Order-status replies, return intake, queue notes, and fulfillment follow-up.
Keep with the ownerKeep refunds, chargebacks, discounts, and customer promises with the owner.
Role directory
Choose an offshore role you can manage well.
Start with repeatable work, clear examples of a good result, and a review schedule you can keep. Compare the roles, then use the linked guide, service, or planning tool to prepare before you hire.
Roles to compare25
Each role links to a practical guide, service, or planning tool.
Planning steps5
Check the role, score its risks, estimate the cost, write the brief, and plan access.
Hiring guaranteesNone
Use the directory to compare and plan roles, not as a promise of salary, savings, or hiring results.
First roles to compare
Pick work you can explain, review, and improve.
For a first hire, favor recurring tasks with clear examples and low-risk decisions. Make sure someone can review samples each week.
Role risk matrix
Start with work that is easy to check.
Compare roles by tool access and review effort. A good first role has repeatable work, limited access, and output you can check without taking over your week.
Low access / light reviewGood first role candidate
Start here when the work repeats often, uses limited tools, and can be checked with a few examples.
Virtual assistant + Content production assistantLow access / heavier reviewDocument examples first
Use this when the work is repeatable, but quality depends on samples, checklists, or source review.
Support assistant + Research assistantMore access / light reviewLimit tools and decisions
Keep access narrow. The owner should still approve customer, pricing, money, or account changes.
CRM assistant + Reporting assistantMore access / heavier reviewDesign before recruiting
Write the role, review steps, pause rules, and owner approvals before a new person touches the work.
Finance admin + Legal adminStart with your business
Find a role that fits your work, then set the limits.
Use this map to move from your business type to a practical role guide. The suggested work is a starting point, not permission to hand over decisions that need owner judgment.
Kickoff prep, setup checklists, ticket intake, and clear escalation notes.
Keep with the ownerKeep scope, security answers, product changes, pricing, and go-live decisions with the owner.
Scheduling prep, intake sorting, approved reminders, and administrative status reports.
Keep with the ownerKeep clinical judgment, patient-data decisions, billing approval, and compliance calls with the owner.
File organization, document checklists, calendar drafts, and billing packet prep.
Keep with the ownerKeep legal advice, filings, deadlines, privilege calls, and final client messages with the firm.
Source-file gathering, invoice intake, exception lists, and close packet prep.
Keep with the ownerKeep payments, bank changes, tax calls, approvals, and financial decisions with the owner.
Listing research, CRM cleanup, scheduling, follow-up reminders, and reporting.
Keep with the ownerKeep pricing, negotiations, contract terms, and client commitments with the owner.
Intake checks, document follow-up, approved reminders, and status tracking.
Keep with the ownerKeep coverage advice, claims decisions, policy changes, and compliance calls with the owner.
Calendar prep, meeting packets, source gathering, file organization, and report assembly.
Keep with the ownerKeep client advice, sensitive replies, pricing, contracts, and final recommendations with the owner.
Compare two roles
See the work, limits, and review load side by side.
Pick any two roles. Your directory filters will not change the comparison.
Choose two roles to compare.
Showing 25 of 25 role paths.
Owner admin
Virtual assistant / admin support
Use for inbox labels, scheduling, CRM cleanup, research, file organization, and weekly reporting.
- Ready when
- The first 5 to 8 tasks repeat every week and can be checked with examples.
- Avoid handing off
- Judgment-heavy customer, legal, hiring, or money decisions.
Executive assistant support
Use for inbox triage, calendar prep, meeting packets, vendor follow-up, draft replies, and weekly owner briefs.
- Ready when
- Inbox labels, calendar priorities, access limits, and owner-review rules are written.
- Avoid handing off
- Private decisions, relationship-sensitive replies, money, legal, hiring, travel changes, and broad inbox control.
Recruiting coordinator support assistant
Use for interview scheduling, candidate reminders, resume tagging, ATS cleanup, onboarding packet checks, and hiring pipeline reports.
- Ready when
- Hiring steps, ATS fields, message templates, calendar rules, and recruiter review points are written.
- Avoid handing off
- Final screening, candidate rejection, compensation, offer wording, compliance calls, background checks, and hiring decisions.
Support assistant
Use for ticket sort, first-draft replies, tagging, refund routing, and help-desk cleanup.
