Best Virtual Office Software

A virtual office is a service that provides businesses with a physical address without the costs of a long lease, administrative staff, and other office-related expenses. In other words, you can run your business from anywhere in the world and still have a mailing address, phone answering services, meeting rooms, and videoconferencing tools. Virtual offices are a popular choice among startups and small businesses due to their affordable price and flexibility, allowing them to have a place to meet their clients at a lower rate than a traditional office. However, a virtual office can become a thorn in your business’s side if it isn’t done right. That’s why it’s essential to know the ins and outs of how to set up a virtual office.

Setting up a Virtual Office

If you’re considering using a virtual office, your business is likely to be scattered throughout several locations. So, you need to think beforehand about the required steps to guarantee productivity and security when employees communicate with the virtual office staff or coworkers based in another location. Of course, an important part of running a virtual office is using the appropriate tools and resources to help employees fulfill their roles, such as project management software, videoconferencing, and cloud collaboration tools.

When it comes to physical addresses, you need to choose logical places that your business should operate from. For example, let’s imagine that most of your clients are located in Washington and New York. In that case, it wouldn’t make sense to open a virtual office in Texas. It’s also important that the phone system is properly set up to make sure that your virtual assistant can seamlessly transfer calls to you without the client realizing it.

Recommended Virtual Office Software

Being able to have a physical address anywhere in the world is amazing, but a virtual office can only succeed if you have the right tools. Here, we picked out the main platforms that any online business needs:

Meeting Software: GoToMeeting

Communication is vital for any business to succeed, including those who have a virtual office. That’s why it’s essential to provide your employees with web conferencing software that lets them host online meetings as if they were face to face. A good web conferencing platform comes with all the presentation tools you could ask for, such as screen sharing, a whiteboard, and polls. Better yet, by recording online meetings and sending transcriptions automatically, meeting software allows for efficient web conferences where attendees don’t need to think about taking notes and can instead focus entirely on the meeting. Of course, just like an in-person meeting, you don’t want a stranger interrupting you. Fortunately, web conferencing platforms come with security tools required to keep hackers at bay, such as password protection and meeting locks. As one of the best on the market, GoToMeeting offers all this and then some. Read our GoToMeeting review.

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Online Payroll: OnPay

Administrative tasks are not only about answering phones and sorting the mail – you also need to create paychecks every month. This can be extremely time-consuming, especially if you have to calculate overtime and benefits as well. Fortunately, payroll software is here to help. It automates most of your payroll activities, allowing you to set up different hourly rates, benefits, insurance, and much more. In other words, instead of having to do all of this yourself, you just need to log in to your payroll platform once to set everything up. After that, the software creates all the necessary documents and sends them to your employees’ inboxes. The only thing you need to do is check that everything is running smoothly. OnPay is a comprehensive payroll platform that even comes with additional HR tools, such as organization charts and e-signing. Read our OnPay review.

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Virtual Phone System: RingCentral

Even though we’re living in the digital age, phones aren’t going anywhere any time soon. However, traditional phone systems are slowly (but surely) dying, as employees require more mobility than ever before. That’s where virtual phone systems come in. As a far more affordable option than conventional systems, VoIP providers allow users to make and receive calls without a desk phone – they just need a computer connected to the internet. Additionally, the best virtual phone systems on the market come with all the features you could wish for, such as call queuing, multi-level auto-attendant, answering rules, voicemail, and more. They also usually offer a mobile app that your employees can use on their smartphones to answer calls on the go, which can be lifesaving when taking calls from virtual offices located in different time zones. RingCentral is a versatile option that provides several advanced call handling features while remaining affordable. Read our RingCentral review.

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Sending Business Mail: SwitchMail

Even though we mostly use online platforms such as email and instant messaging to communicate, many businesses still rely on mail. Not only are there documents that need to be mailed for legal reasons, but sending mail can be a great way to stand out from the competition. However, due to all the administrative work, mailing takes time. Fortunately, there are online mailing services like SwitchMail to help businesses out. You just need to upload the documents, select the type of printing and mailing, add the addresses, and you’re done. SwitchMail even allows you to send letters in bulk, which is a time saver when sending marketing mail. Moreover, the platform is completely free and allows for multi-user management – perfect for businesses using a virtual office. Everyone will be on the same page about what mail is being sent, no matter where they’re working from. Read our SwitchMail review.

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Business Formation and Virtual Mailbox: Business Anywhere

Setting up and running a new business can be overwhelming, time-consuming, and costly. Not only do entrepreneurs in the U.S. have to register their business differently in each state, there’s also the financial, legal, and administrative guidelines that vary as well. Luckily, Business Anywhere’s business formation and virtual mailbox services allow customers to easily establish their virtual office when they sign up for a free account. Clients can register their business, hire a registered service agent, and access a virtual mailbox, which is all perfect for new business owners. This provides them with help just when they need it, leaving them time to focus on growing their business instead. Moreover, with all your postal mail digitized going forward – and with new documents also uploaded onto the dashboard for you – your business history will always be at your fingertips. Business Anywhere facilitates the complete virtual management of an office for new and existing entrepreneurs. Read our Business Anywhere review.

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Why Your Company Needs a Virtual Office

There are many reasons that make getting a virtual office worthwhile. One of the most important is the ability to have a physical address, which is legally required for LLC businesses. Additionally, if you work with clients that need some level of formality, it’s better to meet them in an office space than via web conferencing, and a virtual office can be your meeting place.

But there’s a lot more to virtual offices. Depending on the service you get, virtual offices also answer phone calls, curate emails, forward your mail, greet unexpected visitors, and much more. In other words, they can take most of the administrative work off your shoulders to let you focus on more crucial tasks. There are even providers that have financial and legal staff on their payroll to offer you technical advice on how to deal with paperwork and taxes as a small business. Finally, having a virtual office helps with SEO geolocation, which lets your business benefit from the ‘near me’ feature in search engines even if your business is online-only.

More Advice for Running a Virtual Office

Running a virtual office is no easy feat. And while meeting software, online payroll, and virtual phone systems are essential to succeed in a virtual office, they’re just the first steps. Security, remote team productivity, and reliable online document storage are also important for any company with employees located across various locations. So, make sure that you do your homework to know which tools to get and policies to implement.