People assume accurate data entry is a talent — "she's just careful." After years of gradebooks, school records, CRMs and spreadsheets, I can tell you it is not a talent. It is a set of habits that assume I will make mistakes and catch them on purpose.
Enter in batches, check in batches
Typing and verifying are different modes. I enter a block of records, then check that block before starting the next. Checking while typing breaks the rhythm and catches less. A finished batch also gives a natural stopping point — errors cluster where tiredness starts, and batches reveal that.
Sort to expose duplicates
Duplicates hide in entry order. Sorting a list by name, then by email, then by phone number shows near-identical rows sitting side by side that no scroll-through would ever catch. This is my single highest-value check.
Spot-check against the source
I re-open a random sample of records — say every twentieth row — and compare each field with the original document. If the sample is clean, the batch is probably clean. If I find one error, the whole batch gets a full re-check, because errors travel in groups.
Respect the formats
- Dates in one agreed format, always
- Phone numbers stored as text so leading zeros survive
- No merged cells, no colour-coding as the only meaning
Say what you changed
Every cleanup ends with a short note: how many records, what was fixed, what looked questionable and was left for the owner to decide. Accuracy includes not silently "fixing" things that were not mine to decide.
Clean data is invisible when it works — everything downstream just runs. If your records need a careful pair of hands, data work is at the centre of my VA services.