- Ready when
- Macros, ask-for-help rules, and quality review samples are already written.
- Avoid handing off
- Risky replies or refunds that need owner approval.
Ecommerce customer support assistant
Use for order-status replies, return-detail intake, ticket tags, support macros, and daily queue notes.
- Ready when
- Order, return, refund, replacement, and escalation rules are written.
- Avoid handing off
- Refund approvals, chargebacks, discount promises, public complaints, and broad store access.
Ecommerce order and returns support assistant
Use for order checks, return and exchange intake, tracking review, fulfillment follow-up, and clear notes for the decision owner.
- Ready when
- Order cutoffs, return rules, required evidence, access limits, and manager approvals are written.
- Avoid handing off
- Refunds, reships, fraud actions, inventory promises, payment changes, and policy exceptions.
Marketplace operations support assistant
Use for approved listing drafts, seller-console queues, order exceptions, platform case logs, inventory notes, and channel reports.
- Ready when
- Source records, limited permissions, stop points, and merchant approvals are written for one marketplace and one queue.
- Avoid handing off
- Pricing, claims, refunds, appeals, inventory commitments, publishing approval, policy calls, and account ownership.
Procurement operations support assistant
Use for purchase-request checks, quote logs, supplier files, order drafts, delivery follow-up, renewals, and exception notes.
- Ready when
- Buyers, approved suppliers, request fields, approval rules, limited access, and review points are written.
- Avoid handing off
- Supplier selection, negotiation, contracts, purchase approval, bank changes, order release, and payments.
Vendor master data support assistant
Use for supplier intake, required-field checks, duplicate candidates, document follow-up, change packets, and exception reports.
- Ready when
- Supplier fields, source rules, record owners, controlled changes, limited access, and review points are written.
- Avoid handing off
- Supplier approval, tax review, bank verification, record merges, activation, payment release, and record ownership.
Technical support specialist
Use for ticket intake, setup questions, bug notes, help-article replies, and escalation summaries.
- Ready when
- Troubleshooting steps, access limits, and escalation rules are written.
- Avoid handing off
- Security decisions, billing promises, product-roadmap promises, and destructive admin access.
Customer onboarding support assistant
Use for intake checks, kickoff prep, setup checklists, approved reminders, training coordination, account notes, and blocker reports.
- Ready when
- The onboarding path, customer templates, status rules, access limits, and decision owners are written.
- Avoid handing off
- Scope, go-live dates, technical changes, security answers, pricing, renewals, and customer promises.
Operations coordinator
Use for recurring handoffs, task-board cleanup, meeting notes, vendor follow-up, and status reporting.
- Ready when
- Ownership, due dates, approval rules, and the definition of done are clear.
- Avoid handing off
- Ambiguous project management where nobody owns the final decision.
Bookkeeper support specialist
Use for receipt sorting, invoice prep, vendor cleanup, month-end packets, finance trackers, and access logs.
- Ready when
- A reviewer owns final approval, access is limited, and money-control rules are written.
- Avoid handing off
- Payments, bank changes, payroll, taxes, journal entries, and final close decisions.
Accounts payable support assistant
Use for invoice intake, duplicate checks, match notes, vendor-record cleanup, approval packets, and exception lists.
- Ready when
- A finance owner approves invoices and payments while bank, tax, and override fields stay locked.
- Avoid handing off
- Payments, bank changes, tax calls, match overrides, credits, write-offs, and final invoice approval.
Accounts receivable support assistant
Use for approved invoice delivery, aging cleanup, reminder drafts, remittance match prep, dispute packets, and customer billing records.
- Ready when
- A finance owner approves invoices, messages, collection steps, credits, write-offs, and cash application.
- Avoid handing off
- Terms, settlements, cash application, bank changes, credits, write-offs, account holds, and collection decisions.
Accountant support assistant
Use for tax packet prep, close checklists, source-file gathering, report packets, and exception notes for accountant review.
- Ready when
- The reviewer owns tax, payroll, close, journal-entry, payment, and filing decisions.
- Avoid handing off
- Tax advice, filings, payroll, reconciliations approval, financial statements, bank changes, and payments.
Legal admin assistant
Use for intake cleanup, file organization, document checklists, calendar drafts, billing packets, and status notes for firm review.
- Ready when
- The firm has approved examples, limited access, a pause-and-ask rule, and a named reviewer.
