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Table of Contents

• What is Data Entry Software?
• The benefits of Data Entry Software
• Typical features of Data Entry Software
• The cost of Data Entry Software
• Considerations when purchasing data entry software
• Relevant Data Entry Software trends

What is Data Entry Software?

Data Entry Software is a software tool that automates the process of transferring data (e.g., numbers, figures) from one system to another. It helps businesses save countless hours of manual data entry by providing tools for automatic data extraction, cleansing, validation, and storage in a centralized system database.

Most data entry solutions can be integrated with any tools or applications that require extensive data entry. Some tools can also scan images, documents, spreadsheets, etc., to automatically capture data from them.

The benefits of Data Entry Software

Using data entry software can provide various benefits, including:

• Cost savings: Data entry tools help automate manual data entry processes and replace physical documents with digital copies. As a result, you save costs on hiring data entry staff as well as reduce paper usage and related expenses.
• More accuracy: When feeding data into the system, the software checks for accuracy. It first cleanses the data by flagging mistakes or inconsistencies. This ensures the details being entered are free from errors and discrepancies.
• Enhanced efficiency: The software provides a centralized database to store data. Centralized data storage offers all stakeholders up-to-date information, and entered records are readily available for everyone to use. It improves efficiency by eliminating confusions about data versions and the clutter associated with paperwork.
• Better data management: Data entry software automates the complete data management process, right from data validation to centralized data storage. It also creates a complete backup of the entered data, resulting in smooth operations across departments.

Typical features of Data Entry Software

• Data capture and transfer: Collect data from various sources and store it at a centralized location.
• Data retrieval: Retrieve data from your current database or information management system.
• Abbreviation detection: Detect and capture specific phrases, terms, or abbreviations from data.
• Data duplication: Create copies of datasets and store them at your selected location.
• Data entry verification: Check data for any errors or inconsistencies.
• Electronic forms: Access and share digital or electronic forms.
• Image capture: Scan the images of documents to automatically read and extract data.
• Optical character recognition (OCR): Recognize and capture printed or written text from inside digital images.

The cost of Data Entry Software

Most products in this market are priced on a per month basis. Pricing can be divided into three tiers based on the starting prices:

Price ranges*:

• $6 - $16
• $16 - $28
• $28+

*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest-priced offering found on vendor websites on Jan. 7, 2021. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentiles of the pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.

The above list summarizes pricing for the base plans of most products. An enterprise or premium product that is priced higher may include additional features such as an analytics dashboard, file type conversion, and machine learning capabilities.

Considerations when purchasing Data Entry Software

• Integration with other systems: The software you’re planning to purchase should integrate well with your current business systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), or accounting software. Integration functionality will allow you to seamlessly transfer data from other business software, so you can analyze it better.
• Data security: Data entry tools deal with various types of data, which can also be confidential in nature. Compromising the security of such data can lead to loss of customer trust, harm your company’s reputation, and even attract penalties from federal or state governments. Thus, choose a data entry tool that’s compliant with the various internal as well as external data security policies you’re supposed to follow.
• Mobile access: Mobile-enabled data entry software will let you and your employees collect data on the go. A mobile app will allow you to capture and store data, view reports, and access entries at any time and from any location.

Relevant Data Entry Software trends

• Growing popularity of robotic process automation (RPA) in data entry processes. RPA bots can be set up with specific data entry and integrity checks to reduce the chances of errors, fraud, and manipulation. The bots require minimal human supervision and start working as soon as they receive instructions. They help save costs by reducing human errors and bringing down the time needed to process data. A few software vendors already offer RPA-supported data entry tools. In the near future, more are expected to follow suit.