Enter the virtual assistant, or VA. I caught up with Sophie Zollmann, a Tennessee-based VA who’s been “helping entrepreneurs get out of overwhelm and back to doing what they love most” for 10 years.

Q. What are the most common tasks you do for your clients? Is that common for VAs?
A. The top 3 tasks I do for my clients are project management, email, calendar and social media management and website/blog management. These are common tasks for most VAs. Some VAs specialize in a particular area such as social media while others cover the VA task spectrum. I have a team of VAs working with me to be able to cover as many different tasks as may be needed by my clients and to help as many people as possible.

Q. Is there anything that really doesn’t work as a task to be outsourced to a VA?
A. In general, VAs can do almost anything a client can ask of them. Most VAs will have specific tasks they don’t do for various reasons and therefore don’t offer them. However, it doesn’t mean they cannot be done by another VA willing to do those particular tasks. That’s another way specialization comes into play for some VAs.

Q. What do people not understand about working with a VA?
A. VAs are your partner in business. They’re not just an assistant. They can help you in ways that a regular secretary cannot. One of the biggest advantages of hiring a VA is no overhead. We are independent contractors. You do not have to pay for office equipment, office space or benefits. We take care of all of that. By giving a VA the day-to-day tasks, the business owner can focus on the business itself. That means business growth and higher income potential. Plus, they can have more time for self-care, family and friends.

Q. When it comes to accounting or financial tasks, what do people most often look to VAs for?
A. VAs can set up and maintain a company’s bookkeeping software. We can create reports within that software to help them better manage their money especially the outgoing cash flow part. We can pay their bills, balance their check book, send out invoices to their clients, receive payments, and update their accounts accordingly. We can also manage collections for clients who get behind on their payments. We can research purchases and services they may need to locate the best quality and price before they buy.

Q. What financial tasks do small business owners most overlook, that a VA could help with?
A. Maintaining their books on a regular basis to keep them from a time-crunch situation at tax time each year.

Q. What about you? Do you outsource tasks for your own business?
A. Currently, I outsource the design and maintenance of my website. I also outsource any design changes I make to my Facebook pages as well as logo, business card and stationary design/updates. I have an accountant who handles taxes but I maintain my own books.

For more information about virtual assistants, or Sophie’s business offerings, visit SophieZo.com.

How do I deal with the money I pay employees and freelance contractors who work for me? Are they all considered “payroll”? And what about paying myself? Here are some considerations to help you sort things out.

1. Full- and part-time employees are normally accounted for in your payroll expense.

2. Casual wages (like a one-day employee) can also be handled under payroll, but the general rule of thumb calls for putting hired contractors into an account that represents what they did for you. For instance, the cost of a short-term marketing assistant goes into a Marketing expense.

3. Paying yourself is a little more complicated. If you are in a proprietorship or partnership, when you take money out of your business it is considered an Owner Drawing in the accounting process. One consequence of this is that Owner Drawings, unlike Payroll, don’t reduce your business’ income tax. For instance, if your company earns $100,000, and you pay yourself $50,000, your company is still responsible for the taxes on $100,000. For this kind of business, the owner is responsible for the tax liability of the business regardless of the amount of money they pay themselves.

4. Paying yourself if you’re incorporated is even more tricky. You can treat yourself as a normal employee, but special accounting rules may apply. You could also pay yourself a management fee, or through dividends. In any case, you should consult your local and federal regulations or an accounting professional. This can be complex stuff and we couldn’t possibly cover it adequately here.

To make sure you’re doing things right, please get advice from accounting professional in your jurisdiction. With Wave, the easiest way to do that is to invite your accountant or advisor to be a guest collaborator. You can give them view-only access (they’ll be a fly on the wall and can tell you if you need to adjust something, but they won’t be able to make changes themselves) or edit access (they’ll be able to roll their sleeves up and adjust things themselves). In both cases, you can turn off their access when you no longer need the help. Working with guest collaborators is free in Wave — there’s no charge for you or for them.

A couple of the more interesting points:

1. Some people say “past performance is no indicator of future success,” but Marc Cenedella of TheLadders.com job board says that past performance is precisely the best indicator. Don’t just look at the job title that a candidate once held. Ask the candidate what they accomplished.
2. Be wary of the references a candidate lists. Of course candidates will only list people who like them. See if you can get a few additional names of references from the reference, and track down an opinion from beyond the candidate’s innermost circle of friends.

See the full video (4 minutes) with Candella.

(This entry originally appeared in an earlier version of the Wave Accounting blog for small business.)