Administrative Assistants handle routine and advanced duties for other professionals. They organize files, create correspondence, prepare reports and documents, manage calendars to schedule appointments, sort mail, prepare invoices and offer general staff support. They may serve as an initial point of contact, answering phones and greeting visitors. They might engage in event planning and meeting setup and implementation. Very often they will make travel arrangements and generate itineraries. They have to deal with other people from a wide variety of levels, from clients to management and even corporate CEOs. Administrative Assistant duties and responsibilities Answer phones and greet visitors Schedule appointments and maintain calendars Schedule and coordinate staff and other meetings Collate and distribute mail Prepare communications, such as memos, emails, invoices, reports and other correspondence Write and edit documents from letters to reports and instructional documents Create and maintain filing systems, both electronic and physical Manage accounts and perform bookkeeping Administrative Assistant skills and qualifications: Decision-making: Administrative Assistants have to make independent decisions on a daily basis, addressing the best way to handle specific tasks. Communications and collaboration: An Administrative Assistant must collaborate with other administrators and support personnel, management and clients on a regular basis. Organizational skills: Organization and prioritization are the core elements of the Administrative Assistant's responsibilities. You must know how to keep yourself and others organized and how to determine which tasks are the most important in a given list. Writing: Spelling, punctuation, sentence structure and writing are essential to an Administrative Assistant, who must be proficient in a variety of styles, from creative to professional to technical to education and more.