What Does a Data Entry Clerk Do? Tasks & Cost

A data entry clerk takes information from one place and records it accurately in another, such as a spreadsheet, a CRM, an accounting system, or a database. The job is part typing and part quality control: enter the data, check it against the source, fix errors, and keep records clean and current. If your team is buried in invoices, orders, leads, or paperwork, a data entry clerk clears that backlog so the rest of the company can act on numbers it can trust.

This guide covers what a data entry clerk does day to day, the tasks and skills to look for, what one costs in the US, and how a bilingual hire from Latin America compares on price and working hours.

What does a data entry clerk do?

At its core, the role keeps your business records correct and usable. A clerk receives information from documents, forms, emails, receipts, or recordings, then enters it into your systems and confirms it is right. Some clerks focus on a single system, like an order platform or a medical records tool. Others handle a mix of admin work and double as a general virtual assistant.

The output is easy to describe and easy to undervalue: clean data you can rely on. Bad data costs money. A wrong address ships a package to the wrong city. A mistyped invoice number delays a payment. A duplicate lead wastes a sales rep's morning. A good clerk prevents those small, expensive mistakes before they reach a customer or a bank statement.

Common data entry clerk tasks and responsibilities

Most data entry clerk job descriptions include some mix of the tasks below. Use this as a checklist when you write your own listing.

• Transcribe source documents. Invoices, purchase orders, receipts, delivery notes, contracts, and handwritten or scanned forms entered into the system of record.
• Create and update customer and vendor records. New contacts, address and payment changes, order history, and status fields kept current in the CRM or ERP.
• Verify entries against the source. Check line by line, reconcile totals, and flag anything that does not match instead of guessing at it.
• Clean existing records. Merge duplicates, standardize how names, dates, phone numbers and addresses are formatted, and fill in missing required fields.
• Run imports and exports. Prepare CSV and Excel files, map columns to the right fields, and confirm row counts after every load.
• Produce recurring reports. Pull the weekly sales, inventory or receivables aging report on schedule and send it to whoever depends on it.
• Maintain the filing system. Name, tag and store digital documents so somebody else can find them without asking.
• Keep an exceptions log. A running list of unreadable documents, conflicting values and missing information, with who was asked about each and when.
• Handle confidential data correctly. Follow access rules for payment, health and personnel information, and never move it into unapproved tools.

On a small team, the same person often supports billing and light bookkeeping, so data entry and basic finance work tend to overlap.

Types of data entry

Not all data entry is the same. The common types include:

• Numeric and financial entry. Invoices, expenses, payroll hours and bank transactions, where a single transposed digit is a real error with a cost attached.
• Textual and document entry. Contracts, forms, survey responses and correspondence transcribed into a database or content system.
• CRM and sales entry. Leads, contact details, call notes and pipeline stages kept current so the forecast reflects reality.
• Inventory and order entry. SKUs, quantities, shipping details and returns recorded in an order or warehouse platform.
• Medical and legal entry. Patient records, insurance claims and case files, where confidentiality rules and formatting standards are strict and non-negotiable.
• Image and scan-based entry. Reading values off scanned PDFs, photos or handwritten forms that OCR cannot process reliably on its own.
• Data cleaning and migration. Deduplicating, reformatting and moving records out of an old system into a new one without losing history.

Skills a good data entry clerk needs

Speed matters, but accuracy matters more. The best clerks pair a fast, correct keyboard with the patience to check their own work. Look for these data entry clerk skills:

• Typing speed measured with accuracy. Test both together. Raw words per minute means nothing if the error rate climbs alongside it.
• Spreadsheet fluency. Filters, sorting, text-to-columns, VLOOKUP or XLOOKUP, and pivot tables for spotting outliers in a large sheet.
• Working knowledge of your systems. The specific CRM, accounting tool or order platform the work lives in, or a demonstrated record of learning one quickly.
• Attention to detail. The habit of re-reading a row before saving it, and of noticing when a total does not look right.
• Pattern recognition. Catching that one vendor has been entered three different ways, or that a batch of dates flipped from DD/MM to MM/DD partway through.
• Clear written communication. The ability to raise a question about an ambiguous document rather than guessing and moving on.
• Discretion. A track record of handling payment, personnel and health information without shortcuts.
• Self-management. Hitting a daily volume target without supervision, and saying so honestly when the backlog is growing instead of shrinking.

