10 Skills Your Administrative Assistant Should Have

1. The Ability to Witness a Contract

This category encompasses a couple of different activities. The first activity that an administrative assistant should know how to do is to prepare a document for signing and witnessing. This includes proper layout, numbered margins, and providing a place for the involved parties to sign, as well as providing a place for the signing to be witnessed. These document layout skills can be acquired by reviewing sample contracts and business documents, and by reviewing instructions on how to format documents. Instructions for document formatting can be found in either the instruction manual that came with the word processing software, or they can be found by navigating through the software’s help menus.

The second activity that an administrative assistant should be able to do is to notarize a document. To do this they will need to become a notary public. The steps to obtain a notary public license vary from state to state. Some states require that the notary candidate take an exam that covers the situations that a notary public will face, and what the proper procedures for notarizing a document are. After this exam is passed the notary public candidate is able to purchase a notary license and is able to legally witness contracts and documents. Other states, on the other hand, only require a notary candidate to purchase a notary license in order to perform notary services. After obtaining a notary license the administrative assistant will need to purchase a notary seal and a logbook to document the notary services that they perform.

The ability to prepare a document for signing and the ability to legally witness contracts and transactions are both very beneficial functions that an administrative assistant can perform. These functions can save a small business $100s an hour in legal fees in the drafting of contracts and documents, and can save the business time and money by having a notary in house.