Executive Assistant Services

01Purpose and scope

• This manual supports the course Executive Assistant Services. It describes how the work is actually done by people who support senior leaders, including the daily routines, the decisions that come up, the records that get kept, and the limits of the role.
• The scope covers administrative and coordination support for one executive or a small group of executives. It includes calendar control, travel arrangements, meeting preparation, inbox and correspondence triage, expense and invoice routing, document production, and handling of confidential information. It does not cover legal, financial, tax, or medical advice, and an assistant should not make decisions that belong to the executive, the finance office, or a qualified professional.
• Practice varies a great deal by setting. A chief executive in a mid-sized company may need an assistant who manages board materials and external relations, while a regional director in a public agency may need strict adherence to procurement and records rules. Small offices often combine assistant duties with office management, and the boundaries of the role should be written down early so that expectations match what is possible in the time available.

02Core principles

• Protect the executive's time and attention. Every scheduling choice, filter, and reminder should make it easier for the executive to focus on the work that only they can do. An assistant who saves ten minutes of reading for the executive each day has done meaningful work.
• Act within delegated authority, and confirm when unsure. Most assistants operate under a written or understood delegation that defines what they may accept, decline, approve, or sign on the executive's behalf. When a request falls outside that delegation, the correct move is to pause and ask, not to guess.
• Keep confidentiality as the default. Calendars, travel itineraries, personnel matters, and strategic documents often reveal more than they appear to. Share on a need-to-know basis, and treat any information about the executive's location, health, or family as sensitive.
• Be accurate before being fast. A wrong time zone, a mistyped room number, or a missed visa requirement can cost far more than a few minutes of extra checking. Verify details that will be acted on, especially those that involve money, travel, or external parties.
• Anticipate the next need. Good assistants look ahead: they notice that a board pack is due before a flight, that a contract renewal date falls during a conference, or that a recurring meeting no longer has a clear purpose. Anticipation is built from routine review, not from guesswork.

03Planning and preparation

• Start by agreeing on the working relationship. In a first conversation or a written onboarding note, clarify preferred communication channels, response times, which requests need the executive's approval, how urgent matters reach the executive when they are traveling, and what the executive wants to be asked about versus handled. Revisit this agreement after the first month, because early assumptions often prove wrong.
• Build the working files before the first busy week. This usually includes a current contact list of key people with roles and preferred contact methods, a list of recurring meetings with their purpose and attendees, standing travel preferences such as seat, airline, hotel, and dietary needs, a calendar color and naming convention, and a map of who owns which decisions inside the organization. Store these in a location with access controls that match the sensitivity of the content.
• Confirm the tools and standards in use. Most assistants work with a calendar system, an email client, a shared document repository, an expense platform, a travel booking tool, and sometimes a customer relationship or board portal. Know which system is the record of truth for each type of information, and avoid keeping parallel copies that drift apart. If the organization has a records retention schedule, learn how it applies to the documents you create and receive.
• Identify the stakeholders who depend on your work. These typically include the executive, the executive's direct reports and peers, other assistants, the finance or accounts payable team, facilities and travel staff, the board secretary or governance office where one exists, and external contacts such as clients, suppliers, and government offices. Each group has different expectations about response speed, format, and detail.

