BELAY Avis 36

My match Sarah is a perfect fit

Alyssa is a fabulous CSC. We have really enjoyed working with her!

BELAY has been outstanding from startup and implementation to reorganizing our church financials. They made the transition, including payroll, smooth and seamless. I would highly recommend them.

Kay, our VA, is doing a great job! And is easy to work with. And the placement lead was also super professional and thoughtful in his approach.

The organization, BELAY, is 1st class. The best ever. My concern is the contractors they hire. Many are spread way too thin with multiple clients. Some have their own businesses, plus contract as a VA / bookkeeper with BELAY. Unless you are a celebrity, they assign you leftover VA’s.

We recently started working with Belay to find an assistant. There were a few small hiccups during onboarding while we worked through initial expectations, but their team was extremely thorough and helpful throughout the process. Once everything was set up, it’s been amazing. They have truly gone above and beyond to help with anything we’ve needed. Overall a great experience and we’re very happy working with them.

The onboarding process was easy. They matched with someone who work seamlessly in with our team. Even though the onsite team has never met our Virtual Assistant they feel like she is truly a member of the team. My time is more effective thanks to the amazing work of our VA and Belay.

Belay overall I give a middle grade. We started with a Bookkeeper who did not do very well for us at all and we canceled that contract. We onboarded a Comptroller through Belay, who has been fantastic and a great fit. However, Belay changed its internal structure late last year which would have meant we lose our Comptroller after 2 years of building a relationship, so we had to end our contract with Belay or start again with someone new. For the kind of bespoke service Belay advertises we were very disappointed by this last internal change that took no account of how small businesses build relationships. Our account liaison was wonderful in all ways, very supportive and helped us transition out of Belay. I would say the overall company has a different focus than their mostly amazing personnel.

I specifically requested someone who could support MS Teams, Outlook and SharePoint. The VA was on a MAC Belay provided assurances that this would not create any issues and was MS compatible. It took several weeks and intervention by my IT team to reveal that many features were not available or functional on a MAC and my only option was to purchase this person a MS compatible laptop; once the computer issue was solved my VA was called to active duty. Belay knew the VA was in the National Guard and there was no support from Belay including back up of work product or cross training, redundancy when the VA was called to active duty. My experience resulted in significant loss productivity in time and money. Belay's solution was to "allow" me to break my agreement with them

My assistant is a perfect match! I love it and this has been a great experience.

The experience and service has been so easy and smooth. They did all the work to help me find a great EA

Great Experience with Belay
I had a wonderful experience with Belay. Laura found me an amazing VA. The process that Belay goes through to find you the exact right match for your needs is thorough and ensures you get the exact person you need.

On the positive side, Belay matched me very well and quickly with a qualified VA. Truly a good match. However, after a short period of time, the support I needed from the Belay team (apart from my VA's duties) significantly diminished. My VA also never resourced the Belay team/services for anything (for a couple of years, not once). Meanwhile my monthly fees went up and those were primarily covering the large Belay administrative team - AND come to find out, all along they were signficantly underpaying my VA. The buyout fees in your contract are steep, quite punitive, and by doing this, that is the only way Belay can keep you locked into their system. Read that contract well and don't count on negotiations. Your VA will add all the value to your organization and they are the ones who you will wish was well taken care of financially in the end. Belay folks are nice, many of them stay at home moms, but I experienced that they are paid well to have admin meetings that customers do not need. My VA deserved be paid better over time and Belay had no mechanism to help make that happen due to their belief that their internal team added long term value, which it did not. In the end, it was a sad and expensive break up.

They wasted my time and money.

I signed up with Belay because their marketing emphasizes a personal touch and customized support. Unfortunately, that couldn’t be further from my experience. I wasn’t listened to — every request I made seemed to be ignored or misunderstood. When I tried to express my concerns, I was essentially told I was the problem during the discovery call, which was both unprofessional and insulting.

To make things worse, they’ve locked me into a 30-day commitment even though I’m clearly unhappy, which is completely contrary to the “flexible” and “personalized” approach they claim to offer.

In short, the promises on their website and harassing marketing doesn’t match the reality. The whole experience has left me feeling misled and frustrated. I would strongly advise others to ask very specific questions before signing up — don’t assume you’ll get the kind of personal service they advertise. Assume you will waste your time and money.

Such a great company working to help business owners get back to doing what they love.