admin tasks and focus on growing your business. Indy is a tool created by freelancers for freelancers, so why don’t you give it a try!
Conclusion
Creating a virtual assistant job description from a template is important for the successful completion of any task. Using one of the virtual assistant job description templates available from Indy can speed up the process and provide you with specific guidelines and knowledge of the job details. It also helps to set the client's expectations.
Example Virtual Assistant Agreement
Here is a sample virtual assistant job description that you might consider using for your future prospective clients.
Introduction
Virtual Assistant Company A is offering Joe Bloggs support for various administrative tasks that he requires to run his business. The virtual assistant assigned to the task is John Smith, who has a high school diploma and extensive experience as an executive assistant. John Smith will be working for 25 hours a week for the client, completing the basic administrative tasks (taking phone calls, scheduling meetings, etc.) that are listed in more details in the segments mentioned later in the document.
Deliverables
John Smith is contracted to provide a wide range of services that are there to help support Joe Bloggs, saving him time doing some of the daily tasks that are sometimes holding him back from servicing his clients.
Part of the role will include taking phone calls during high-volume hours. They will also be expected to offer email support, create MS Office documents, and upload certain documents to the G suite when required.
On a weekly basis, John Smith's responsibilities will also include social media management on three social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram). There might be times when John Smith is required to help create a job description for open positions.
Timeline
Each week will roughly follow the same pattern. On a Monday John Smith will arrange phone calls for the clients, determining the time and ensuring meeting arrangements are made. They will also create content for all the social media platforms to be used.
The client must ensure that all information that is required for John Smith to complete the contract will be with them by noon on Monday. All work will need to be completed by Friday by noon.
If there are any changes to access information (usernames and passwords) then the client must tell John Smith via email quickly.
Tasks
These are the specific tasks that are part of the virtual assistant job description, as agreed between the client and the company.
- Take phone calls during the busy hours of 10 am and 2 pm.
- Arrange all social media content and schedule it in the social media.
- Offer administrative support for creating documents.
- Uploading documents.
- Help to create job description templates for open positions.
- Editing customer spreadsheets and ensuring accuracy.
- Management of the client's online calendars.
- Checking that Google Calendar is synchronized.
If other tasks are not included in the above list, the client may request them, but there will be an additional charge of $20 per hour, with a minimum addition of $50 to the monthly payments.
The client is expected to do the following:
- Provide access to all tools.
- Provide information to John Smith for social media, meetings, and other information.
- Pay the invoice for services rendered by the 7th of each month.
Resources
Numerous resources are required for John Smith to complete the tasks, mentioned above, as a virtual assistant. For example, the client will need to give all the information that is required to access software and tools that are expected to be used by the virtual assistant.
At the same time, the client will need to provide access to the client's email and a direct telephone connection that will connect to John Smith at the right times.
The costs of any additional licenses, etc. will be paid for by the client and cannot be charged to the virtual assistant.
Roles
There are two roles included within the virtual assistant job description. The first is the virtual assistant. The second is that of the client. John Smith will carry out all services for the client, completing the projects as required.
Should John Smith not be available for the day due to holidays or other absences, then a colleague will complete the work for the client.
The client is responsible for providing the information as has been mentioned previously.
Management
Management of the administrative support services is done so with the manager of John Smith who will do audits and keep communication channels open with the client.
If the client wishes to cancel or make changes to the virtual assistant role, then the client will
need to provide at least 14 days' worth of notice. If they terminate immediately, they will still be charged for the notice period.