04Recommended workflow

1. 1
   : Capture every request in one intake point. Whether a request arrives by email, phone, message, or a passing comment in a meeting, record it in the task system with the requester, the deadline, the executive's priority, and any linked documents. Requests that exist only in memory tend to be lost, especially when the executive changes plans.
2. 2
   : Classify the request by type and risk. Routine items such as confirming a standing meeting or booking a meeting room can be handled directly. Items involving payments, signatures, travel outside policy, legal documents, personnel matters, or statements on behalf of the executive need explicit approval first. Write the classification next to the task so anyone picking it up sees the same rule.
3. 3
   : Check the calendar before committing. Review the executive's calendar for conflicts, travel time, time zone differences, and buffers between meetings. A thirty-minute meeting at the end of a long flight is rarely useful, so note the constraints and propose alternatives rather than simply accepting or declining.
4. 4
   : Prepare the supporting material. For meetings, gather the agenda, the attendee list with titles, prior minutes, and any document the executive needs to read. Send the material early enough for review, and label it with the meeting date and version number. For travel, assemble the itinerary with confirmation numbers, check-in windows, ground transport details, and emergency contacts.
5. 5
   : Confirm details with the other party in writing. After a booking or arrangement is agreed by phone, send a short written confirmation that restates the key facts: date, time with time zone, location, participants, cost or budget code, and the executive's name spelled correctly. Keep the confirmation with the task record.
6. 6
   : Brief the executive at the right moment. Give a short summary of what is coming up, what needs a decision, and what has already been handled. A daily or weekly briefing format works well for most leaders, but adjust the length and timing to their preference. Avoid burying a decision request in the middle of a long update.
7. 7
   : Process correspondence and documents according to triage rules. Sort incoming mail into groups such as act today, delegate, file, and no response needed. Draft replies for the executive when that is within the agreed scope, marking clearly which drafts still need review. Keep signature blocks and sign-off authority aligned with what the executive has approved.
8. 8
   : Handle expenses and invoices through the approved route. Collect receipts promptly, attach them to the correct report, note the business purpose where the policy requires it, and send the completed claim for approval rather than approving it yourself unless delegated. Check that the budget code and cost center are correct before submission.
9. 9
   : Close each task with a record and a follow-up decision. Note the outcome, update the calendar or contact records, archive confirmations, and schedule any follow-up needed. When a task opens a new commitment, such as a deadline for a deliverable, add it to the executive's tracking list with a clear owner.

05Quality checks, risk controls and compliance

• Build verification into routine work. Use a second check for any itinerary, payment instruction, or external document before it leaves the office. For travel, confirm passport validity and entry requirements with the traveler and, where needed, the travel desk or consular information published by the destination government. Entry rules change frequently and differ by nationality and purpose of visit, so treat any memory of past trips as unreliable.
• Control payment and banking risk. Payment instructions that arrive by email and ask for a change of bank details should be checked by a separate, known phone number before any action is taken. Many fraud attempts impersonate executives or suppliers. Your organization's finance controls define who may approve payments and in what amounts, and those controls should not be bypassed for speed.
• Protect personal and confidential information. Depending on where you work, privacy and data protection rules may govern how you store, share, and dispose of personal data about employees, clients, or travelers. Follow your organization's data handling policy, use approved file sharing tools rather than personal accounts, and check with the privacy or legal office on the current requirements for your jurisdiction. This manual does not replace qualified legal advice or the approved procedures of your employer.
• Manage records and retention. Board papers, signed agreements, expense claims, and personnel-related correspondence often have specific retention periods. Keep copies only where the policy allows, and do not destroy records that may be subject to a legal hold. If you are unsure whether a document must be kept, ask the records or legal team rather than deciding alone.
• Handle gifts, hospitality, and conflicts of interest carefully. Assistants are often the first point of contact for offers of gifts, tickets, or invitations. Log these according to the gift register or conflict policy that applies to your organization, and escalate anything that may influence a decision. Public sector and regulated industries often have strict rules here, and the local ethics or compliance office is the right source of current requirements.
• Set limits on what you say for the executive. Be careful with commitments about timing, pricing, or strategy. A useful rule is that the assistant confirms logistics and facts, while the executive makes statements of position. If you are asked to speak for the executive on something new, check first.

