Anyone who has ever worked as a virtual assistant knows that managing multiple clients can very quickly turn troublesome. Luckily, modern technology is here to help you. Thanks to various tools for virtual assistants, you can work smarter and get more work done faster.
Today, we’re going to show you the best online tools you can use in your everyday work. What’s best, most of them are available for free!
If that sounds like something you’re interested in, let’s dive straight in.
5 Benefits of Using Tools for Virtual Assistants
The popularity of the virtual assistant’s profession has grown, understandably, with the development of technology. With remote work becoming more and more popular, many people choose this career as an alternative to the standard 9-5 office schedule.
And yet, even though it is the technology that allowed this profession to rise, not every virtual assistant makes the most of it.
Meanwhile, there are quite a few benefits of using tools for virtual assistants.
These benefits include:
- Clarified communications. Emails aren’t always the best way to communicate with your client. Sometimes it’s better to keep track of your conversations in a chat or directly over a project management platform.
- Easier feedback exchange. Discussing work directly where it happens (for example, in a file), makes it easier to exchange comments and add necessary adjustments.
- Simplified billing. With the right tool, you can keep track of what you worked on and for how long. You can later present this data to your client.
- Automating processes. Certain aspects of your work as a virtual assistant can easily be automated, saving you time and hassle.
- Improved client management. With the right tools for virtual assistants, you can improve your work management and the way you handle clients and meetings.
Tools for virtual assistants help you work smarter and manage your clients in a hassle-free way. Each of the applications and platforms we’ll show you in a moment server this purpose.
Let’s take a look at them one by one.
Tools For Virtual Assistants You Should Try Today
Clockify
Clockify is a simple and free way to clock your working hours. If your client requires regular reports from you, Clockify is one of your best options. Its free account gives you enough features to cover all your time tracking needs, from personal productivity tracking to billing numerous clients and projects.
Feature Highlight
- Track time for multiple projects and clients
- Weekly timesheets
- Calendar view
- Overview dashboard
- Reports
- Invoicing
What Can You Use It For?
- Understanding what tasks take most of your time
- Easily invoice your clients
- Send reports for your clocked hours for different tasks and projects
Pricing
Clockify is a free tool, but you can upgrade for some extra features. Premium upgrades start at $3.99/month.
Awesome Screenshot
Awesome Screenshot is a free tool that you can use to capture your screen as an image or a video. Its free version allows you to do basic editing on these captures to share the most important bits of information.
Feature Highlight
- Numerous integrations, including Asana and Trello
- Ability to save screenshots and recordings locally or to the cloud
- Record both screen and your camera
What Can You Use It For?
- Explaining issues to your clients with a video
- Sharing screenshots and recordings to show exactly what you mean
Pricing
Awesome Screenshot has a free plan. Premium plans start at $4/month.
We Transfer
Sending files, especially big ones, through email isn’t always the best option. We Transfer is an alternative that allows you to upload your work online and create safe download links for your clients.
Feature Highlight
- Upload files up to 20 GB (2 GB with free plan)
- Store files on your personals boards
What Can You Use It For?
- Store your work online
- Share big files faster
Pricing
We Transfer has a free plan. Its premium plans start at $12/month.
Wix
Wix is a solution for those who look for an easy way to set up a website, but don’t want to – or don’t know how to – get involved with website hosting and web design. Wix is a intuitive, easy to use webpage builder that allows you to create portfolios and offers without reaching out to developers.
Feature Highlight
- Ready to use website templates
- Domains and hosting
- Ready for blogs, portfolios and more
What Can You Use It For?
- Easy way to display your previous work
- Grow and promote your VA business
Pricing
Wix has a free plan, but its premium plans start at €24.50 /month.
Airtable
You can summarize Airtable as table-inspired database software, but it’s so much more than that. Among all tools for virtual assistants, this one is one of the most versatile ones as it allows you to customize it for whatever you do.
Feature Highlight
- Multiple views for anything you do (calendar, grid, kanban, etc)
- Automations
- Collaboration features
What Can You Use It For?
- Create project workflows for you and your clients
- Create client databases
- Organize work and meetings on the calendar
Pricing
Airtable is free to use, but it has premium plans starting at $10/month.
LastPass
LastPass is a password manager which you can use to safely store your passwords for websites and online accounts, but also to share them with others. Your clients can also share passwords for the accounts they give you access to.
Feature Highlight
- Auto password fill in
- Sharing without showing password to the other user
- Auto-generated, high-security passwords
What Can You Use It For?
- Store safely passwords for all your accounts
- Allow your employees to easily share their software with you
Pricing
LastPass is free to use, but it has premium plans starting a €2.90/month.
Typeform
Typeform is a free and much more aesthetically pleasing alternative to Google Forms. It allows you to easily create questionnaires and collect answers which are then transformed into readable reports.
Feature Highlight
- Create both simple and advanced questionnaires
- Automations
- Multiple integrations
What Can You Use It For?
- Collect information about a project from your client
- Collect contact information about potential clients coming to your website
Pricing
Type form has a limited free trial but its premium plans start at €21/month.
Miro
Miro is an intuitive whiteboard app that allows you to create anything you want: from workflows to mind maps and process charts. It allows simultaneous, real-time collaboration without screen sharing.
