Frequently Asked Questions

We’re routinely on the lookout for virtual assistants that are resourceful, detail-oriented, proactive, extremely organized, and have excellent communication skills. For a complete listing of open positions, please visit our Careers page.

A virtual assistant can help you with marketing, executive assistance, bookkeeping and, if you’re an attorney, paralegal work. Need to create an email campaign? We’re on it. Manage your calendar? Sure thing. Track your expenses? Done.

Getting started with your assistant is easy!

1. Tell us about your business, the projects you want your assistant to work on, and the skills you require.
2. We will send you a detailed bio of the best assistant for your needs and, if you prefer, you can schedule a one-on-one interview with them.
3. Sign up for the monthly plan that works best for you.
4. Schedule your kick-off call and start working together. We will also introduce your client experience manager, who will be your point of contact for any questions, concerns, or billing changes you may have.

Our VAs work 9 am – 6 pm, Monday through Friday. Our virtual assistants work across the country and, wherever possible, we match you with an assistant in your time zone. If the virtual assistant’s time zone differs from yours, we will let you know.

Our virtual assistants are employees, and yes, it matters! While freelancers can be a good option for one-off projects, a virtual assistant or team can provide the best solution for ongoing projects and support.

Yes, after a candidate submits their resume, we ask them to provide extensive additional information regarding their experience. If we determine that the virtual assistant is a match, we conduct two rounds of interviews, conduct reference checks, and run a background check.

Our assistants are specialists in their field. We don’t hire generalist jack-of-all trades. Your marketing work is done by professionals with marketing backgrounds, administrative work is done by experienced executive assistants, and our paralegals have worked at established firms from “Big Law” to boutique. Further, all our virtual assistants are college graduates, with bachelor’s degrees from accredited universities.

All our virtual assistants are employees who sign non-disclosure agreements to safeguard client technology. Virtual assistants are also required to comply with Equivity’s IT policy, and we audit assistants to check compliance.

We provide Microsoft Office licenses to our virtual assistants, allowing you to share documents via OneDrive or Sharepoint, as well as provide existing credentials to cloud-based applications or create user credentials for them. There are VPN and other remote login options available if you have a server. We also use LastPass to securely share passwords and Windows Defender to protect employees from potential threats when they use Microsoft Office.

When do you need to start? Based on your needs and projected start date, we will match you with one of our virtual assistants who has the skills you need and can start when you need them. It generally takes about 2 days for our team to determine the best assistant for you, and then all you need to do is sign up.

For our annual plans you can use your hours anytime throughout the duration of the plan. Marketing Manager plans do not renew, and hours can be used up to 365 days from the date of purchase. If you are purchasing a monthly plan, hours don’t roll over from month to month, so we suggest that you conservatively estimate how many hours of assistance you will need before selecting a plan. If you need additional hours, you can upgrade at any time.

For monthly plans, you are billed on the day that you sign up and then billed again every 30 days thereafter. For example, if you sign up on March 14, you will next be billed for your plan on April 14. If you upgrade your plan before the end of the 30 days, your billing period will reset from the day of the upgrade. To use the same example, if you upgraded your plan on March 30, the next date that your credit card would be charged is April 30. Your card will be automatically charged each month unless you cancel your plan by phone or email.

For annual plans, and marketing manager plans, you are charged for the entire amount of the plan upfront and then have one year from the date of purchase to use the hours. You can use your hours at anytime during that 365-day period.

We offer plans for virtual assistants and virtual paralegals in increments of 5, 10, 15, 30 and 50 hours per month. Marketing assistant plans vary by service. You can pay monthly or purchase an annual plan at discounted rates. Simply visit our plans and pricing page, sign up for the package of your choice and that’s it!

We have a portal where you can see which projects your virtual assistant has worked on and how long it takes. A time report in CSV format is also available. You can discuss time reporting, check-ins, and the best ways to communicate with your assistant during your first call. Many of our administrative assistants use external time clocks. You can also request that your assistant send you weekly updates on what they have completed, what they require approval for, what they will be working on, and how many hours they have worked.

Nope. We only require that the user be a member of the account owner’s business and would be qualified to sign up for their own plan under our Terms of Use. If they satisfy these requirements, the account owner only needs to inform the virtual assistant of the new user for them to be able to use the service.

Not a problem! If you run out of hours, upgrade your plan. If you’re on a monthly plan, you will have 30 days from the time of your upgrade to use your newly purchased hours.

