How to protect yourself when using a Virtual Assistant?

[Chad Clanton]

Hello everyone, after reading up on VA's and listening to some of the podcasts, I'm considering trying one out first in a personal capacity. I spend ENTIRELY too much time stressing and doing administrative tasks i.e. confirming our (ridiculous number) of monthly bill payments, fixing administrative issues deriving from issues on the part of my bill payees (constant), things of that nature. It seems, though, that in order to do most things (confirm monthly payments through my bank, etc) I would have to share a TON of personal information, and I don't know precisely how comfortable I am sharing my bank passwords and such. Anyone who has used a VA in a capacity wherein the VA needed access to sensitive information, how do you safeguard yourself? I.e. with that much access, say to bank accounts to track payments or compile financial trends, how do you ensure you don't lose everything in your account? Is there some type of guarantee or built in intermediary? Or am I just completely and utterly misunderstanding the whole point of a VA? Sorry for the confused fashion in which this post is written, but I'm not 100% sure what or how to ask. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Mike Nelson]

Chad, I do share some secured and confidential information with my VA's like email accounts but I would definitely think twice about delegating that kind of work where you will have to give someone else access to that kind of sensitive info. Unless of course, the person has worked for you a long time and you have gauged her integrity, if you've come to fully trust someone.

You can outsource most admin and support tasks but if there are monetary transactions and funds or bank accounts involved, you'd want to limit it to where the VA won't need to have access to it.

I understand how those kind of work can eat up valuable time on your part, as well. Maybe what you can do is, hire from a VA company instead. Those agencies that have people work for them and accept clients wanting work to be outsourced. I think these companies have contracts and the workers are managed. Cost may be slightly more but I'm almost sure for not much.

My VA's are freelancers, they work on their own so I wouldn't know of any specific place where to find those but I'm sure there are out there.