Choose executive assistant support when one owner needs help preparing their inbox, calendar, meetings, and follow-ups. Choose project coordinator support when a defined project needs its actions, dependencies, handoffs, and status records kept visible. The assistant prepares and flags; the accountable owner makes the decision.
Both roles prepare records, follow up on missing details, and raise questions. The difference is where the work starts and who needs to review it.
Use this role for inbox triage, calendar preparation, meeting packets, approved draft replies, vendor-detail follow-up, and a weekly owner brief. The work depends on one owner’s preferences, private context, relationships, and meeting priorities.
Use this role for meeting-action records, task-board upkeep, dependency follow-up, handoff packets, and source-backed status drafts. The work depends on an approved project board, delivery checklist, meeting record, or another defined project source.
A role is ready when its source, output, hold points, and reviewer are visible before the work begins.
The table scrolls sideways on small screens.
| Decision point | Executive assistant support | Project coordinator support | Owner check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work trigger | One owner needs their inbox, calendar, meetings, contacts, or follow-up priorities prepared. | A defined project needs action records, dependency follow-up, handoff packets, or a source-backed status draft. | Does the first reviewable record belong to one owner’s day or to a delivery plan? |
| Approved source | Written calendar rules, inbox labels, meeting preferences, approved examples, and named folders. | A project board, meeting record, delivery checklist, handoff list, and named delivery owner. | Stop if the source cannot support the next priority, status, owner, date, or follow-up. |
| Prepared output | A meeting packet, calendar check, inbox triage record, follow-up list, or owner brief. | An action record, dependency list, handoff packet, blocked-item note, or status-update draft for review. | The reviewer should be able to check the source, held action, and next review without rebuilding the record. |
| Messages and access | Uses named accounts, MFA, narrow inbox or calendar views, and limited folders; prepares drafts and routes sensitive messages. | Uses named, limited project records to prepare action lists, handoffs, and drafts; the owner approves commitments and sending. | An authorized owner approves permissions, message rules, and any calendar or delivery change. |
| Held actions | Stops for calendar priorities, relationship-sensitive replies, personal commitments, spend, legal matters, hiring, private employee issues, and final commitments. | Stops for scope, priority, delivery dates, staffing, budget, client commitments, acceptance, release, and final project decisions. | Preparation work does not carry executive, delivery, access, or commercial authority. |
| Early evidence | Calendar checks, meeting packets, follow-up lists, held questions, and an owner brief show what needs review. | Source links, named owners, open dependencies, held statements, handoff packets, and status drafts show what needs review. | Add work only when the owner can see what was prepared, held, and routed. |
This is a house planning sequence, not approval to change an owner’s priorities, a project delivery, access, customer promise, or business outcome.
Decide whether work begins with an owner’s inbox, calendar, meeting, or follow-up list, or with a defined project board, meeting record, handoff, or delivery checklist.
List the owner’s written preferences or the project’s approved records. Do not treat assumptions as a source.
Name the packet, brief, action record, status draft, or follow-up list the reviewer will inspect.
Keep priorities, commitments, money, hiring, access, scope, delivery dates, staffing, budget, acceptance, release, legal wording, and customer decisions with accountable owners.
Check real outputs, held questions, corrections, and reviewer time before adding another workstream, more volume, or broader access.
Choose executive assistant support when meeting preparation, calendar conflicts, inbox sorting, and follow-up depend on one person’s priorities and private context. Start with one inbox, calendar, or meeting-prep lane. The owner keeps priority calls, commitments, and sensitive communication.
Choose project coordinator support when actions, dependencies, handoffs, and status updates are hard to trace. Start with one approved project board or meeting record. The assistant can keep the trail visible; the project or delivery owner still decides scope, timing, acceptance, and release.
An executive meeting may create project actions, but the work should not become one broad coordination role. Use executive support for the owner’s calendar, meeting preparation, and private follow-up. Use project coordination for the project record, shared actions, handoffs, and status preparation.
Document one approved source, prepared output, named reviewer, held action, evidence location, and recheck. Then decide whether it belongs to one owner’s day or a defined project record.
Open the briefName the account owner, permissions, review date, blocked rights, and removal steps before access opens for an inbox, calendar, folder, or project record.
Open the access checklistKeep source facts, a held claim, the reviewer, send authority, evidence, and recheck together before an owner approves wording.
Open the update recordNo. Executive support prepares work around one owner’s inbox, calendar, meetings, and follow-up priorities. Project coordinator support prepares action records, dependencies, handoffs, and status drafts for one defined delivery record. Both roles prepare evidence, but the sources and reviewers differ.
Use executive support when the follow-up belongs to one owner’s meetings and priorities. Use project coordinator support when it belongs in a shared project action record with named owners, dependencies, and a delivery review path.
Possibly, after each lane has separate sources, outputs, owner reviews, permissions, and stop rules. Start with one documented lane instead of using a combined title to cover private context and delivery coordination.
They can prepare drafts from approved information. Final messages that add a commitment, delivery date, scope, result, commercial term, or sensitive detail need accountable-owner approval and may be sent only under documented authorized-send rules.
It should show that the assistant used the approved source, prepared the stated output, paused held decisions, and left a record the owner can inspect. Expand only after the reviewer can check that work without reconstructing it.
Start with a source, a reviewable output, a named owner, and a written stop point. Then decide whether the work belongs to an executive context or a defined project record.
Use OutsourcedU to write the role, SOPs, onboarding steps, and weekly review before you hire more people.