For US small businesses, one more skill is worth its weight: language. A bilingual clerk who reads and writes English and Spanish can process documents from Spanish-speaking customers, vendors, and staff with no translation step in the middle.

What does a data entry clerk cost?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wage for data entry keyers in the United States was about $18.17 an hour, which works out to roughly $37,790 a year (May 2023 figures). That is the pay alone. Add payroll taxes, benefits, software, equipment, and a desk, and the real cost of an in-house clerk runs well above the headline number.

Hiring a remote clerk from Latin America changes the math. You get someone in a US-friendly time zone, often bilingual, at a fraction of the in-house cost. Here is a side by side view.

For a deeper breakdown of remote pricing, see Virtustant's guide on how much a nearshore virtual assistant costs.

Data entry clerk vs data entry specialist

The titles get used interchangeably, and the line between them is fuzzy. In practice, "clerk" tends to describe high-volume entry and verification, while a data entry specialist often handles a wider scope: data cleaning, light analysis, system administration, and process documentation. If your work is mostly repetitive entry, a clerk is fine. If you need someone to own the data and improve how it flows, hire at the specialist level.

When should you hire a data entry clerk?

A few signs it is time:

• A founder, office manager or sales rep is spending hours a week on entry that anyone trained could do.
• Invoices, orders or leads are sitting in a queue rather than being processed the day they arrive.
• You have stopped trusting a report, and the problem is the data underneath it rather than the report itself.
• Duplicate or conflicting customer records keep surfacing in the CRM.
• Errors are reaching customers: wrong addresses, wrong quantities, wrong invoice amounts.
• Month-end close runs late every cycle because records were not entered as the work happened.
• Document volume has grown with the business and nobody has actually been given the job of keeping up with it.

If two or more of those sound familiar, the cost of a clerk is usually smaller than the cost of the errors and lost time you carry now.

Hiring a bilingual data entry clerk from Latin America

This is where Virtustant earns its keep. Instead of posting a listing and sorting through hundreds of resumes, you describe the work and review a short list of vetted, bilingual candidates who already fit your hours. Applicants and candidates pay Virtustant nothing: no fees to apply, to be placed, or to stay placed. Latin America sits in time zones close to the US, so your clerk is online when your team is, not wrapping up the day as you start yours. For the full process, read Virtustant's walkthrough on how to hire a virtual assistant from Latin America.

Virtustant places vetted, bilingual professionals from Latin America with US small businesses at up to 70% less than US hiring costs. For data entry, that means accurate records, working hours that match yours, and no translation gap on Spanish-language paperwork.

Frequently asked questions

What does a data entry clerk do all day?

A data entry clerk spends the day entering information into spreadsheets, a CRM, or an accounting system, checking it against source documents, fixing errors, and cleaning up existing records. The goal is accurate data the rest of the team can rely on.

What skills should a data entry clerk have?

Fast and accurate typing, comfort with spreadsheets, familiarity with your CRM or accounting tool, strong attention to detail, and discretion with private data. For US businesses, a bilingual English and Spanish clerk adds clear value.

How much does a data entry clerk cost?

In the US, the median wage for data entry keyers was about $18.17 an hour, or roughly $37,790 a year, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2023), before taxes and benefits. Virtustant places remote data entry clerks from Latin America at up to 70% less than US hiring costs.

What is the difference between a data entry clerk and a data entry specialist?

A clerk usually focuses on high-volume entry and verification. A specialist takes on a wider scope, including data cleaning, light analysis, and improving how data moves between systems.

Need accurate data without adding a US salary to payroll? Talk to Virtustant and Virtustant will match you with a vetted, bilingual data entry clerk from Latin America who works your hours.

Virtustant Team