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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Input Specialist

💰 $28,000 - $55,000

OperationsData EntryAdministration

🎯 Role Definition

An Input Specialist (also known as Data Entry Specialist or Data Input Clerk) is responsible for accurately entering, validating, reconciling and maintaining electronic and paper records in organizational systems (CRM, ERP, databases). The role ensures data quality, supports reporting and analytics teams, and enforces data governance and compliance best practices. Ideal candidates demonstrate high typing speed and accuracy, proficiency with spreadsheet and database tools, strong attention to detail, and the ability to work with confidential information in fast-paced environments.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Data Entry Clerk / Junior Data Entry
  • Office Administrator or Administrative Assistant
  • Customer Service Representative with data handling responsibilities

Advancement To:

  • Data Coordinator / Data Quality Analyst
  • Database Administrator (junior)
  • Business Analyst or Operations Analyst

Lateral Moves:

  • Records Management Specialist
  • Billing / Claims Processor
  • Compliance or Regulatory Data Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Accurately enter high volumes of customer, transactional, financial, or medical information into CRM, ERP, or bespoke database systems while maintaining a minimum accuracy threshold and meeting daily/weekly throughput targets.
  • Validate and verify incoming data against source documents, correcting inconsistencies, resolving discrepancies with stakeholders, and documenting correction steps to maintain an auditable data trail.
  • Perform complex data cleansing and normalization tasks, including deduplication, standardization of fields, and formatting to ensure consistency across multiple systems and reporting feeds.
  • Reconcile batch uploads and automated imports with source files and ledger records; investigate and resolve mismatches by coordinating with finance, sales, operations, or clinical teams.
  • Execute data migration tasks for system upgrades, go-lives, and platform consolidations by building, testing, and running import templates and validation scripts under data migration plans.
  • Maintain and update master data records (customer, vendor, product, inventory) with appropriate metadata, effective dating, and governance controls to avoid downstream reporting errors.
  • Scan, index, and tag paper documents using OCR and document management systems; verify OCR accuracy and correct parsing errors to maintain searchable digital records.
  • Create and follow standardized data entry templates, macros, and automated workflows (Excel VBA, scripts) to streamline repetitive tasks while preserving compliance with data protection policies.
  • Support ad-hoc reporting and extraction requests by exporting, filtering, and formatting datasets for business users, analysts, and auditors, ensuring data privacy controls are applied.
  • Monitor and report on data quality metrics (accuracy, completeness, timeliness) and raise tickets for systemic issues to data governance or IT teams for root cause remediation.
  • Apply established data coding, categorization and classification schemes (e.g., ICD, product SKUs, GL codes) to transactional records while consulting SMEs for ambiguous cases.
  • Manage confidential and sensitive information in accordance with HIPAA, GDPR, or internal privacy policies; execute data access requests and de-identification when required for analysis.
  • Troubleshoot import/export errors, script failures, and connectivity issues with ETL tools; coordinate with IT to resolve system-level problems and implement preventive checks.
  • Participate in cross-functional data quality improvement initiatives, providing input on pain points, contributing sample datasets, and validating outcomes of process improvements.
  • Conduct quality assurance audits on a sample of entered records, prepare discrepancy reports, and implement corrective actions such as retraining or process refinement.
  • Maintain daily logs and documentation for data handling procedures, exceptions, and escalation outcomes to create institutional knowledge and aid auditing processes.
  • Train and mentor junior data entry staff or temporary contractors on system navigation, data standards, and productivity best practices to ensure consistent team performance.
  • Assist in building and maintaining lookup tables, reference files and validation rules within systems to reduce manual errors and improve system-side enforcement of business rules.
  • Implement barcode or scanning workflows for inventory or document intake processes to accelerate capture speed and minimize manual transcription errors.
  • Liaise with customer service, sales and operations teams to clarify ambiguous entries, obtain missing information, and ensure that updates reflect real-world statuses and transactions.
  • Prepare and submit data for periodic reconciliations (monthly close, billing cycles, clinical reporting), coordinating timelines and adjustments with downstream teams.
  • Configure and test form fields, validation rules and access permissions in CRM/ERP platforms to support controlled data intake and minimize security risks.
  • Maintain awareness of regulatory and company policy changes that affect data capture, retention and disposal; apply updates to forms and entry procedures accordingly.
  • Participate in agile ceremonies (stand-ups, retrospectives) and sprint work to support prioritized data ingestion and cleanup backlog items, contributing to continuous improvement.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Fast and accurate data entry skills with minimum sustained typing speed expectations (e.g., 50–80 WPM) and proven accuracy metrics.
  • Proficiency with Microsoft Excel (VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, PivotTables, data cleansing functions, formulas) for data manipulation and reporting.
  • Practical experience with CRM and ERP systems (Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, Oracle NetSuite) for data capture and maintenance.
  • Familiarity with database query basics (SQL SELECT, JOIN, WHERE) to extract and validate datasets for reconciliation and reporting.
  • Experience with data import/export tools, CSV/TSV processing, APIs for bulk uploads, and ETL/uploader utilities.
  • Knowledge of data quality techniques: deduplication, normalization, lookups, reference table maintenance, and validation rule creation.
  • Working knowledge of OCR, document management systems, and scanning workflows for digitizing paper records.
  • Basic scripting or automation experience (Excel VBA, Python scripts, or R) to automate repetitive validation and transformation tasks.
  • Understanding of data privacy, security, and compliance (GDPR, HIPAA, SOX controls) when handling protected or regulated information.
  • Experience with ticketing and issue-tracking systems (Jira, ServiceNow) to log, prioritize and follow up on data incidents.
  • Familiarity with record retention policies and document lifecycle management (archiving, deletion, legal holds).
  • Strong competency with data visualization/export formats for handing off clean datasets to BI tools (Power BI, Tableau) or analysts.

Soft Skills

  • Meticulous attention to detail with a demonstrated track record of maintaining high accuracy under volume-driven conditions.
  • Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to investigate and resolve complex data discrepancies independently.
  • Effective written and verbal communication skills to clarify data issues with non-technical stakeholders and document procedures.
  • Time management and organizational skills to prioritize competing tasks and meet strict cycle deadlines.
  • Team player attitude with the ability to collaborate cross-functionally and escalate issues appropriately.
  • Adaptability to changing business rules, systems and processes while maintaining data integrity.
  • Customer-centric mindset to ensure data supports excellent internal and external user experiences.
  • Discretion and professionalism when working with sensitive or confidential information.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • High school diploma or equivalent with demonstrated clerical/data entry experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Associate degree or Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Information Systems, Health Information Management or related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Information Management / Data Management
  • Business Administration
  • Computer Science / Information Systems
  • Health Information Management / Medical Records
  • Finance, Accounting or Statistics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 1–5 years of hands-on data entry, data processing, records management or administrative experience.

Preferred:

  • 2–4 years in a data entry or data quality role within an industry-relevant environment (healthcare, finance, e-commerce, logistics), plus familiarity with CRM/ERP platforms and basic SQL or scripting for data validation.
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