7 Tips to Improve Data Entry Process Significantly

How to Significantly Improve the Data Entry Process?

Every operational organization deals with data on a daily basis.  This data needs to be managed effectively so that it can be utilized as needed. The process of entering values into computer software in a systematically processed way is known as data entry. The process can be manual or automated meaning it can be handled by a person or a machine. The process of data entry by an operator is known as manual data entry. If it is entered by a machine, it is known as automated electronic data entry. To make this process efficient and accurate, certain guidelines must be followed.

1. Focus on Useful Data: As we all know, data entry is a time-consuming process, so the focus has to be placed on the data that is most useful to the organization. The documents that aren’t useful or don’t contain any useful information have to be removed. An operator should only focus on important documents. Not focusing on unnecessary data saves time during the operator’s day.

2. Analysis of Errors: There are two methods used to analyze errors. These are the cluster & event analyses. These methods can be explained as follows:

• Cluster Analysis:  Clustering involves identifying common groups and analyzing them for errors.  A data entry process gets repetitive when similar processes are needlessly repeated with the same kind of errors. Once you identify a single error in a process, it can be easily correlated with the other processes in the same cluster.
• Event Analysis: This involves analyzing the root cause of an error that leads to a particular event. Once you have found the root cause, you can avoid such incidents and reduce your data entry errors.

3.Data Profiling:

Analyzing a set of data for its correctness, completion, and accuracy is known as data profiling. In short, you make sure the data being used is reasonably valid. Data profiling reduces needless corrections & saves money and time throughout the process.

4. Introduce Smart Forms:

Forms typically require different input values for different categories or sections. For example, a mobile number is a numeric value and a name is an alphabetic value. In this case, we’d need to design a smart form that prevents users from entering numbers into the “name” category and letters into the “mobile number” category by analyzing the characters entered.

5. Standardization of Processes:

Once we are done with the process definition (data segregation & analysis), we can proceed to the process standardization. Process standardization involves preparing checklists for an operator so that they understand what points need to be cross-checked before submission.

6. Introduce Automated Process:

Data entry services involves manual work, but if we could find a way to automate the manual process, this will save time & money. Removal of manual processes increases the accuracy of the overall system. The automation of processes can be done with the help of software that extracts data from images, eliminating the need to manually extract it.

7. Observation & Feedback:

Manual data entry requires the team to be closely monitored and critiqued in a timely manner. Feedback should be a two-way conversation where we take corrective measures to avoid errors. Observations are to be recorded and used for further referencing of process optimization.

You can use these methods to reduce your manual efforts and increase your profits. Being a leading data entry company, we can optimize various processes to save time so that you can focus on core business activities.