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Many people go through periods where work unexpectedly gets busy. They may need short-term help just to get through a busy season, or long-term help getting organised or carrying out certain business processes. Not everyone can afford to hire a sub-contractor or PA, which is where virtual assistants can be an excellent solution. Hiring a virtual assistant in the Philippines or other overseas area is a cheap, efficient way to get work done. But what can virtual assistants do? The answer is; a lot! Here are 8 tasks that could be potentially outsourced.

1. HR & Payroll

Lots of HR and payroll tasks can be long and repetitive. From data entry to CV screening, finding candidates, and organising timesheets, virtual assistants are helpful for those having issues keeping on top of HR work.

2. Data entry

Data entry clerks need to be fast and reliable, and it can be hard to find people to stick to this repetitive job in the long-term. That’s why many companies outsource these roles, and may use services such as a virtual assistant in Perth to get the job done more efficiently.

3. SEO

There are many SEO tasks such as link building that can be very time-consuming, and generally search engine optimisation (SEO) professionals don’t want to deal with these jobs. Hiring a virtual assistant means that there’s no need to pay a full-time employee for these sorts of tasks.

4. Social media

Although social media sounds like a fun job, many companies find it hard to get employees to work on social media in the long-term. It involves a lot of out of hours’ work, and can be quite tedious after a while. Using a virtual assistant means that businesses can get 24/7 cover for their Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts.

5. Accounting

Smaller companies may not need their own dedicated accounts team, so will look for an accountant on sites such as http://www.bpovirtualassistant.com.au/, as this is cheaper than hiring someone to come into the office part-time.

6. Call answering

Most customers now expect phone lines to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Employing a team of receptionists on a rota can get expensive, which is why it makes more sense to hire a virtual assistant to answer the phone after 5PM. Usually, this simply involves diverting the calls before leaving the office.

7. Credit control

It can be difficult for small businesses to survive if invoices aren’t paid on time. Companies who don’t have their own credit control personnel might want to hire a virtual assistant to keep track of the money coming in, and to chase up unpaid invoices.

8. Diary management/e-mail organisation

Directors who run small companies might not be able to afford their own PA, but a virtual assistant can do similar tasks remotely, allowing them to get organised and on top of their workload.

With so much work now done online, virtual assistants can offer a huge range of tasks to various businesses. Because they work flexibly and from home, they’re much cheaper to employ, and there’s none of the commitment of hiring a permanent employee, so they’re suited to smaller firms.