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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Data Entry Clerk

💰 $28,000 - $45,000

Data EntryAdministrativeOperations

🎯 Role Definition

This role requires a meticulous Data Entry Clerk responsible for accurately capturing, updating, validating and maintaining digital records across company systems. The ideal candidate demonstrates exceptional attention to detail, strong keyboarding skills, proficiency with MS Excel and common CRM/ERP platforms, and a commitment to data integrity and confidentiality. This role supports operations, finance, customer service, and compliance functions by converting paper and electronic source documents into structured, searchable data that drives business decisions.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Administrative Assistant with data processing responsibilities
  • Customer Service Representative who handled CRM updates
  • Temporary/Contract Data Entry Specialist supporting seasonal cycles

Advancement To:

  • Senior Data Entry Clerk / Team Lead
  • Data Analyst / Reporting Analyst (junior)
  • Records Manager or Document Control Specialist
  • Billing Specialist or Accounts Payable Clerk
  • Database Administrator (entry-level transition)

Lateral Moves:

  • Document Control Specialist
  • Billing or Invoicing Clerk
  • Inventory Control Clerk
  • CRM Administrator

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Accurately enter high volumes of alphanumeric information from paper forms, scanned documents, emails and electronic files into designated databases, CRM systems or ERP software while meeting predefined accuracy and throughput targets.
  • Verify and cross-check source documents and system records to identify and correct inconsistencies, missing fields, and data anomalies, logging corrections and escalation steps according to SOPs.
  • Perform routine data cleaning and deduplication activities — consolidating duplicate records, normalizing formatting, and standardizing fields (addresses, phone numbers, product codes) to ensure consistent reporting and downstream analytics.
  • Use advanced MS Excel functions (VLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, pivot tables, conditional formatting) and Google Sheets to manipulate datasets, reconcile records, generate ad-hoc extracts, and prepare summary sheets for stakeholders.
  • Maintain and organize electronic and physical filing systems by scanning, indexing, tagging and securely storing records to ensure rapid retrieval and compliance with retention policies.
  • Execute batch uploads and downloads of data using secure FTP, import utilities, or built-in CRM/ERP tools, validating post-load results and performing rollback or correction procedures when required.
  • Reconcile database balances and inventory counts by comparing system records to source documents and coordinating investigations with operations, procurement, or warehouse teams.
  • Apply standardized naming conventions, metadata tags and categorical taxonomies when classifying records to improve searchability, reporting accuracy and automated workflows.
  • Enter and update customer, vendor, product and transaction records in CRM and ERP systems (e.g., Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP Business One, Oracle NetSuite) following data governance rules.
  • Log and track data exceptions, incomplete submissions and document requests; liaise with internal teams to obtain missing information and close data gaps in a timely manner.
  • Run daily, weekly or monthly data quality checks and produce KPI reports on accuracy rates, processing volumes, backlog counts and turnaround times for team leads and managers.
  • Adhere strictly to confidentiality, privacy and security policies (GDPR, HIPAA where applicable) when handling personally identifiable information, financial records and sensitive documents.
  • Maintain productivity and quality metrics by balancing speed with accuracy, meeting or exceeding service level agreements (SLAs) for throughput and error rate.
  • Support data migration projects by mapping legacy fields to target schemas, preparing clean data extracts and validating migrated records to ensure continuity and completeness.
  • Configure and operate scanning hardware, optical character recognition (OCR) software and barcode readers, performing quality checks on OCR-converted text and correcting recognition errors.
  • Create and maintain standardized templates, data dictionaries and process checklists that document field definitions, acceptable values and common correction rules to reduce variance.
  • Support invoice processing and basic accounts reconciliation by entering billing information, matching purchase orders and helping prepare discrepancies for accounting review.
  • Train and mentor temporary staff or new hires on accurate data entry techniques, error-avoidance strategies and use of internal systems to scale operations during peak periods.
  • Implement and suggest continuous improvement opportunities by identifying repetitive manual tasks suitable for automation, macros or simple scripts (e.g., Excel VBA) to increase throughput and reduce errors.
  • Monitor and update compliance-related fields and audit logs to support internal and external audits, ensuring traceability and transparency of record changes.
  • Communicate proactively with cross-functional teams (customer service, sales, finance, operations) to clarify ambiguous submissions, prioritize urgent requests and ensure data integrity across systems.