06Collaboration and documentation

• Work openly with peers and the executive's team. Assistants who share calendars, meeting notes, and travel plans with the right colleagues avoid duplicate bookings and missed handoffs. Agree on a standard for who sends meeting invitations, who owns minutes, and how actions are recorded. A short shared note for each recurring meeting saves more time than any single tool.
• Maintain a handover file. When you are away or when responsibilities change, the next person should be able to find the current calendar, open tasks, travel bookings, contact list, standing instructions, and any sensitive matters in progress. Write the handover file in plain language, and review it at least once a quarter so it does not become stale.
• Document decisions and standing instructions. When the executive gives a preference, such as no meetings before nine in the morning or a particular format for briefing notes, record it in the working file with the date it was given. Standing instructions prevent the same question from being asked repeatedly and protect the assistant when a decision is later questioned.
• Coordinate with finance, facilities, and external vendors through defined channels. Use the approved forms and systems for expense claims, room bookings, and purchase requests. Email is convenient, but it does not always create the audit trail that finance or procurement requires. Ask those teams which channel they treat as official.
• Communicate limits and trade-offs upward. If the executive's calendar cannot accommodate a request without cutting something important, bring two or three options with the consequences of each rather than a single answer. This gives the executive a real choice and makes the trade-off visible.

07Measures and continuous improvement

• Track indicators that reflect real service quality. Useful measures include the percentage of meetings where materials were delivered by the agreed deadline, the number of travel changes that were caught before departure, the time between a request and its first response, the number of corrections to itineraries or invoices, and the executive's own rating of how well the support fits their needs. Choose a small set and review them on a regular schedule rather than collecting data for its own sake.
• Use periodic reviews with the executive. A short check-in every quarter can surface changes in workload, priorities, or preferences. Ask what is working, what takes more effort than it should, and where the executive would like support that is not yet in place. Record the agreed changes and follow up on them.
• Learn from errors without assigning blame. When a booking is wrong or a deadline is missed, write a brief review that describes what happened, what signals were missed, and what process change would prevent a repeat. Share the lessons with the wider assistant group where that is appropriate.
• Recognize the limits of what can be measured. Some of the most valuable work, such as reading a room, preventing a conflict before it escalates, or keeping sensitive information contained, rarely shows up in numbers. Treat indicators as prompts for conversation, not as a complete picture of performance.

08Common mistakes and how to prevent them

• Accepting meetings without checking the full day. A meeting may fit the calendar on paper but leave no time for travel, preparation, or a recovery break. Prevent this by viewing the entire day, including travel and time zone changes, before confirming.
• Booking travel without checking the traveler's documents and entry rules. Missing passport validity, visa requirements, or name mismatches on tickets can stop a trip at the airport. Build a standard pre-travel check that is completed at least several days before departure.
• Relying on memory for commitments. Verbal requests made in corridors or at the end of meetings are easily forgotten. Use a single task list and log every request within the same working day.
• Mixing personal and business accounts or files. Using personal email or cloud storage for executive documents creates confidentiality and records problems. Use approved systems only, and move any material that was stored elsewhere.
• Approving payments or invoices beyond delegated authority. Speed pressure can lead to shortcuts. Keep a written copy of the delegation and check each approval against it.
• Letting the handover file go stale. A file that was accurate two years ago is worse than none because it looks trustworthy. Set a recurring review date and make it part of the routine.

09Practical checklist

• Confirm the current delegation of authority and standing instructions with the executive.
• Maintain a single intake list for all requests with owner, deadline, and risk level.
• Review the executive's full day, including travel time and time zones, before confirming any meeting.
• Send written confirmation of every booking, with key facts restated and checked.
• Verify passport validity, entry requirements, and traveler details for each trip.
• Check the source and callback number of any change to payment or bank details.
• Route expenses and invoices through the approved system with receipts and codes attached.
• Store documents only in approved systems and apply the records retention schedule.
• Log gifts, hospitality, and potential conflicts according to the applicable policy.
• Update the handover file and contact list at least once a quarter.
• Review performance indicators and hold a short check-in with the executive on a set schedule.

★Learning sources

• Micro Degree: Executive Assistant Services
• Micro Degree: Leadership and Team Management
• Micro Degree: Business Intelligence Management
• Micro Degree: ESG Advisory Services