Most of the routine work in this training — the reports, the exports, the filtering, the pausing — is delegable. The reason it usually is not delegated well is onboarding, not capability.
A VA who understands the tasks but not the business makes locally correct decisions that are globally wrong. Pausing a keyword you were holding for rank. Cutting a budget on a product mid-launch.
So the onboarding has to cover the business, not just the process.
Prefer to watch? One hundred and eighty seconds on why business context comes before task training, the access to grant before day one, and keeping judgement while delegating assembly.
Before day one
Decide the hours — per week or per month — and be specific.
Decide how you will track them. A simple shared timesheet works: daily start and end times, tasks completed, hours totalled. Whatever you use, you want to be able to cross-check hours against deliverables weekly or monthly, otherwise you have no idea what you are buying.
Decide payment terms and method before the first invoice is due, not after.
And decide whether you want a contract. That is your call; there is no universally right answer.
Step 1: the introductory email
Keep it short and unambiguous. Three things:
Exactly how many hours they are engaged for.
Payment method options, asking them to confirm one.
The address to send invoices to.
Getting these agreed in writing before the first call removes the entire category of misunderstanding that damages these relationships early.
Step 2: the introductory call
This is the step that decides whether the arrangement works, and it is much more than introductions.
1. The business
Who you are and the story behind the brand.
Your catalogue — main products, best sellers, what is launching.
Your competition — what differentiates you, and the real challenges in your market.
This is the context that turns a task-follower into someone who can flag a problem. Skipping it is the single most common onboarding failure.
2. The role
What they are responsible for, and what success looks like in each area.
Walk through the processes relevant to their role, rather than sending links.
Invite questions. A VA who is uncertain and does not ask will guess.
3. Hours and availability
Total hours, time zones, working hours, and expected response times.
And a regular check-in schedule — daily or weekly updates, and a recurring meeting.
4. Communication and tools
Your communication channel.
Your task tracker.
Your time tracker.
What reporting you expect, and how often.
5. Next steps
Recap hours, payment and reporting.
Confirm what access they need.
Name their first tasks, so they finish the call with something to start on.
Step 3: Seller Central access
Invite them with the permissions the role actually needs:
Advertising Console — Campaign Manager.
Business Reports.
Manage All Inventory — not just FBA. This trips people up constantly.
Add Products via Upload.
Brand Analytics.
Orders, including Create MCF Order, if fulfilment work is in scope.
Grant these before their first working day. A VA waiting on permissions is a VA you are paying to wait.
What to delegate first
Start with the reporting work, because it is well-defined, repetitive, and its output is reviewed by you before anything is actioned.
Good early candidates:
Bleeder reports — pulling and filtering — see The Bleeder Reports.
Lifetime bleeder targets, monthly — see Lifetime Bleeder Targets.
Search term harvesting exports — see Search Term Harvesting: Criteria and Bids.
Inventory tracking and forecasting inputs.
Reimbursement claims.
Buyer messages.
A+ content updates and storefront work.
The pattern: the VA produces the report and marks recommendations; you approve; the VA executes. Keep the judgement with whoever understands the strategy until they have earned it — see Optimisation as a Calculated Bet.
Most of what you are delegating is assembly — export, filter, sort, mark — and the smaller that assembly step is, the more of the hours go to judgement instead — see Rule-Based Optimization: Automating Bids and Budgets. It also changes what you can hire for.
Set the reporting schedule explicitly
Build a schedule that maps each report to its cadence — daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly — and put it where both of you can see it.
It should match your own calendar — see The Brand Manager's Calendar.
How long each process takes depends on your catalogue size, data volume and product count, so measure the first few runs rather than estimating. That is also how you find out whether the hours you have agreed are realistic.
Common mistakes
Onboarding the tasks without onboarding the business.
Sending process documents instead of walking through them.
Granting FBA-only inventory access, then wondering why uploads fail.
Leaving payment terms until the first invoice.
Delegating judgement before context — pausing and bidding decisions on day one.
No time tracking, so you cannot tell whether the hours match the output.
No fixed check-in, so problems surface a month late.
Related
- The Brand Manager's Calendar — the cadence the reporting schedule mirrors.
- The Nine-Report PPC Routine — the reports most worth delegating.
- In-House PPC or an Agency — the wider version of the same decision.