  • Prepare routine exports, standardized reports and data summaries for business users, ensuring deliverables meet formatting and content expectations.
  • Maintain a daily log of work performed, exceptions handled and unresolved items, escalating high-impact data issues to supervisors for timely resolution.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and produce tailored data extracts for business users requiring customized views or analyses.
  • Assist with small-scale data analysis tasks such as trend spotting, basic pivot-based summaries and helping identify outliers for deeper investigation by analysts.
  • Contribute to process documentation updates and participate in user acceptance testing (UAT) during system changes that impact data capture workflows.
  • Provide weekend or after-hours coverage during month-end closes, inventory counts or audit periods as needed to ensure continuity of data operations.
  • Participate in team meetings and continuous improvement workshops to share frontline data issues and propose pragmatic fixes.
  • Help configure and test automated validation rules or data-entry forms to minimize common entry errors before full deployment.
  • Back up and maintain local copies of critical datasets within policy constraints to aid rapid recovery from system outages.
  • Assist records management in disposition activities (archive, retention schedule execution) and in responding to lawful data subject requests.
  • Coordinate with IT on hardware, connectivity and software issues affecting productivity and follow up until full resolution.
  • Support customer-facing teams by pulling historical transaction data or account notes to help resolve service or billing inquiries.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Fast and accurate typing skills with a verified typing speed (e.g., 55–80+ WPM) and experience meeting per-hour keystroke or record-entry targets.
  • Advanced MS Excel proficiency: VLOOKUP/INDEX-MATCH, pivot tables, conditional formatting, data validation, basic macros/VBA for automation.
  • Familiarity with CRM and ERP systems (examples: Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, SAP, Oracle) and the ability to enter and extract data reliably.
  • Experience with document scanning, OCR software (e.g., ABBYY, Adobe OCR), barcode scanners and document imaging workflows.
  • Strong data validation and reconciliation skills, including experience with deduplication, normalization and standardization of dataset values.
  • Basic SQL querying skills for extracting and validating records from relational databases (SELECT, JOIN, WHERE clauses).
  • Knowledge of data protection and privacy standards (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) and secure handling of PII and financial records.
  • Proficiency with Google Workspace (Google Sheets, Drive) and Microsoft Office suite for preparing exports, reports and documentation.
  • Experience with batch import/export tools, CSV formatting and troubleshooting encoding issues (UTF-8 vs ANSI).
  • Understanding of basic accounting/billing terms and ability to interpret invoices, purchase orders and remittance information for accurate entry.
  • Familiarity with ticketing systems and issue tracking (e.g., Jira, ServiceNow) to log and follow data issues.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional attention to detail and a relentless commitment to data accuracy and quality control.
  • Strong time management and organizational skills to prioritize workloads and meet SLA-based deadlines.
  • Clear written and verbal communication skills for interacting with internal stakeholders to clarify missing or ambiguous information.
  • High level of discretion, integrity and reliability when handling confidential and sensitive information.
  • Problem-solving orientation: able to identify root causes of recurring data errors and propose practical fixes.
  • Team player mentality and adaptability to changing priorities and seasonal fluctuations in workload.
  • Patience and persistence in repetitive tasks while maintaining a consistent accuracy rate.
  • Proactive mindset: anticipates data issues and takes preventive measures to reduce rework.
  • Customer-service focus when queries require follow-up with internal or external customers.
  • Ability to learn new software tools quickly and follow standardized procedures without supervision.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • High school diploma or equivalent; vocational certificate in office administration or data entry preferred.

Preferred Education:

  • Associate degree or certificate in Business Administration, Office Technology, Information Management or related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Office Administration
  • Business Administration
  • Information Management
  • Accounting (basic)
  • Records Management / Archival Studies

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 0–3 years of focused data entry experience; entry-level candidates with strong keyboarding and MS Office skills welcome.

Preferred:

  • 1–3 years of professional experience in a high-volume data entry or clerical role, including demonstrated Excel proficiency, familiarity with CRM/ERP systems and experience following data governance and privacy policies.
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