8 Tools That Personal and Executive Assistants Should Know About

As a Personal Assistant or Executive Assistant you are probably the go-to person and have to wear many hats in your role. Whether it’s managing multiple calendars, booking travel or processing expenses, your to-do list may seem never ending. Because we know just how busy you are, we have researched the best tools and software available on the market to make your life that bit easier.

Below are our top picks of tools that will help PAs and EAs with anything from multitasking to recognition and more!

Tools For Multitasking and Organisation

Monday.com

A user friendly and visually pleasing project management software which allows you to organise your work, set goals, add checklists, due dates, collaborators and much more. This tool is excellent for teams who are working remotely, however, would also prove useful when back in the office. It will allow you to assign tasks, know who’s doing what and track progress. Depending on what package you choose, Monday.com also gives you access to helpful integration and automation tools. In a survey recently undertaken by Snacknation, over 1,273 Executive Assistants voted Monday.com as their favourite project management tool. Monday.com are currently offering a free trial, following this, package prices are based on the number of users and what features you are looking to have access to.

Toggl Plan

Toggl plan is another easy to use, visual project planning and execution tool which will help you to keep on top of your work and help you be more productive with your time. Toggl plan helps you plan work using drag-and-drop timelines and Kanban boards, allowing you to add detailed instructions to tasks, add comments and include file attachments. You can also add tack checklists which allow you to ensure even the smallest details aren’t forgotten about. This software makes it really easy to communicate and collaborate with your team, so it is perfect for those companies still working remotely. Another great thing about this software is the fact that it is free for up to 5 users, so if you are a small team that tend to work closely together, you get all this for free!

Tools For Recognition & Engagement

Bonusly

Bonusly helps HR, team leaders, bosses and small business owners create engaging environments by putting recognition in the hands of those closest to the work. With an extensive digital rewards catalogue, Bonusly minimises the time needed to turn recognition into interesting perks. With this software you can make recognition more impactful by connecting it to your company’s core values and giving visibility to everyone’s contributions, as well as building a scalable culture of recognition by empowering everyone to recognise their peers, direct reports, and managers. Furthermore, Bonusly allows you to encourage frequent and timely recognition by integrating with the communication tools your employees use every day.

Kazoo

Kazoo is an employee experience platform that provides you with all the tools you need to engage your team. This simple and easy to use software allows you to manage employee recognition, rewards, engagement surveys, company and employee insights, and more. There are three very useful features on this platform that may go a long way in helping you and your company. The first is the performance management tool, this allows you set goals and OKRs, schedule check ins with line managers or bosses to discuss goal progress and feedback, sync up calendars for check ins, give feedback and coaching, as well as talent assessments, useful insights and reporting. The second is the employee recognition and rewards feature, which allows for peer to peer recognition, behaviour bonuses, nominations, awards and more. The final useful tool is the employee engagement feature, which is great for leaders/bosses to shed light on where their team is thriving and which areas need more work. It also enables you to either send out pulse surveys, which are standard survey templates, or custom questions! Again, this software is ideal when teams and companies are still working remotely!

Tools For Scheduling

Calendly

Do you ever feel that you are constantly going back and forth trying to find a suitable time for your Exec and a client or colleague to meet? If so, then Calendly is the tool for you! Calendly enables users to set their availability preferences, and then send out their own personalised invitation link to arrange meetings or appointments. The invitee is presented with a selection of available times and dates based around the user’s availability, and can make their choice from these. Calendly includes suggested meeting lengths of 15, 30, and 60 minutes, but users can create an unlimited number of different event types to suit their needs, set breaks between appointments, and enforce a minimum scheduling notice period to prevent the last-minute booking of meetings. This will save you so much time and will mean that both parties are happy with the selection – it’s a no brainer!

Time Zone Ninja

Scheduling meetings around the world just got easier with Time Zone Ninja! This is a desktop interface that allows you to enter your Exec’s location and the attendees location to find ideal meeting times across different time zones. This is a free service with no log-ins required which will mean you don’t have to constantly check different time zones! What’s not to love!

Tools For Travel Coordination

TripIt

Put all the details of your Exec’s trip at your fingertips! TripIt is a brilliant software which allows you to organise information such as flight details, hotels, restaurants, and car rentals in one place. Incredibly, it even has an automated itinerary feature for sharing key information with your boss. All you need to do is, once you book any travel arrangements, you forward all confirmation emails to TripIt and the tool adds all the details to a master itinerary, it’s as simple as that!

Expensify

Scan your receipt to prompt Expensify to generate and submit a report on your behalf. Expensify even has a feature for capturing travel-related transactions and creating reports to help you track the overall cost of a trip! Expensify categorises and codes each receipt, and automatically submits business expenses for approval and reimbursement. With features like corporate card reconciliation and direct syncs with all major accounting software, Expensify saves time for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

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