Frequently asked questions

A remote team member who handles estimating or administrative work for your construction business. They work set hours, use your systems and templates, take direction from your team, and are dedicated to your business rather than shared across clients.

The difference between a construction VA and a general VA is context: ours are briefed and screened for construction work specifically, so you are not teaching someone what a variation is.

You will have a shortlist within a week of the brief being agreed.

From there it is your call. Most clients interview two or three candidates and decide within a few days, and the VA starts the following week.

A general administration brief moves faster than a VA with deep CostX experience and civil tendering background. If yours is the second kind we will tell you that upfront, rather than quietly taking longer. Tell us your required start date on the enquiry form.

Engagements start at $400 per week + GST. That is a dedicated VA, around 20 hours a week. Full time — around 40 hours — is $800 per week + GST. Highly specialised briefs sit above those rates, and we will tell you the number before you commit to anything.

It is a fixed weekly fee, not an hourly rate. No timesheets to audit, no setup fee, and invoices go out fortnightly. If your VA is unavailable for a full day and we do not cover it, that day is credited against your next invoice.

There is an optional budget range field on the enquiry form — giving us a bracket helps us tell you quickly whether expectations line up before either of us spends time on it.

Two weeks to start, then two weeks notice from either side. No lock-in beyond that and no exit fee.

It is short on purpose. A long minimum protects us and costs you, and we would rather you stayed because the work is good. Hours and scope are agreed before your VA starts and confirmed in writing, so both sides are working to the same arrangement.

Tell us the hours you have in mind on the enquiry form and we will confirm what is workable.

We screen for construction experience where the role requires it, and we are specific with you about what each candidate has actually done. We do not claim every VA holds every skill listed on our service pages — that is exactly why the enquiry form asks which tasks matter to you.

An experienced Estimator VA can produce takeoffs and bills of quantities for your estimator to review and spot-check. Most clients keep a review step in place permanently — it is good practice regardless of who does the measure, and it is how the arrangement stays reliable as scope widens.

What stays with your team is the commercial side: rates, risk allowances, margin and the decision to submit.

Commonly Buildsoft, CostX, Cubit, Bluebeam, PlanSwift, EstimateOne and Excel on the estimating side, and Procore, Aconex, Autodesk Construction Cloud, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace on the administration side. Tell us what you run and we will screen for it — or arrange training where a platform is close to something a candidate already knows.

Tell us early. Most issues in the first month are scope or handover problems rather than capability problems, and they are fixable.

Where a placement genuinely is not the right fit, we will work with you to find a suitable replacement as quickly as we reasonably can, and we stay involved through the handover so you are not starting from scratch.

Australian business hours, aligned to your state. Exact start and finish times are agreed with you at engagement. Full-time, part-time and flexible arrangements are all available.

Our VAs are based in the Philippines and work remotely on Australian business hours, aligned to your state.

We say that plainly because it is the question builders ask first. The Philippines has a deep pool of English-speaking administrative and estimating talent, and the time zone overlap means your VA is working while your site is.

Confidentiality agreements and non-disclosure procedures are put in place before any placement begins, covering tender pricing, client information and project documentation.

Your VA is dedicated to your business and does not work across competing builders in the same market. Access to your systems is granted by you, under your own security settings, and can be revoked at any time.

You do. Your VA takes direction from your team the same way any team member would. ORIVASO handles the employment relationship, performance management, continuity cover and escalation, and stays in contact with you throughout the engagement.

Generally yes — your VA works inside your systems under your licences, which keeps your data in your environment and your access controls intact. We will confirm what is needed as part of scoping so there are no surprises.

That is the usual path, and the one we would recommend. Start with the function that is causing the most pain, prove the model in your business, then widen scope or add a second VA once the first is embedded.