A
data entry clerk is a member of staff who reads hand-written or printed records and
typesTyping is the process of inputting text into a device, such as a typewriter, cell phone, computer, or a calculator, by pressing keys on a keyboard...
them into a
computerA computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century . These were the size of a large room, consuming as...
. They are sometimes employed on a temporary basis, but most large companies which have large amounts of data will hire on a near-permanent basis.
For a mailing company, data entry clerks might be required to type in reference numbers for items of mail which had failed to reach their destination, so that the relevant addresses could be deleted from the database used to send the mail out.
A
data entry clerk is a member of staff who reads hand-written or printed records and
typesTyping is the process of inputting text into a device, such as a typewriter, cell phone, computer, or a calculator, by pressing keys on a keyboard...
them into a
computerA computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century . These were the size of a large room, consuming as...
. They are sometimes employed on a temporary basis, but most large companies which have large amounts of data will hire on a near-permanent basis.
Examples
For a mailing company, data entry clerks might be required to type in reference numbers for items of mail which had failed to reach their destination, so that the relevant addresses could be deleted from the database used to send the mail out. If the company was compiling a database from addresses handwritten on a questionnaire, the person typing those in would be a data entry clerk. In a cash office, a data entry clerk might be required to type expenses into a database using numerical codes.
The number of data entry clerks working with physical hand-written documents has declined in modern times, as it has become easier for people in other positions within a company to enter their own data as it emerges rather than have a different employee do this task full time.
Optical character recognition
With advancing technology, many data entry clerks no longer work with hand-written documents. Instead, the documents are first scanned by an
optical character recognitionOptical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-editable text....
(OCR) system, which attempts to read the documents and process the data electronically. The accuracy of OCR, and hence the need for ongoing data entry clerks, varies widely based upon the quality of the original document as well as the scanned image. Although OCR technology is continually being developed, many tasks still require a data entry clerk to review the results afterwards to check the accuracy of the data and to manually key in any missed or incorrect information.
An example of this system would be one commonly used to document
health insuranceHealth insurance is insurance that pays for medical expenses. It is sometimes used more broadly to include insurance covering disability or long-term nursing or custodial care needs. It may be provided through a government-sponsored social insurance program, or from private insurance companies...
claims, such as for
Medicaid Medicaid is the United States health program for eligible individuals and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the states and federal government, and is managed by the states. Among the groups of people served by Medicaid are certain...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In some systems, the hand-written forms are first scanned into digital images that resemble PDF files. These files are then sent through the optical character recognition system, where many fields are completed by the computerized optical scanner. The data entry clerk then manually reviews the data already entered by OCR, corrects it if needed, and fills in any missing data by simultaneously viewing the image on-screen.
The accuracy of personal records, as well as billing or financial information, is usually of great importance to the general public as well as the health care provider. Sensitive or vital information such as this is often checked many times, by both clerk and machine, before being accepted.