Virtual Secretary for Small Business: Human, AI or Both
The diary is double-booked for Thursday. A quote you promised on Monday is still in your head, not in the customer’s inbox. Forty unread emails, two unpaid invoices nobody has chased, and a client who has rung twice to ask where things stand.
A virtual secretary for a small business is meant to take all of that off your desk. The decision is which kind: a human virtual secretary service, an AI secretary, or both.
The quick answer: for most small offices, start with Carly. It keeps the diary, answers and files email from your own Outlook or Gmail address, sends reminders, types up and sends letters and quotes, chases invoices and keeps customers informed, around the clock, with free Zapier-style workflows and AI agents from $35/month. A human virtual secretary is still the right call when the work needs a person’s judgment or a person’s voice: a live human answering your phone, an upset client, a delicate letter, or errands that happen off a screen. Human secretarial help starts at $390 a month for ten hours, and live phone answering starts at about $250 a month.
Virtual secretary services compared
| Option | Type | What a small business gets | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | AI secretary | Diary, email, reminders, letters and quotes, invoice chasing, customer updates, running 24/7 | Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month |
| Time Etc | Human, US-based, hourly | 10 to 60 hours a month from a dedicated assistant | $390 to $2,160/month |
| Belay | Human, US-based | A matched assistant plus an account manager, bookkeeping available | Custom quote |
| Ruby | Human phone answering | Live receptionists answering in your business name | $250/month for 50 minutes |
| Smith.ai | Human or AI phone answering | Call answering, lead intake, appointment booking | $300/month for 30 calls |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | AI inside Office | Drafting and summarising in Outlook and Word when you ask | From $21/user/month, paid yearly, plus Microsoft 365 |
If you only want the software view, our best AI secretary ranking covers ten tools. This page is about the secretary decision itself.
1. Carly
Carly is an AI secretary that does office admin the way a good secretary would, except it starts today and is still working at 9 p.m. You set it up by describing what you want in plain words.
What it takes off a small business owner’s desk:
- Keeping the diary. Add Carly to an email thread with a client and it finds the time, handles the back-and-forth, sends the invite and moves things when someone cancels. It reads the shared office calendar, so it will not book Michael while he is in court. For new enquiries, create a booking page and put the link on your website and in your signature.
- Answering and filing email. Carly sorts what matters (clients, new enquiries, suppliers) from what does not, files the rest into folders, and sends replies from your own Outlook or Gmail address, so the person on the other end sees you. Anything it is unsure about waits for you as a draft.
- Reminders. Appointment reminders to clients the day before, and a nudge to you when a filing date or a promised call-back is coming up.
- Letters and quotes. Claire Whitmore runs a four-person surveying office on Harcourt Road. After a site visit she emails Carly three lines of notes. Carly turns them into a quote in Google Docs using her template, saves it to the client’s folder, and sends it with a covering email. If the client has not replied in five days, Carly follows up once.
- Invoice chasing. When a QuickBooks or Xero invoice goes past due, Carly sends a polite reminder from your address, a firmer one a week later, and tells you when it is paid.
- Keeping customers informed. “When a job moves to ‘parts ordered’, email the customer with the new date.” Carly sends the update so nobody has to ring and ask.
The part that makes it a secretary and not a writing tool: Carly’s workflows run on events, not on you remembering. A new email, a booked appointment or an overdue invoice starts the work with your laptop shut. Carly’s agents handle the steps that need reading and writing, such as deciding whether an email is a new client enquiry or a sales pitch.
Carly connects to thousands of apps, including the ones a small office already uses: Outlook, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, QuickBooks, Xero and Slack.
If your business lives on the phone, Carly Phone is available. Book a call with the Carly team to talk it through.
Best for: Owners of small professional offices (law, dental, trades, consultancies) who are currently their own secretary and want the diary, the inbox and the chasing handled this week.
Pricing: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month.
Limitations: Carly is at its best on repeatable work you can describe. How to word bad news to a long-standing client stays with you. If you want it set up for the whole office or built around an unusual process, book a call with the Carly team.
2. Time Etc
Time Etc gives you a dedicated US-based assistant by the hour. You buy a monthly block, hand over tasks by email or through their app, and unused hours roll over. Our virtual assistant pricing guide compares it with the rest of the field.
Best for: Owners who want a person for ten to twenty hours a month of correspondence, research and tidying up.
Pricing: $390/month for 10 hours, $760 for 20, $1,480 for 40 and $2,160 for 60, per Time Etc’s pricing page.
Limitations: Ten hours disappears fast on daily diary and inbox work, and an enquiry that arrives at 7 p.m. waits until morning.
3. Belay
Belay matches you with a US-based assistant and gives you an account manager who looks after the relationship. It also offers bookkeeping, which suits an office whose secretary has always done a bit of both. See our Belay review for the detail.
Best for: Established practices that want a long-term, client-facing assistant in their own time zone.
