How To Pay A Virtual Assistant? Tools and Compliance Tips for 2025

Generating salaries is a piece of cake. Just ask your HR and your whole company gets paid in a matter of hours. However, who will pay your virtual assistant? Chances are if you have a virtual assistant you don’t have a dedicated or in‑house HR for your small business.

But, not to worry! We are here to help you understand how to pay your virtual assistant, which tools you can use, how you can follow compliance, and lastly, why you should think twice before hiring local even if it might seem convenient.

Things to Check Before Processing VA Payments

Before you jump to conclusions about paying your VA assistant, you should check some things. These aren’t just factors but important criteria that you should know about.

1. Verify the VA’s Work Scope and Agreement

Before you start clearing the invoices of your personal VA assistant, start by assessing their work. Have they completed all their tasks? Are they abiding by their agreement? If you agree with all their deliverables, you can go ahead and start processing their payments.

How to verify:

The best way to check if all tasks have been achieved properly is to cross-refer to the original instructions. You can use project management tools like Asana, Monday.com, and Jira to have  better task visibility. If you still want to make sure that things aren’t amiss, you can keep a signed contract copy or email as proof of scope and agreement.

Make sure that:

• Hourly work with time tracking is completed
• Task-based or milestone-based payment is abided
• Retainer model with monthly invoices sent timely

2. Confirm Payment Terms and Schedule

Payment terms are the toughest to set. Usually, most VAs prefer to get paid weekly or even bi-weekly, though find a timeframe that suits you. Monthly payments are much easier to sort out, as you will have an easier time compiling how much amount is pending for you to pay. 

How to confirm:

Make sure that each payment you have to process is done on time. Also, always get in writing what payment terms you are agreeing to. Soon enough, verbal agreements can lead to a lot of arguments and distress. You can also maintain automated reminders for payments and other dues you have to arrange for virtual pay.

Take care of:

• Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly payments
• After-task or milestone-based payments
• Upfront deposit + final installment

3. Choose a Secure and Cost-Effective Payment Method

International Virtual Assistants Association suggests that when you are paying internal staff like virtual assistants, make sure you do so by choosing reliable platforms. Sometimes, the payments can get stuck or get delayed, in which case trusted methods can save you from a hassle.

Before you decide:

See to it that you compare currency exchange rates and transfer fees. Some can have higher prices or hidden charges which you shouldn’t have to pay. These methods should also be ones that support VAs country and can be used by them. Also, always double-check the email, account, and other details before you process your payment.

Some platforms:

• PayPal
• Wise (formerly TransferWise)
• Payoneer
• Direct bank transfers
• Freelance platforms (Upwork, Fiverr)

4. Handle Currency Conversion and Exchange Rates

It becomes confusing when it comes to cross border payments. Usually businesses prefer in paying in their local currency. But, its always better to pay in the VAs local currency. Also, first thing for you to do should be to check the rates of currency exchange.

The right steps are:

To create an understanding of the final amount to be paid. In virtual assistant services, currency exchange for payments can get expensive. So, the best practice is to make room for rate fluctuations and gross or net fees. But the best option for you will be selective platforms that lock in rates. This makes all transactions consistent for a week or month, so no additional charges apply.

Always follow:

• Pay in the VA’s local currency
• Agree on USD or a neutral currency
• Let payment platforms auto-convert (with fees)

5. Track and Record Every Payment

Keeping a track of all payments you make is very important. In this specific case, where you have to pay your virtual assistant, you should make a dedicated excel or accounts sheet to record everything. Even a minor $20 is quite notable to include.

How to ensure:

Start by keeping records of transfers, receipts, and invoices. Compile them in a central area where you can access them easily. You can either choose to pay your virtual assistant on a particular date every month or mention all the payment dates, amounts, and tasks that were completed. As sometimes VAs prefer advance payments for their work. This is also helpful for many to refer to this information in the tax season.

Ways you can track:

• Use spreadsheets
• Accounting software (e.g., QuickBooks, Xero)
• Payment history logs from the platform

6. Understand Tax Implications and Compliance

The tax season is a time when you may not have the time to sort out your virtual assistant’s payments on the spot. Depending on your location, you may need to handle tax forms alone and report your international payments to make sure you are compliant.

How to invade tax issues:

The best way for you to quickly figure out your taxes is to use the previous advice. Now, that you have records, you can check them for misclassification, repeated entries, or false records. As virtual assistants are typically independent contractors and not employees, you should keep a record of all finances to make sure nothing is wrong when finally filing your taxes.