- Avoid handing off
- Legal advice, filings, deadlines, privilege calls, final client messages, and money decisions.
CRM / sales operations assistant
Use for lead list cleanup, CRM updates, follow-up reminders, pipeline notes, and simple reporting.
- Ready when
- The pipeline stages, required fields, and follow-up rules are documented.
- Avoid handing off
- Pricing, negotiation, high-context sales calls, and custom promises.
Revenue operations support assistant
Use for recurring source checks, cross-system reconciliation, locked report refreshes, correction logs, and owner exception queues.
- Ready when
- Sources, metric rules, report templates, matching keys, access limits, and the revenue owner are written.
- Avoid handing off
- Forecasts, scoring, routing, pricing, commissions, metric design, and system ownership.
PPC specialist support assistant
Use for paid search reports, search-term notes, landing-page QA, UTM checks, screenshots, and campaign QA logs.
- Ready when
- Report views, access limits, claim rules, and marketer review steps are written.
- Avoid handing off
- Budget, bidding, targeting, tracking changes, launch approval, and final ad claims.
Social media support assistant
Use for approved post scheduling, asset organization, comment sorting, inbox triage, status notes, and first-draft captions.
- Ready when
- The content calendar, approval rules, reply examples, and account access limits are written.
- Avoid handing off
- Brand strategy, final voice, crisis replies, ad spend, public promises, and broad account admin access.
Agency operations support
Use for report assembly, client handoff prep, content uploads, CRM updates, and documented fulfillment support.
- Ready when
- One delivery lane has templates, quality review rules, and a reviewer.
- Avoid handing off
- Putting a new hire between the client and an unfinished process.
Content production assistant
Use for formatting posts, uploading assets, preparing briefs, checking links, and updating publishing checklists.
- Ready when
- The editor owns strategy and final approval, and the assistant has a checklist.
- Avoid handing off
- Handing off editorial judgment before standards and examples exist.
Research assistant
Use for source gathering, list building, competitor notes, data cleanup, and first-pass summaries.
- Ready when
- Source links, duplicate checks, and a pause-and-ask rule are part of the brief.
- Avoid handing off
- Unsourced claims, invented facts, and summary work nobody reviews.
Reporting assistant
Use for pulling numbers, assembling dashboards, checking naming conventions, and sending weekly summaries.
- Ready when
- The metrics, source tools, reporting day, and review owner are defined.
- Avoid handing off
- Asking an assistant to decide which numbers matter without context.
Choose your next step
Pick the check that moves this role forward.
Start with the question in front of you. These four pages help you narrow the role, check the setup, prepare the first task, or ask for help.
These examples can help you plan, but they do not guarantee a successful hire. Fit depends on clear tasks, limited risk and access, and enough manager time for review. Use the offshore review-load map to compare review needs by role. If you know the type of work but not the role, start with outsourcing by function.
Readiness check
A role is ready when someone else can follow the process.
Before you recruit, list the first tasks, show what good work looks like, and name the reviewer. If you cannot do that yet, define the role more clearly before you hire.
- The work repeats weekly or monthly.
- The output can be checked with examples.
- The assistant knows when to pause and ask.
- The owner can review samples without becoming the bottleneck.
Next step
I do not know what to outsource first
Sort tasks by risk, repeatability, review effort, and owner time before choosing a role.
Next stepI have a role idea but no scorecard
Write the outcomes, tasks, tools, trial assignment, and first review schedule before recruiting.
Next stepI need SOPs before hiring
Turn the work into inputs, steps, examples, quality checks, and ask-for-help rules first.
Next stepI already have offshore staff
Improve weekly scorecards, sample reviews, async updates, and manager feedback loops.
Role sequence
Set up the role before you make the hire.
Define the role, score the risks, document the work, and decide how you will review it. Skipping these steps often creates more work for the manager later.
Design the role
Turn a messy task list into one accountable scope with success measures.
Use the scorecard
Rate repeatability, risk, documentation, and review effort before recruiting starts.
Document the work
Give the assistant examples, quality checks, and ask-for-help rules before the handoff.
Install reviews
Use weekly scorecards and sample checks so output improves instead of drifting.
Build your handoff system
Ready to plan your first offshore role?
Use OutsourcedU to write the role, SOPs, onboarding steps, and weekly review before you hire more people.