50 admin tasks you can offshore safely

The hardest part of delegating admin is often just seeing what's delegable. Once you list it out, most of the work clogging your week can move to a dedicated assistant. Here are fifty concrete tasks, by area — use it as a menu.

Inbox and communication

Inbox triage and labelling, drafting and sending routine replies, flagging priorities, managing your calendar, scheduling meetings, sending reminders, handling RSVPs, monitoring a shared inbox, chasing responses, and managing your contacts list.

Data and documents

Data entry, updating spreadsheets, formatting documents, preparing templates, proofreading, converting files, organising shared drives, maintaining records, building simple reports, and transcribing notes.

Customers and suppliers

Responding to routine customer emails, logging queries, following up on quotes, sending order confirmations, chasing missing information, updating customer records, handling supplier correspondence, processing simple orders, managing returns admin, and sending statements.

Finance admin

Raising invoices, chasing overdue invoices, logging expenses, reconciling simple accounts, preparing payment runs for approval, filing receipts, updating the bookkeeping system, processing supplier invoices, sending payment reminders, and basic credit control.

Research and CRM

Market and competitor research, building prospect lists, finding contact details, updating the CRM, logging sales activity, cleaning pipeline data, qualifying inbound leads, scheduling follow-ups, preparing meeting briefs, and compiling research summaries.

Operations and projects

Coordinating diaries across a team, booking travel and accommodation, managing project task lists, chasing deliverables, preparing recurring reports, maintaining SOPs, onboarding admin for new hires, ordering supplies, managing subscriptions, and handling general back-office tasks.

The pattern

Notice the common thread: these are repeatable, process-driven, system-based tasks — exactly what a dedicated assistant absorbs well. The judgement-heavy work stays with you; the time-consuming execution moves off your plate. Start with the ten tasks that annoy you most and build from there.