Executive assistants may be a lifeline when it comes to staying organized, but they can also be a valuable asset to keep your finances on track. As an extension of your office, an executive virtual assistant can be a huge help with the organization and management of your budget. Financial tracking is one of the many ways an EVA can make your life easier on a daily basis and at key points throughout the year such as tax season.  

As always, establish expectations up front. An EA can’t replace a financial professional, but they can be very useful when managing finances. Think about the following questions. Are they simply storing receipts for you or also tracking and reporting them? Are they helping to track your personal purchases in addition to company expenses? Do they have a corporate card and are they authorized to make purchases without approval? Once the scope of their responsibilities is determined, connect your EA to your finance office and make sure they are given access and training to any financial software or internal systems. 

Here are some key ways you can optimize budget management with the help of your Executive Assistant.  

Delegate daily budget tracking and reporting to your EA. 

Most assistants are perfectly positioned to track budgets. They likely already have the records of travel expenses, supply orders, subscriptions, and business dinners. Your EA can continually input these purchases into a shared spreadsheet, freeing up time for you to focus on other tasks. These spreadsheets are a great way for you to see the state of your finances at a glance. Additionally, passing the responsibility of receipt reconciling to your EA will free up your valuable time at the end of each month. 

Use your EA to streamline financial communication. 

EAs can also serve as a liaison between you and your finance team or any external financial professionals. They can answer questions from your accounting department about specific expenses or take notes during meetings with financial advisors and help track any action items discussed. As in all things, they can manage a large portion of the back-and-forth communication that happens with these parties, to free up time in your day and space in your inbox. 

Use your EA’s project management skills.  

EAs can also help manage budgets for specific projects or events. As they facilitate scheduling and email exchanges, they can be a gatekeeper to help you keep track of where a project’s budget is going. Often, they are already managing catering, reservations, and supply ordering for events. Wrapping expense tracking in with that will cut down on unnecessary miscommunication or redundancies during the planning process. 

Be prepared for tax season. 

While tracking your daily finances, your EA can also be a huge help in preparing for tax filings. They can gather and sort invoices and help track down any missing receipts or paperwork. They can facilitate communication with your internal accounting team or external financial advisors. Additionally, as part of managing your calendar they can help keep track of filing deadlines, the status of returns, and any outstanding payments. 

Are you looking for help in keeping your finances organized year-round? Book a consult with us today to find out how an executive virtual assistant can improve your business! 

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Happy New Year from Ann Albrecht Consulting! As we begin 2025, our team has been thinking about New Year’s Resolutions for the remote worker, on and off the clock. 

As virtual executive assistants, we know that a healthy work-life balance is just as important as a well-managed inbox. Therefore we’re starting 2025 fresh by organizing our desks and our minds to make this our most successful year yet. Here are some resolutions to help keep things on track: 

Clean out the inbox! 

Taking the time to clean out your inbox will let you start the new year with a clean slate. Moving forward, keep unread emails to a manageable number by processing messages as they come in. Use folders to sort emails by category and priority. You can also use filters to clear out emails you don’t need to read. And if your inbox is clogged with spam, search by the word “unsubscribe” to find and delete the junk all at once! 

Improve Password Protection 

If you’ve been putting off sorting out your password situation, now is the time. Using a variation of the same password for everything is unsecure. Set up a password manager, like 1Password, LastPass, or Google Password Manager so you don’t have to remember every password in your life. And make sure you don’t have them written down anywhere else for someone to find – use this year to make cyber security a priority. 

Establish and stick to routines 

Especially when working from home, it’s important to create structure within the unstructured workday. Don’t simply follow an endless random to-do list: intentionally create and stick to a routine. Schedule time to work on specific tasks or projects. Additionally, set personal deadlines ahead of due dates to keep on top of deliverables. Being consistent with scheduling will help you stay on top of things at work and make your day less stressful on and off the clock. And speaking of schedules… 

Prioritize personal time 

A work-life balance is essential for your mental health and will improve your productivity during work hours. Assess what parts of your personal self-care have been lacking and shift focus accordingly to where it’s needed. Establish stricter nighttime routines to prioritize getting enough sleep regularly. Be more diligent about logging off at the end of the workday and allowing yourself to be present in your personal life. Whether you spend time with friends and family, read something just for fun, or head to the gym, remember to find space for “me-time” and enjoy your hours away from the desk. 

Whatever your resolutions, we hope you have a wonderful year. Our team looks forward to continuing to provide exceptional support in 2025.

Happy New Year. 

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The end of the year is just a few weeks away, bringing with it a hectic schedule for many of us. Between holiday parties, final budgets, end of year donations, project deadlines, and personal obligations, closing out the year is often incredibly stressful. As executive assistants we know just how busy December can be. But we also know how important it is, for both your business and yourself, to take a step back when you can and find ways to de-stress.  

Now is a good time to remember some of the basic practices for self-care at your desk. Start with the 20-20-20 rule. For every 20 minutes of staring at your computer screen, stop and look at something 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. This will alleviate some eye strain and help you to break out of the tunnel vision of staring too long at a project. It also helps once every hour to stand up and move a bit. Walk to the kitchen for a cup of coffee or do some light stretches before sitting back down. Don’t wait until January 1st to reinstate some healthier habits at your desk – start now!  

End of year parties can fill you up with heavy foods and leave you feeling lethargic. This is a good time of year to focus on preparing healthy lunches for the work day. Salads aren’t just for summer, you know! Meal prepping can help you to feel organized and on top of things, in the midst of a chaotic work week. Drinking lots of water will also help balance out all those extra office cookies. Keep a full water bottle handy. Refill it when you take a break to stretch and try to drink water instead of snacking between meals.  
 

Meanwhile, this is the time of year for reflection. In between your daily tasks, schedule time to look at the big picture. It’s important to take a strategic look at your business practices and ask yourself – What has worked well? What can be refined? What systems need to be completely overhauled? Consider what practices could help you better manage budget tracking or inter-office communications in the new year and prepare to institute them. This is a good way to close out the year neatly and enter 2025 confidently prepared for the year ahead. 
 

And finally, step away from your desk, look away from your email, and enjoy some time with friends and family.  
 

Happy Holidays from all of us at Ann Albrecht Consulting. We hope you get some rest and relaxation so you can feel rejuvenated for the year ahead.  
 

See you in 2025! 

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