Important forms:

• Issue 1099-NEC forms (U.S. only)
• Require W-8BEN for foreign contractors
• Consult an accountant for local rules

Best Tools To Use for Payments of VAs

1. PayPal

In a quick glimpse, PayPal is one of the most popular platforms used for global payments. It allows businesses, freelancers, solopreneurs, and small companies to send payments internationally, manage invoices, and track transactions. Virtual assistants can receive funds in 26 currencies, and funds can be transferred to local bank accounts in 1 to 5 business days.

Fees:

• Domestic transfers: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
• International transfers: 4.4% + a fixed fee based on the currency.
• Currency conversion: 3–4% above the base exchange rate.

Why You Should Choose PayPal?

PayPal has a global presence of up to 200 countries and regions. This makes it a top platform to pay your virtual assistant. It is extremely easy to use, navigationally sound, and can be integrated with existing invoicing and tracking systems. The transfers are relatively fast and you receive real-time notifications for it. Although, PayPal does withhold funds for new and inactive customers.

Steps to Send Money:

1. Sign in to your PayPal account.
2. Click “Send & Request” from the top menu.
3. Enter your VA’s email address.
4. Choose “Sending to a friend” or “Paying for an item or service” (the latter includes buyer protection).
5. Enter the amount and currency.
6. Select your payment method (balance, card, bank).
7. Review fees and click “Send Payment Now.”

2. Wise (formerly TransferWise)

Wise is a top name that businesses trust for international transfers with low fees and real time exchange rates. There are many organizations who have to sort virtual assistant payments from different countries and currencies. Wise helps by showing transparent pricing and no hidden conversion fees.

Charges:

• Varies by country and payment method, generally between 0.35% to 1%.
• No markup on currency exchange rates.

Why Wise Might Be A Good Choice:

Currency exchange can be the costliest part of bank transfers and international payments. Wise helps you by charging only 0.6% transfer fees per transaction compared to average market rates of 2 to 5% per transaction. They deal in 70 currencies and operate in more than 175 countries, making it easy for businesses to add all of their virtual assistant payments in one place. An account is permitted to manage 40 different currencies with no maintenance charges at all.

Steps for Transferring Funds:

1. Create or log into your Wise account.
2. Click “Send Money.”
3. Enter the amount and select currencies (from/to).
4. Choose “Business” or “Personal” transfer.
5. Add your VA’s bank or Wise account details.
6. Choose how you’ll pay (bank transfer, debit, credit card).
7. Review the fees and estimated arrival time.
8. Confirm and pay.

3. Payoneer

It is an international financial platform that is specially made for freelancers, virtual assistants, and e-commerce payments. Due to this factor, it integrates well with 2,000+ marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr naturally. This is another platform that supports multi-currency accounts from top countries. You can get your transfers within 1 to 3 working days.

Costs:

• Receiving payments from other Payoneer users: Free.
• Receiving from clients via credit card: 3%.
• Bank withdrawal fee: Up to 2% above the mid-market rate.

Can Payoneer Be The Best Option:

It totally depends on your case. Most freelancers and virtual assistants benefit from its features and businesses get the convenience. The prepaid cards that you can apply for from the platform are quite easy to use and efficient. You can also set up batch payments and easier tax tracking. Though, Payoneer is limited in the number of currencies it supports, only 10 different ones.

Steps for Completing Transactions:

1. Log into your Payoneer account.
2. Go to “Pay” > “Make a Payment.”
3. Select “To Payoneer Account” or “To Bank Account.”
4. Enter the VA’s email and payment details.
5. Choose the amount and currency.
6. Review the summary.
7. Click “Pay” to complete the transaction.

4. Deel

Deel is a lesser-known tool that is used to manage payrolls for remote teams. It is end-to-end compliant, following guidelines like GDPR, SOC 2 Type II, and ISO 27001. As it more of a salary management forward platform, you can take care of more tasks other than financial transfers. A person can manage contracts, compliance, and tax documents.

Fares:

• Starts at $49/month per contractor.
• Payment processing fees vary based on methods (e.g., ACH, Wise, PayPal).

Is Deel Right for You:

If you need a platform that helps you manage more than payments, you should consider Deel. You can start from the payment schedule to your different virtual pay responsibilities and then move on to handling tax forms (W-8, W-9). If you are sure to hire multiple virtual assistants in the upcoming months, then you should definitely use this tool to manage everything, including local compliance.

Steps on How To Make A Successful Payment:

1. Log into your Deel account.
2. Add your VA as a contractor and upload a contract.
3. Select “Create Payment” or use auto-pay.
4. Enter payment amount and frequency.
5. Choose your payment method (ACH, credit card, Wise, etc.).
6. Review payment and approve it.
7. Deel disburses funds to the VA via their preferred method.

