Setting up with Released is simple. We usually start with a free 15-minute Discovery Call, during which you can find out more about our services and decide whether they are right for your business.

We then send you some official paperwork - (digitally of course) to sign and make the relationship official. This proposal outlines our costs, structure and the details of our ts and cs.

Once you’ve decided to jump on board, we give you a little bit of homework - an onboarding form to fill in and a link to book your onboarding session. This lets us gather all the information we need to get you started working with Released.

We have virtual assistants based all over New Zealand and are proud to hire locally. Currently, our team is spread across Auckland, Christchurch, Waikato, Timaru, and Wanaka.

All of our work is done online or over the phone, so we can do it from anywhere in Aotearoa.

Our official hours of operation are between 9am and 5pm on weekdays. However, hours of availability are up to each individual VA.

Most of our team are flexible according to the needs of their clients, and we can generally find a match for any (reasonable) availability requests.

Absolutely! This is one of our most-requested services! We have some customer service whizzes on the team and will happily contact our clients’ customers to make, change, and discuss bookings, schedule quotes, follow up after jobs, and anything else you need.

We have an awesome VOIP phone system that enables our clients to forward all their calls or just selected ones to our team to answer. You can even port your landline or 0800 number to us permanently and ditch that phone completely!

As Released is dedicated to hiring New Zealanders, you can rest assured that you and your customers are in the best possible hands—and that the VA on the other end is always up for a banter with no barriers to communication. We’re Kiwi as.

If you’re an administrative whizz, familiar with Xero, skilled in areas like bookkeeping, customer service, training, or digital marketing, and looking for flexible work with a great company, head to our About page and click the link to complete our expression of interest form. We’re always looking for our next virtual assistant star!

We offer 3 main services to our clients: Administration, Bookkeeping & Marketing. You can find out about each of these in more detail on our services page.

We also provide franchise system training, Squarespace web design, Job Management System set ups and refining and a range of graphic design services.

A virtual assistant is a business support professional who works entirely online. Tasks include business administration and other related services—take a look at the services listed in the question above for more!

A personal assistant is more, well, personal—usually employed to attend to the needs of an individual which may include managing their schedule, procuring food and drink, handling their communication, and other personal services. This usually requires in-person contact.

An executive assistant is an administrative professional who supports the day-to-day functioning of either an office or a single high-level executive. They work closely with senior management in a corporate environment, generally in an office setting.

Using a New Zealand VA agency rather than an individual virtual assistant allows you access to a wider range of expertise. Our clients can draw on our wider team should they need help in a different service area—for example, a client that usually requires solely bookkeeping and customer service may need ad-hoc design and copywriting services when redeveloping their website, and we can seamlessly provide these. No need to spend time searching for and getting to know other contractors!

Having a team to draw on is also very helpful when your dedicated VA is sick or goes on holiday. You can read more about that in the following question…

We can cover sick and holiday leave seamlessly thanks to our POD system.

Our Virtual Assistants are all part of smaller teams that work closely together and are familiar with the same software tools. This means that there will be another VA waiting in the wings to step in and cover the tasks you need done whenever necessary.

As mentioned above, we have a vast and varied pool of talent to draw upon in the Released team. If your Virtual Assistant can’t complete a task, chances are they can either learn or pass it on to someone else with skills in that area.

Privacy and confidentiality for our clients and their clients is a top priority for the Released team. One tool we use to ensure the security of your passwords is NordPass, a secure password manager.

Most of the data we have access to will be stored in your own cloud database, which our team will access remotely using whichever method is mutually agreed to.

Job management software is used to help tradies, service-based businesses, and anyone else to quote, track, manage, and invoice tasks. Job management platforms use the cloud to store information, making it easily accessible to anyone who needs to see it or make any changes or additions.

Good job management software is a fantastic tool that can replace huge amounts of paperwork and cut down significantly on time spent on administrative tasks. It enables the business to have a complete overview of each job as well as the overall outstanding tasks.

Each job management software is unique, but a good job one will include features like the ability to create quotes (from a database of products and services), to track and add notes to jobs, to assign people to jobs and manage team members, to schedule tasks, to track costs, to create invoices, and to create reports with business insights.

There are several other helpful functions that may be performed by your job management platform, depending on which one you choose to use.

Your job management platform should make most aspects of administration easier, from the initial planning and scheduling of a job to sending the invoice.

The right job management software should make it much easier for you—and your team—to stay organised.

Each business has unique needs; the variety of job management software available means that there is likely to be something that fits your requirements available. Different platforms have different strengths.

NextMinute offers lead management capabilities and integrates well with Xero and many other types of software. Fergus is specifically designed for plumbing and electrical tradies and has many targeted features that will appeal to that market. ServiceM8 has a comprehensive pricing schedule with affordable lite options for businesses that don’t need the full suite. Builda Price specialises in costing, quoting, and finance management for builders. You get the idea!

We have a series of blogs for several of the most popular job management platforms. We suggest that you consider exactly what you need from your software and do a little research before making a decision. Most programmes a demo or free trial of some kind to help with the decision-making processing or you can consult our expert Sister Company FreeUp

Simpro is billed as an “all in one field service management software”, and it’s a firm favourite for some of our clients. It can:

Create estimates and quotes.

Schedule and dispatch.

Create invoices.

Manage inventory.

Provide detailed insights and reports.

For more details and thoughts on Simpro from some of our experienced virtual assistants, take a look at our Simpro review blog post.

While not a job management software, Xero is a crucial tool for so many small businesses in New Zealand and around the globe. This widely-used cloud accounting software makes it easy to stay on top of your financial administration. It makes it easy to:

Reconcile transactions.

Send invoices.

Prepare GST returns.

Claim expenses.

Pay bills.

Track projects.

Manage payroll.

Accept payments.

Store files online.

Manage inventory.

Xero also integrates beautifully with a huge range of other products including job management software.

ServiceM8 calls itself “smart job management for trades and services”, and that’s a pretty accurate description. This helpful tech tool can:

Manage jobs and staff.

Create quotes and invoices.

Take records for quality control.

Streamline client communication.

Complete safety forms electronically.

For more details about how ServiceM8 works and some advice from Lucy, an experienced VA who works with the platform, take a look at our ServiceM8 review blog post.

Fergus is a Kiwi-owned platform designed and created by tradies, for tradies. This specialised digital tool is ideal for small trade businesses and is widely used by our plumbing & electrical clients! It can:

Quote and schedule jobs.

Track the progress of projects.

Manage tasks and teams.

Create and send invoices.

Create performance and financial reports for business insight.

To find out more about Fergus and get an opinion of the platform from a virtual assistant, check out our Fergus review blog post.

Builda Price is a simple, effective job management platform for builders. It is a fantastic tool for its specific niche—helping builders to price and track projects of all kinds. It can:

Price construction projects quickly and accurately.

Keep track of the financial aspects of a job.

Collect timesheet information from your team.

Designed by two New Zealanders with 60 years of experience in the construction industry, it’s well known for its ability to accurately price and track job costs.

Ascora is billed as job management software that’s easy to use for tradies. It is used across an array of industries, and it can:

Manage customer relationships.

Schedule, quote, and invoice jobs.

Store photos and other notes relevant to jobs.

Track inventory.

Track equipment and assets.

Collect signatures.

Unlike broader job management software, Deputy has a specific and narrow focus: scheduling! Ideal for businesses with people working in shifts, it can:

Schedule shifts quickly.

Capture time worked.

Streamline communication with teams regarding scheduling and leave.

Integrate with payroll providers.