Reduce Manual Data Entry Errors with IRIS Document Management

By Adam Walters | 09/20/2024 | 4 min read

For most companies, data entry errors are accepted mistakes. They’ve accepted that they are going to happen and believe there’s nothing they can do to stop them. However, with IRIS Document Management, it’s possible to significantly reduce and eliminate data entry errors.

Learn more about manual data entry errors, what causes them, the cost of them, and how IRIS Document Management can help you reduce them within your organization.

How Common Are Data Entry Errors?

In most industries, it’s accepted that manual data entry will have an error rate of anywhere from 1% to 5%. In industries where there is a higher standard for accuracy and consistency, like medicine, the error rate can dip below 1% but this is an outlying statistic.

When dealing with longer and/or more complex information, the data entry error rate can spike as high as 14%. This may seem extreme, but it’s expected, as complex data entry provides more opportunities for error. For example, writing down a client’s name and address is less likely to have an error compared to transcribing a client’s annual payroll withholdings broken down by pay period.

How Expensive Are Data Entry Errors?

Errors are small slips of the finger while you’re typing, and don’t appear at first glance to be too dangerous. Is it really that bad to spell your client’s name with a C instead of a K? Or maybe if you make a typing error and hit a key next to what you intended to write, so you write “paychel” instead of “paycheck”. But how expensive is a data entry error?

The impact of a manual data entry error depends on where the mistake is made. For less impactful errors, cost lies in the time and effort it takes for your team to identify the error and fix it. On the other hand, simple mistakes in sensitive areas can lead to the loss of clients, fines, fees, and litigation.

For example, a simple slip-up on an invoice can drastically change it. A customer who wants 1,000 custom pens made at $0.50 compared to an invoice for 1,000 custom pens at a cost of $050 is the difference between a $500 invoice and a $50,000 invoice. Missing a decimal point when entering data is simple human error and not uncommon, but when dealing with payroll, accounts payable, or accounts receivable, the humble decimal point can lead to significant long-term losses. In the worst-case scenarios, those small errors can affect sensitive information like payroll and business contracts and can be grounds for legal actions (and the legal fees associated with the case), loss of clients, and fines.

What Causes Manual Data Entry Errors?

The accepted 1% error rate of manual data entry is because of human error. People aren’t perfect, and we make mistakes. The conditions around the work done can make that percentage significantly higher. Tasks that are consistently redundant and repetitive where hours on hours of a person’s day are spent working on the same type of data entry can lead to an employee feeling bored or letting their mind wander as they work. That level of distraction and detachment from the job being done will lead to higher error rates as employees aren’t involved in the work they are doing.

Another cause of increased data errors is the complexity of the data. The more complex and nuanced data points are, the more likely there will be errors. Complex data points are difficult to fact-check and make sure they are inputted correctly. For example, it’s easy to know that simple words like “street” is spelled wrong when it’s written “srteet”, but what about complex words like “oligosaccharide”? Is that spelled correctly? Or is it spelled, “oligosacharide”? If you’re not an expert in organic chemistry and molecular biology, there’s a good chance you don’t know the difference. The same thing can happen in data values in accounting, contracts, invoices, and payroll. Complex values and terms involved in even a common 1/10 Net 30 can feel like a different language and are difficult to ensure they are inputted correctly.

By the way, the first spelling of oligosaccharide was correct!

Reduce and Remote Data Entry Errors with IRIS Document Management

IRIS Document Management Solutions helps you create a bespoke database for your company that allows you to organize and manage all documents, files, and folders in your organization, but we do more than just organize your files. Our document management solution helps fight against manual data entry errors by identifying errors and duplications in your existing files, digitizing files, and creating an automatic process for future documents to be digitized and uploaded rather than having to be manually inputted.