Solution
Entered once. Available everywhere it matters.
Re-typing information isn't only a waste of time: every double entry is a chance for two records to drift apart. The same client with two addresses, the same invoice with two amounts. It always ends with an unhappy client or an expensive correction.
The analysis
Double entry hides better than you'd think
The obvious kind is easy to spot, where someone retypes from one system into another. But it also hides in exports that get re-imported, copy-paste between sheets, emails whose contents have to be keyed in somewhere, and paper forms transcribed later.
Our method is to map every path information takes, count the moments where somebody retypes data that already exists elsewhere, and put a number on it in minutes and in errors.
Then we remove it at the source, whether that means integrating the systems, entering the data where it originates, or capturing it automatically. The step disappears, not the data.
Self-assessment
Double entry in your operations
Count the statements that describe how you work today:
Common
- A new client is entered in more than one tool
- Invoices are prepared from an export
- Production data is transcribed back at the office
- Order emails are copied into a system
Expensive
- Data-entry errors create rework
- A periodic reconciliation is required
- Nobody knows which system holds the right value
- Your team avoids entering certain data because it takes too long