An offshore executive assistant handles your inbox, calendar, travel, follow ups and the small admin that keeps you from deep work. The arrangement works best when you give them clear rules for what they can decide alone, overlap a few working hours with you each day and start with two or three recurring jobs before handing over everything. Full time assistants through delegateit start at $1,500 a month.
Founders tend to hire an executive assistant one of two ways. Either they wait until they are drowning and hand over everything in a panic, or they hire someone and then never quite let go of the inbox. Both end the same way, with a capable person doing very little and a founder who decides that assistants do not work for them.
The good news is that the fix is mostly process. The person you hire matters, of course, but the way you set up the first month matters just as much.
What an executive assistant actually does all day
The job description for an EA is broad on purpose. In practice most of the work falls into a handful of buckets.
The biggest one is usually email. A good EA reads everything first, answers what they can, files what does not need you and puts a short list of things that really need your attention in front of you once or twice a day. We wrote a whole post on inbox management with a virtual assistant because it is the single most valuable thing most founders hand over.
The second bucket is calendar. That means scheduling meetings, protecting focus time, sending agendas and moving things when your day blows up. The third is follow up. Your EA tracks what you promised to people and what people promised you, and nudges both sides.
After that comes the long tail, things like booking travel, preparing for board meetings, handling expense reports, ordering gifts for clients and chasing contracts for signature.
Offshore vs local for this role
The main argument for an offshore EA is cost. A local executive assistant in a major US city is a serious salary plus benefits, and a dedicated full time offshore EA through an agency costs a fraction of that. We break down the numbers in what an executive assistant costs.
The argument against is usually time zones and context. Your EA in Manila or Cebu will not be able to pop into your office or pick up your dry cleaning. Some founders need that kind of help, and if you do, a local hire is the honest answer.
For most of the work above, though, physical presence does not matter. Email and calendars live online. What matters is judgment and responsiveness, and you can get both remotely if you set it up well.
Making the time difference work
The Philippines is twelve hours ahead of New York for part of the year and thirteen hours ahead for the rest, because the Philippines does not observe daylight saving time. That sounds like a problem until you think about what an EA does.
Many founders set their assistant up to work US hours, which a lot of Filipino professionals already do. Others prefer a split where the assistant works overnight for you, clears the inbox and preps your day, then overlaps with you for two or three hours in your morning. You wake up to a sorted inbox and a written brief, which is honestly a nicer way to start the day.
There is more on the options in working across time zones with a Philippines based assistant. The short version is to pick a schedule on day one and write it down.
What to hand over first
Do not hand over everything in week one. Start with two or three jobs that repeat often and have clear rules. Calendar scheduling is a great first job because the rules are easy to explain and mistakes are cheap to fix.
A sensible order looks something like this.
- Calendar scheduling for external meetings
- Inbox triage with a daily summary
- Follow ups on open threads and proposals
- Travel booking and expense reports
- Drafting replies for your review, then sending routine replies directly
Each step builds trust for the next. By the time you get to the end, your EA knows how you think and you will be more comfortable letting go.
Write down your decision rules
The single most useful document you can give an EA is a list of decision rules. These are the answers to questions they will face every day.
Who gets a meeting with you this week, and who gets pushed? What do you never schedule before 10 AM? Which clients get an immediate reply, even on weekends? Which newsletters can be unsubscribed from without asking? How much can they spend on a client gift without checking with you?
You do not need to write this all at once. Start with ten rules and add one every time your EA asks a question. After a month you will have a playbook that would take a new hire weeks to absorb any other way. If you want a format, our post on how to delegate tasks has a simple template.
Security basics for an EA
An executive assistant needs access to sensitive things. That is the job. Use delegated access in Gmail or Outlook instead of sharing your password. Use a password manager for any shared logins. Turn on two factor authentication everywhere and decide in advance which approvals stay with you, like wire transfers or contract signatures.
None of this is about distrust. It protects both of you if an account is ever compromised.
Signs it is working
After about six weeks you should notice that you are spending less time in your inbox, that meetings show up on your calendar with agendas attached and that fewer things fall through the cracks. If none of that is happening, look at the setup before you blame the person. Usually the assistant does not have enough access, enough rules or enough of your time to learn.
If the setup is solid and it is still not working, it may be the wrong fit. That happens. Our guide on switching virtual assistants covers how to change without losing a week.
What it costs at delegateit
A dedicated full time assistant starts at $1,500 a month for roughly 160 hours. Part time starts at $900 a month for roughly 80 hours, which suits founders who mainly need inbox and calendar help. If you need someone with deeper specialist skills on top of EA work, specialist plans start at $2,200 a month. Details are on our pricing page.
Questions founders ask about offshore executive assistants
Can an offshore executive assistant work US hours?
Yes. Many assistants in the Philippines already work US business hours. You can also choose a split schedule with a few hours of overlap each day.
Should my EA have access to my email?
Yes, through delegated access rather than your password. Delegated access lets you remove them at any time and keeps a cleaner record of who did what.
How long until an executive assistant is fully trained?
Most founders see real relief within two to three weeks. Getting to the point where your EA anticipates what you need usually takes two to three months.
What should an offshore EA not handle?
Anything that needs someone physically present, like errands in your city. Many founders also keep final approval on payments and contracts with themselves.