Every new DotVA placement gets the same day-one stack. We’ve calibrated this over 48+ placements. Here’s exactly what’s on it, why, and what it costs.

Email – Google Workspace on your domain

The VA needs an email on the client’s domain ([email protected], not the VA’s personal Gmail). Reasons:

Customers trust an on-domain email
You retain control if the VA leaves
Email signatures match brand
2FA + audit logs through Workspace admin

Cost to client: $8.40/month (Business Starter). 5 minutes to set up.

1Password Teams (or Bitwarden)

This is the non-negotiable one. Every credential the VA needs lives in 1Password. Never in email. Never in Slack. Never in a Google Doc.

Why this is mandatory:

Shared vaults give your VA scoped access without ever knowing the password
Audit log shows who accessed what when
Revoke access in one click when the placement ends
Strong randomly-generated passwords for every login

Cost: USD $7.99/user/month. Pays for itself the first time a VA tells you a customer’s password was leaked in a phishing email (and yours wasn’t, because you used 1Password).

Claude Pro

The VA’s primary AI tool. Claude is stronger than ChatGPT on long-form writing, document analysis, and reasoning. Most of the AI workflow guides on this site assume Claude.

Cost: USD $20/month. Worth it if the VA uses AI for more than 10 minutes a day, which they should be by week two.

ChatGPT Plus

Secondary AI tool. Wins on image generation, web browsing, GPT-store integrations, and voice. Both ChatGPT and Claude in the stack is roughly the cost of one bad meeting per month.

Cost: USD $20/month.

Loom

Async video. The VA records a 90-second walkthrough of a tricky question; the client watches it later. Saves both sides from forcing live meetings for things that aren’t urgent.

Cost: free starter plan covers most placements; $12.50/month for Business if heavy usage.

Slack or Telegram

Pick one for daily comms. We use Slack for client-facing channels and Telegram for internal DotVA team coordination. Email is for external customers only.

Cost: Slack free for most teams; $7.25/user for pro features. Telegram is free.

Notion (or ClickUp or Linear)

One project tool for SOPs, task tracking, weekly status reports, client documentation. Pick one and stick with it.

Cost: free Personal plan covers a 2-person setup; $10/user/month for Team plan.

The total

About $80/month per VA on tools, before you’ve paid the VA themselves. Most clients call this excessive when they hear the breakdown. It is not. It is the cost of running a professional remote workflow vs a chaotic one.

The reason DotVA clients get 1.5-2x output per dollar vs cheap marketplace placements: the stack. Every tool here pays back in saved hours within a week.

The stack is in our tools guide with the actual setup walkthrough. Want help configuring it? Book a discovery call.