5. Remitly

As the name suggests, Remitly is used for remittances and international money transfers. Even though they have less send countries, only 30, people from 170 countries can receive these payments. It is quite popular in the regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. You can make cash pickups at over 460,000 locations globally.

Service Charge:

• Express transfer: About $3.99 (varies by country).
• Economy transfer: Lower fees, slower delivery.
• Exchange rate margins apply (can be up to 2%).

Why You Should Consider Remitly:

The biggest advantage Remitly has over others is the fact that it supports payments in underdeveloped countries as well. Also, it is one of the available platforms with mobile wallets and pickups integrated into it. You can apply for direct transfers to 3,000 banks, allows for 75 different currency transactions, and integrates well with wallets, like M-Pesa, GCash, and bKash.

Steps to Activate Transfers:

1. Sign in to Remitly or create an account.
2. Select the destination country.
3. Enter the transfer amount and delivery method (e.g., bank, cash pickup).
4. Add your VA’s name and payment details.
5. Choose a payment method (debit, credit card, or bank).
6. Review exchange rates and fees.
7. Click “Send Money.”

6. Zelle (U.S. Only)

Zelle is a U.S.-based peer-to-peer (P2P) payment network. It only allows transfers within U.S. owned accounts. Any bank-to-bank transfer you initiate will be cleared within minutes, without fees. It also takes into account credit unions and is compatible with 2,200 U.S. banks and credit unions. A nifty features is that you can pay your local virtual assistant by using their email address or U.S. mobile phone number.

Price:

• No fees for sending or receiving payments.

Is Zelle Practical:

If you believe in local business and are a resident of the US then yes it makes sense. Not only do you get instant transactions, but you also don’t need any third-party apps if you are using U.S. banks. As virtual assistant payments are recurring, it will be great at handling such repeated payments to a locally hired talent. But, Zelle doesn’t offer any buyer or seller protection.

Steps to Complete Zelle Transactions:

1. Log into your banking app or the Zelle app.
2. Choose “Send Money with Zelle.”
3. Enter your VA’s U.S. phone number or email.
4. Type the amount to send.
5. Confirm and send—it’s instant in most cases.

7. Revolut Business

Targeted towards businesses, the Revolut Business platform offers expense management, mass payments, and accounting integrations such as QuickBooks and Xero. You can open multi-currency accounts and access APIs to create custom implementations and automations. They have various plans for their platform according to the size of your business.

Service Cost:

• Free plan available
• Basic: £10/month
• Grow: From £30/month
• Scale: From £90/month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing
• Currency exchange: 0.4% above interbank rate after free allowance.

Does Your Business Need Revolut:

Yes. Businesses should in our opinion go for Revolut only. Using a CSV file, companies can make 1,000 payments per bulk payment request. Also, for small businesses who want to make high volume purchases or need to transfer a lot of money recurringly, they can make up to $175,000 daily outbound payments and a weekly of $1 million.

Example of How To Pay A Virtual Assistant: Step-By-Step Instructions

The above platforms and the steps that we have mentioned can help you pay your virtual assistant the amounts that are due. But if you are still confused, here is a detailed step-by-step guide that helps you understand how to use PayPal to pay your virtual assistant as an example.

Step 1: Log In To Your PayPal Account

As the client, you will first log into your PayPal account. Enter your email or mobile phone number and the password to complete logging into your account. If you don’t have one, you can Sign Up.

Step 2: Make Sure Your Account is Linked

You’ll need to link your bank to your PayPal wallet to send money. This is because if your virtual assistant pay is to be sent to a bank account or other wallets like Zelle, you will need your bank account linked. If your VA is requesting it in their PayPal account, you should know their email address to send the funds.

Step 3: Initiate The Payment

Click the Send/Request payment option. After clicking, you will be taken to a page where you have to enter the details of your VAs payment method. PayPal to PayPal transfer will only need an email address. But if you want to send money to another bank account you will need the VAs bank details, including the bank name, account number, and either the sort code (for UK accounts) or routing number (for US accounts).

If you are sending it to a different wallet that the VA has, you will need the recipient’s email address, or their PayPal handle, username, or mobile number. You will also need to confirm the amount and currency in the next steps. If you want to track these payments through PayPal, you will also need to add a note or description for the payment (e.g., “Payment for virtual assistant services – May 2025”).

Step 4: Choose the Payment Type

Usually you will be presented with all the possible payment options you have linked to your PayPal. If you want to be sure and protected under “PayPal’s Purchase Protection” Select “Paying for an item or service”.

