Double data entry: what rekeying costs and how to stop it

Key takeaways

Double data entry is typing the same information into more than one system. It costs time twice and adds an error each time it is retyped. In our example, rekeying 400 orders a month costs about 20 hours and creates around eight errors. The fix is to enter data once, at the source, and let it flow.

• Double data entry: the same details typed into two or more systems.
• About 20 hours a month in our 400-order example.
• Every rekeying adds a fresh chance of a mistake.
• Enter once at the source, then connect or import.

What is double data entry?

Double data entry is the manual re-entry of information that already exists in another system or document. A customer's details typed from an email into the CRM, then into the accounts package, then onto a delivery note, have been entered three times. Each copy can differ from the others.

The phrase also describes a deliberate quality technique in research, where two people key the same data to catch errors. This article is about the accidental kind.

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• The cost of manual processes, and what to fix first

Where does it hide in a small business?

It hides wherever two systems do not talk to each other, and wherever information arrives in a form that cannot be imported. The people doing it often do not see it as a problem, because it has always been part of the job.

• Web orders retyped into an accounts or stock system.
• Enquiry forms copied into a CRM.
• Timesheets retyped into payroll or invoicing.
• Supplier invoices keyed from PDFs.
• Spreadsheet figures copied into reports.

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What does it cost?

It costs the keying time, the time to find and correct errors, and the consequences of the errors that are not found. In an illustrative firm, 400 orders a month are retyped from the web shop into the accounts system at 3 minutes each: 20 hours a month. At a loaded £19.81 per worked hour that is about £396 a month, or roughly £4,750 a year.

If one retyped order in fifty contains a mistake, that is eight errors a month. A wrong address or quantity can cost far more than the keying time through a re-delivery, a credit note or a lost customer.

• Admin errors costing money? When accuracy says outsource
• The cost of poor quality in a small business

How do you stop it?

Stop it in order of cost. First, remove any copy that nobody needs. Second, use the import and export features your systems already have. Third, connect the systems with a built-in integration or a connector tool. Custom development is the last resort, justified only by high volume.

• 1. List every place each piece of data is entered.
• 2. Choose one system as the master for each type of data.
• 3. Delete copies with no purpose.
• 4. Use imports or built-in integrations.
• 5. Consider a custom link only for high volume.

• Straight-through processing: cut the touches per task
• Value stream mapping for service and admin processes

What if the systems cannot be connected?

If the systems cannot be connected at a sensible cost, the keying still has to happen, and the question becomes who does it and how accurately. A managed data entry team working to a checked process is cheaper per record than a senior employee doing it between other tasks, and is easier to quality-control.

That is a holding position, not a design. Review the integration options once a year, because they change.

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What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see in firms that have added software one tool at a time: each system was a good choice on its own, and together they need a person to carry data between them. That person is usually the office manager, and the carrying takes a day a week that appears nowhere in the software budget.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Double data entry checklist

Trace one customer record and one order through your systems.

• Count how many times each is typed.
• Name the master system for each data type.
• List copies nobody uses.
• Check each system's import and integration options.
• Estimate monthly keying hours and error rate.
• Decide which link to build or buy first.

• Cost baseline: measure today's cost before you change it
• How to reduce back-office costs in a UK small business

Next step

Send us the list of systems your team uses and what gets copied between them. We will show you which links are worth making and what to do about the rest.