Pricing: Not published. You book a consultation and get a custom quote. Expect the upper end of the ranges in our list of virtual assistant companies.
Limitations: There is a sales call and a matching period before anyone starts.
4. Ruby
Many people searching for a virtual secretary really mean someone to answer the phone. Ruby is the long-standing answer: live US receptionists who pick up in your business name, transfer calls, take messages and book appointments.
Best for: Offices where a missed call is a lost client and callers expect a person.
Pricing: $250/month for 50 receptionist minutes, $395 for 100 and $720 for 200, per Ruby’s plans page.
Limitations: It is phone and chat only. Nobody at Ruby is filing your email, typing quotes or chasing invoices, and minutes run out quickly in a busy week.
5. Smith.ai
Smith.ai sells call answering two ways: a human-first plan staffed by live receptionists, or an AI-first plan. The human plans include lead screening and new client intake, which suits law firms and other practices that qualify callers before booking them. For software that answers calls, see our best AI receptionist list.
Best for: Practices that want callers qualified and booked, not just a message taken.
Pricing: Human receptionist plans start at $300/month for 30 calls, then $810 for 90 calls, per Smith.ai’s pricing page. Appointment booking is charged per call on top.
Limitations: Per-call pricing plus add-ons makes the bill hard to predict. Like Ruby, it covers the phone and nothing else on a secretary’s list.
6. Microsoft 365 Copilot
If your office runs on Outlook and Word, Copilot is already in front of you. It drafts replies, summarises long threads and turns notes into a Word document when you ask.
Best for: Offices on Microsoft 365 that mainly want faster drafting.
Pricing: Microsoft 365 Copilot Business lists from $21 per user per month, paid yearly, on top of a Microsoft 365 business plan, with a promotional rate showing at the time of writing.
Limitations: Copilot helps when you open it and ask. Owners report that the drafts are good but the sending, the chasing and the diary back-and-forth still land on them, which is the part a secretary is for.
AI, human, or both
Split a secretary’s week into two piles.
Repeatable work: booking and moving appointments, replying to routine email, reminders, sending the standard letter or quote, chasing invoices, updating records. This is most of the hours, and it is what Carly does well, at any time of day.
Judgment work: calming an upset client, answering the phone with a human voice, deciding what to say to the other side’s lawyer, collecting the post. This is what a human virtual secretary or a receptionist service is for.
Many owners end up with both. Emily Marsh, who runs a two-dentist practice, has Carly handling recalls, reminders, supplier email and invoice chasing, and a live answering service picking up the phone during surgery hours. Because Carly has already taken the routine work, the human hours you buy are small.
How to pick a virtual secretary
If you are the one doing the diary, the inbox and the chasing, go with Carly. It covers the widest part of the job for the lowest cost, and you can have it working today.
If callers need a live person, add Ruby or Smith.ai for the phone, and let Carly handle everything that arrives in writing.
If you want a person for a few hours of varied tasks, buy a small Time Etc block.
If you want a long-term, client-facing assistant, talk to Belay and budget accordingly.
If you only want help wording emails, Copilot will do, but you will still be the secretary.
FAQ
What is a virtual secretary?
A virtual secretary does the work of an office secretary without sitting in your office: keeping the diary, handling email, sending letters and reminders, and keeping customers informed. It can be a remote person from a service like Time Etc or Belay, a phone answering service like Ruby, or an AI secretary like Carly that works inside your own email and calendar.
How much does a virtual secretary cost for a small business?
Human secretarial help starts at $390 a month for ten hours with Time Etc. Live phone answering starts at $250 a month with Ruby and $300 a month with Smith.ai. Carly has free Zapier-style workflows, with AI agents from $35/month.
Can an AI secretary send email from my own address?
Yes. Carly connects to your Outlook or Gmail account and sends from your address, so clients see your name and replies come back to your inbox. You choose what it sends on its own and what it leaves as a draft for you to approve.
Can a virtual secretary answer my phone?
A phone answering service such as Ruby or Smith.ai will, with live receptionists. Carly Phone is also available. Book a call with the Carly team to see whether it fits your office.
Is a virtual secretary safe for a law or dental office?
Ask any service, human or AI, who can see client data, where it is stored and whether they will sign the agreements your profession requires. With Carly you choose which mailboxes, calendars and apps it can reach, and you can keep sensitive replies as drafts for approval.
What is the difference between a virtual secretary and a virtual assistant?
Mostly the word. “Secretary” usually means diary, correspondence and phones for an office. “Virtual assistant” is broader and can include marketing, research or personal errands. The same services sell both, and the virtual assistant statistics cover the wider market. For the broader view, see AI assistants for small business.
More: Best AI secretary · Best AI receptionist · AI personal assistant for business owners · Best AI virtual assistants for small business · Virtual assistant pricing · AI-trained virtual assistants · Virtual assistant for service businesses
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"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