Feature Highlight
- Multiple ready to use templates
- Real-time collaboration
- Intuitive and easy to use interface
What Can You Use It For?
- Brainstorming with your clients
- Explaining your process flows
- Collecting ideas
Pricing
Miro has a free plan. Its premium plans start at $8/month.
Calendly
Calendly is a simple and free meeting scheduling software that reduces the pesky back-and-forth email threads. With Calendly, you can schedule meetings by sharing your online availability calendar.
Feature Highlight
- Easy to set up, hassle-free online calendars
- Multiple meeting types are available within the premium plans
- Video meeting integrations
What Can You Use It For?
- Schedule meetings with your clients or leads more easily
Pricing
Calendly has a free plan. Its premium plans start at $8/month.
Signature.email
Signature.email allows you to create a professional email signature for free. The platform provides you with ready templates you can use and modify however you like.
Feature Highlight
- Multiple signature templates
- Ready to use with practically all email providers
What Can You Use It For?
- Create professional email signatures to stand out among other VAs.
Pricing
Signature.email has free templates. You can purchase your signature to keep it forever by paying once. The prices start at $19.
Trello
Trello is one of the most popular project management platforms out there and you’re most likely familiar with it. We, however, recommend it for one particular reason and that is public projects that you can share with your clients so they know where the work stands without sending you emails.
Feature Highlight
- Online Kanban boards that you can preview as calendars and grids
- Easy task collaboration
- Full project management features
- Public visibility settings
What Can You Use It For?
- Create public project boards that your clients can preview anytime without having their own Trello account.
Pricing
Trello is free to use in its limited free form. Premium plans start at $10/month.
Dropbox
Dropbox is Google Drive’s biggest competitor. It allows you not just to share the files and organize them easily, but also collaborate on them right in the cloud.
Feature Highlight
- Device sync
- Advanced security
- Collaboration features
What Can You Use It For?
- Share files and folders with your clients even if they don’t have a Dropbox account.
Pricing
Dropbox has a limited free plan. Premium plans start at €9.99/month.
Filestage
Many tools for virtuals assistants give you access to feedback exchange features, but Filestage is all about them. It’s an online platform that allows you to review almost all the most common file formats, from documents to graphics to videos.
Feature Highlight
- Unlimited reviewers
- Attachments
- Versioning
What Can You Use It For?
- Streamline feedback exchange with advanced review features
Pricing
Filestage offers a free trial. Its pricing plans start at € 9/month.
Bonsai
Bonsai is a comprehensive freelance business management platform that equips you with everything you need to run your VA business.
Feature Highlight
- Proposals, contracts and invoicing
- Client CRM
- Accounting
- Task tracking
What Can You Use It For?
- Manage projects and tasks
- Report to your clients easily
- Bill and track time in one place
Pricing
Bonsai has a free 14 days trial. Its paid plans start at $19/month.
HelloSign
HelloSign is one of those tools for virtuals assistants that you should have an account with. It allows you to collect legally binding online signatures for all your contracts and documents.
Feature Highlight
- Signature requests
- Document templates
- Reminders & notifications
- Multiple languages
What Can You Use It For?
- Sign contracts with anyone & anywhere
Pricing
HelloSign has a limited free version. Its paid plans start at $15/month.
IFTTT
IFTTT is a popular automation platform that connects multiple apps in the most creative ways. It allows you to create automations that will make your work easier, faster and well-organized.
Feature Highlight
- Create automations through a library of integrated apps and solutions
What Can You Use It For?
- Create automations that allow you to stay on top of every message, task and notification
Pricing
IFTTT has a free plan. Its premium plans start at $3.99.
Grammarly
Grammarly is a fantastic tool for copywriters, but it also works wonders for virtual assistants – especially if English isn’t your native language. It checks your grammar and spelling in Google docs, emails and online text fields.
Feature Highlight
- Check grammar, spelling in wording online
- Chrome extension that works for online text fields, emails and Google Docs
What Can You Use It For?
- Ensure correctness of all your emails and submissions through online text fields
Pricing
Grammarly has a limited free version. Its paid plans start at $12.00.
Jitsi
Jitsi is a free alternative to Google Meet and Zoom. Driven by a lack of trust towards these two apps, many users switch to Jitsi for its end-to-end encryption.
Feature Highlight
- HD audio & video
- End-to-end encryption
- Remote control of other participant’s desktop
What Can You Use It For?
- Replace Google Meet and Zoom with an open-source solution that requires no account
Pricing
Jitsi Meet is a free, open-source solution.
Team Viewer
Team Viewer allows you more than screen sharing – it enables you to work on your client’s computer and vice versa simply by connecting your devices, no matter how far from each other you are.
Feature Highlight
- Remote access to another user’s device
What Can You Use It For?
- Explain issues and improve communication by working directly on your client’s files.
Pricing
TeamViewer is free for non-commercial use. Commercial use plans start at €29.90/month.
Tools for Virtual Assistants: Over to You
The list above shows you 19 awesome tools for virtual assistants that you can start using today.
Remember: the benefits of using software in business, even a small one such as VA, are numerous. Get started with it now and be more productive in your everyday work!