Industries

Virtual assistants and remote staff for Australian trades and home services

You're on the tools all day, then quoting at 9pm. Jobs get booked in the ute, invoices go out late, and half your quotes never get a follow-up call. That's where the money leaks.

What does a trades virtual assistant do?

A trades virtual assistant answers job enquiries, books work into your schedule, chases quotes, orders materials, invoices completed jobs and follows up unpaid accounts. They work inside your job management software, such as ServiceM8 or SimPRO, and keep your day rate booked out while you stay on the tools.

The admin that eats your week

Enquiries that go to voicemail

You're under a house or up a ladder when the phone rings. By the time you call back that evening, they've booked the next mob who picked up. Speed to answer decides who wins most residential jobs, and you're losing on it every day.

Quotes sent and never chased

You write the quote at night, email it, and move on. Nobody rings three days later to ask if they've got questions. A decent chunk of your quoted value sits there going cold, and you'd never know which ones you could have won.

A schedule built in your head

Jobs get moved by weather, parts delays and a customer who isn't home. Every change means texts, calls and a rebuild of tomorrow. When it lives in your head instead of the system, your team turns up to the wrong address.

Invoicing that runs two weeks behind

The job's done and the invoice sits in the pile. Then payment terms start from a late date, and you're funding materials out of your own account. Nobody's chasing the 60 day debtors either, because that job also lands on you.

Roles we place in trades and home services

Job booking and dispatch assistant

  • Enquiries answered and booked while you're on site
  • A schedule your crew can trust the night before
  • Reschedules handled without a chain of texts
  • Job cards loaded with photos, notes and access details
Virtual Assistant

Quote follow-up and sales support

  • Every quote followed up on a set rhythm
  • Cold quotes flagged before they disappear
  • Won and lost reasons recorded so you can price better
  • Warm callbacks booked straight into your diary
Sales VA

Accounts and invoicing VA

  • Invoices out within a day of job completion
  • Supplier bills matched and coded in Xero
  • Overdue accounts chased politely and consistently
  • A weekly cash position you can actually read
Virtual Assistant

Customer service VA

  • Every call and web enquiry answered the same day
  • Arrival windows confirmed so nobody's waiting at home
  • Complaints logged, owned and closed out
  • Review requests sent after every completed job
Customer Service VA

Local marketing assistant

  • Google Business Profile kept current with real job photos
  • Service area pages and listings kept accurate
  • Seasonal offers pushed to your past customer list
  • Lead sources tracked so you stop guessing what works
Digital Marketing Assistant

Operations executive assistant

  • Your inbox triaged before you get to the first job
  • Supplier and subbie coordination off your plate
  • Licences, insurances and renewals tracked with reminders
  • Weekly numbers put in front of you without you asking
Executive Assistant

The software your team already runs

We hire for the systems you use, and we test on them before anyone starts. If you run something else, say so on the call and we'll scope it.

ServiceM8

Books jobs, builds job cards with photos and notes, sends quotes and converts completed jobs into invoices.

SimPRO

Maintains schedules, cost centres and project stages, and keeps material and labour entries current against each job.

Tradify

Handles enquiry to quote to invoice, chases approvals, and keeps the job list clean so nothing sits half finished.

AroFlo

Manages compliance forms, timesheets and job progress for larger crews and multi-stage commercial work.

Xero

Reconciles payments, codes supplier bills and runs the debtor chase list every week.

What stays with you

An offshore team member runs the business around the work. They never touch the work itself.

  • Licensed work stays with your licensed tradespeople. Always.
  • Certificates of compliance and any certification paperwork are issued and signed by the licensed person who did the job.
  • On-site decisions belong to whoever is standing there. Nobody remote makes a call about a live board, a gas fitting or a structural change.
  • Final sign-off on completed work is yours.

That boundary is the point. Your VA clears the space so your licensed people spend their hours on licensed work.

Compliance and data

Your offshore team member is employed through our Philippines entity. You don't set up a foreign entity, you don't run PH payroll, and you're not directly engaging a contractor overseas and hoping the classification holds up. We handle the employment relationship, statutory obligations and local requirements at that end. You direct the work.

That structure matters for trades because the alternative most people try is paying an individual overseas by bank transfer with no agreement in place. It's cheap right up until something goes wrong, and then the risk is sitting on your desk. Employer of Record puts a proper employment relationship behind the person doing your admin.

On data, the concern in trades is customer detail and access. Your VA sees home addresses, gate codes, alarm details, key locations and payment records. We use managed devices, VPN access and signed confidentiality agreements, and we scope system access to what the role actually needs. A booking assistant doesn't need your bank feed.

Read how the structure works on our EOR and COR page, and the risk and compliance guide for the detail behind it.

We're writing up named trade client stories now. Until they're published, ask on your strategy call and we'll arrange for you to speak with a current client running the same setup. See our client reviews.

Frequently asked questions

Can a virtual assistant answer my trade business phone?

Yes. Your VA can take calls on a diverted line during set hours, qualify the enquiry, quote from your price list where you've approved one, and book the job straight into your schedule. You set the script and the rules on what they can commit to. Anything outside that gets flagged to you rather than guessed at.

Will they know how to use ServiceM8 or SimPRO?

We hire for it. Candidates are tested on the platform you run before you meet them, and the ones who reach you have used it in a trades or field service setting. If your setup has quirks, and most do, we document those during the prep work so your VA is working your way rather than a generic version of it.

What time do they work if they're in the Philippines?

Your hours. Manila is two to three hours behind AEST depending on daylight saving, so a standard Australian trade day is a normal shift for them. Early starts are common and easy to staff. If you want phones covered from 6.30am, we scope the role that way from the start.

How do they handle customer payments and card details?

Through your systems, with access scoped to the task. Most trades clients have their VA raise and send invoices, apply receipted payments and chase overdue accounts, without holding card data directly. Payment capture stays inside your gateway or accounting platform, and we set permissions so the role can do the job without broad financial access.

Is one VA enough for a two-truck operation?

Usually, yes. Two crews generate enough booking, quoting and invoicing work to fill a part-time role comfortably, and often a full-time one once quote follow-up and debtor chasing get done properly. We scope the hours against your actual job volume on the call rather than selling you a full-time seat by default.

What happens if the person doesn't work out?

If they don't meet the standards we agreed within 60 days, we replace them at no extra cost. More usefully, the setup is built so a replacement isn't starting from scratch. The processes, job scripts and system access are documented, so a new person steps into a defined role rather than into your memory.

Get your evenings back

Book a call and we'll map which part of your week to hand over first, and what it takes to run it properly.