Step 5: Confirm the Payment

Double-check all details, including the recipient’s email, amount, and payment type. After you have confirmed the details, your payment will go through when you click “Send Payment Now” to complete the transaction. You will be directed to the screen where it mentions how much amount you sent to whom. You can click “Done” to return to the main screen.

Optional: Set Up Recurring Payments

If you pay your VA regularly (weekly, biweekly, monthly), then the best thing for you to follow will be to create automatic payments. You can do so by clicking on Use PayPal’s “Recurring Payments” feature to automate payments. Alternatively, your VA can send you recurring invoices, which you can pay upon receipt.

Will Hiring A Local Virtual Assistant Solve Your Payment Problems?

The short answer is no. Not only will it not solve your payment problems but they can cost you about 2 to 3 times more than offshore virtual assistants. Hiring local virtual assistants might also seem easier, but it doesn’t eliminate payment challenges like tax reporting, invoice tracking, or managing multiple pay schedules. 

The local laws in your area still require proper documentation, compliance, and audit trails. Plus, without recent tools, errors and delays persist. This is true regardless of location of you or your virtual assistant.

So to cut it short:

• You should hire offshore virtual assistants that are cost-effective.
• Having the help of an accountant can help you operate within compliance.
• Make sure you are prepared 4 days ahead of time to process payments.
• Do not try to cheat the system using DIY techniques like falsifying invoice details.

A local VA will only simplify communication, but without the right tools, your core payment problems will remain just as complex.

Tips You Should Follow To Stay Compliant In Payments

Among all payment methods, there is one thing that many lack, compliance. Most businesses fail to establish smooth virtual payment channels because they skip the understanding of legal and cross-border compliance. Here are some tips that will help you follow the right protocol:

Understand the Regulations That Apply to You

Whether you’re paying freelancers, virtual assistants, or vendors, rules differ based on geography, payment type, and business size.

• Identify if you’re governed by GDPR (EU), OFAC (US), FATCA, KYC, or AML laws.
• Use government or financial institution websites to stay current with regulation updates.
• Consult a virtual accountant as they also know about payment compliance in many countries.

Collect and Verify Necessary Documentation

Tax agencies and payment processors may require identity, tax, or residency proofs from recipients. Always collect W-9 or W-8BEN forms for U.S. contractors, and verify tax IDs for international payees. Double-check that banking details align with the verified name or registered business.

Monitor Sanction Lists and Blocked Entities

Making payments to restricted individuals or countries can result in heavy penalties or frozen funds. Check the OFAC Sanctions List (U.S.) or EU Consolidated List before initiating international transfers. Use a payment provider (like Wise or Payoneer) that automatically flags high-risk recipients.

Ensure Payment Data Security

Storing or transmitting payment information improperly can lead to data breaches and fines under PCI DSS or other cybersecurity laws. To stay safe, you should:

• Never store CVV or full card details.
• Use PCI-DSS compliant processors (e.g., Stripe, PayPal, Square).
• Enable 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) and data encryption.

Account for Currency Exchange and Local Tax Laws

Currency fluctuations and tax mismatches can lead to overpayment, underpayment, or non-compliance. Choose a provider with real-time FX rates, keep records of all currency conversions, and check if GST, VAT, or withholding tax applies when making cross-border payments to stay compliant.

Choose the Right Payment Platforms for your VA

Not all platforms offer the same compliance guarantees, especially across borders. Select services that are regulated by financial authorities (FCA, FDIC, FINRA, etc.). Also, choose platforms that directly list all the charges that will be mandatory applied to your payments. Platforms like Deel, Remote, and Papaya Global include built-in compliance for contractor payments.

Avoid Common Red Flags

Certain behaviors can raise suspicion or trigger audits. Any payment platform you choose will flag you for suspicion. These are some common mistakes you should avoid at all costs:

• Splitting payments to bypass limits.
• Paying vendors without a valid invoice.
• Sending payments to personal accounts for business services.
• Using offshore accounts without legal advice.

Conclusion

While sometimes payments can become a hassle, usually the right platforms help us stay on track. Whether you choose PayPal, Wise, or Payoneer, it will always depend on how you will use these tools to pay your virtual assistant.

We have listed all tips, methods, and steps on how to pay a virtual assistant without any complications. But remember, at the end of the day, you should try different platforms before settling on one. According to your uses and needs, not all tools will be useful.

Need help with tasks? We’ve got you. Invedus helps you hire reliable virtual assistants and skilled talents while also taking care of the payments for you!