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.**

[Watch the walkthrough](https://kb.trackiq.com/kb-assets/kbvideo-vaonboard-explainer-a4ffc4a4.mp4)

*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**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/the-bleeder-reports).

**Lifetime bleeder targets**, monthly — see [**Lifetime Bleeder Targets**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/lifetime-bleeder-targets).

**Search term harvesting** exports — see [**Search Term Harvesting: Criteria and Bids**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/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**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/optimisation-as-a-calculated-bet).

![What the VA produces, and what you approve](/kb-assets/shot-adv-keywords-view-ce68f0.png)

**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**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/rule-based-optimization). 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**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/the-brand-managers-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**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/the-brand-managers-calendar) — the cadence the reporting schedule mirrors.
- [**The Nine-Report PPC Routine**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/the-nine-report-ppc-routine) — the reports most worth delegating.
- [**In-House PPC or an Agency**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/in-house-ppc-or-an-agency) — the wider version of the same decision.