We understand that business changes. There is no startup fee, and you can increase or decrease your plan at any time. Let us know if you need an assistant with flexible availability! Once you           are working with your assistant, just let your client experience manager know if you need to change your plan and we will make it happen. 

No. Plans go month to month.

Because our virtual assistants are based in the United States, have at least a bachelor’s degree, and have prior experience. We also prioritize customer service, assigning you a Client Experience Manager to ensure you get the most out of your account. Finally, we believe that investing in our virtual assistants results in more engaged virtual assistants who are more likely to help clients in the long run.

Yes! Your assistant can manage customer inquiries, set up conference calls, schedule appointments, and more.  While we’re happy to make calls to assist with your administrative, marketing, and paralegal needs, we do not make sales calls or cold calls.

While we can certainly make outbound calls on your behalf, we do not provide receptionist services. However, our clients are offered discounted rates on a variety of services, including virtual reception services, whose skilled virtual receptionists will answer your calls with the perfect mix of friendliness and professionalism.

We will work within your systems, as we do not provide systems for you to use and want you to have absolute ownership of the systems used to run your business. We encourage you to provide access to the software you are currently using in your business for marketing. Many clients find that providing their virtual assistant with an internal email address makes it much easier to grant access. We also use LastPass password protector for sharing emails and passwords with your assistant

We have a streamlined process for attorneys to begin working with a virtual paralegal.

1. Complete our online intake form to tell us about the practice area(s) and types of duties you firm needs, as well as any other information you believe will help us find the best match for you.
2. We will send you a detailed bio of the best paralegal for your needs, and if you prefer, you can schedule a one-on-one interview with them.
3. Choose a plan that works for you. No long-term contracts and you can increase, decrease, or cancel your plan at any time!
4. Schedule a kick-off call with your paralegal and Client Experience Manager or start working directly with your paralegal right away.

Because our virtual paralegals are experienced, they will be experienced in your practice area. However, if your office has specific procedures, your paralegal will charge the hours that they need to learn those procedures to your account.

Many attorneys bill out their virtual paralegal’s time to their clients at a rate that exceeds their cost, meaning the virtual paralegal is actually a profit center for them. While each attorney needs to make sure that they can bill clients for paralegal’s work in their jurisdiction, we’re happy to share with you what sorts of tasks are billable.

We have a large pool of professionals on hand and can usually provide a replacement paralegal.

Before you sign up for our services, we learn about what type of projects you need assistance with. Based on that information, we select the paralegal with the right skills for your needs and share their bio with you. You can then schedule an interview with your paralegal. After the interview, you can decide whether to move forward with purchasing a plan.

On average, our paralegals have remained with us for over a year and many paralegals have worked with us for much longer than that, having assisted the same clients for many years.

Equivity has a ready-to-go team of paralegals who have been thoroughly vetted, including reference and background checks. We handle everything from payroll taxes to workers’ compensation to background checks, and our paralegals have years of experience in their field.

Unlike other paralegal companies, we offer scalable plans that allow you to increase your hours as your firm grows. You can even add more paralegals as the need arises. Equivity also provides a Client Experience Manager who will help you get the most value out of your plan, share important insight on working virtually and check in to see that your paralegal is performing up to your expectations.

Equivity does the hiring for you. We have a dedicated team of recruiters who have experience hiring dozens of paralegals.  Not only do we take care of the recruiting, but we also take care of payroll taxes, workers comp, and other expenses.

While we don’t offer a test assignment, we offer five-hour paralegal plans for only $295/month.  Use those hours to give the paralegal a test assignment. If the paralegal does a good job, you can expand your plan. If not, you can cancel.

We provide our virtual paralegals with a license to Microsoft Office, so you can share documents via OneDrive or Sharepoint. However, to the extent that you use specialized applications, for example, practice management software like Clio or Westlaw for research, you will need to provide your paralegal with access.

We will work within your systems, as we do not provide systems for you to use and want you to have absolute ownership of the systems used to run your business. We encourage you to provide access to the software you are currently using in your business for marketing. Many clients find that providing their virtual assistant with an internal email address makes it much easier to grant access. We also use LastPass password protector for sharing emails and passwords with your assistant

We can help! Tell us what you want done, e.g., how many blogs a month, how many posts to social media, and we can help you select the right plan.