What Is a Data Entry Virtual Assistant?

A Data Entry Virtual Assistant is an experienced independent contractor who takes care of various data entry tasks for a business, executive, or entrepreneur, from a remote location. The main responsibilities of these experts include entering data from different sources into the company’s CRM, resolving all kinds of data discrepancies, and ensuring the company’s documents remain complete, accurate, and secure. 

What Does a Data Entry Virtual Assistant Do?

The exact responsibilities of a Data Entry Virtual Assistants depend on the employer’s requirements and business needs. That said, these VAs typically provide online, offline, product, accounting, insurance, and logistics-based data entry services. 

Here are the most common tasks businesses outsource to Data Entry Virtual Assistants:

• Data Management—While it’s crucial to have a data management framework, it’s equally important for team members to focus on their primary responsibilities. A good example is of a marketer who puts more time into data entry than into doing research and developing effective strategies. Data Entry VAs will free your staff from doing mundane tasks related to data management and processing. They will manage various stages of data management—from collecting information to verifying data accuracy
• Data Entry and Processing—If the data on weekly reports is incorrect or has the wrong client information or a missing inventory, your business can be affected drastically. For this reason, you need data entry professionals to manage and update your company’s database with new inputs and organize it efficiently. They will categorically store data, filter out unnecessary information, convert the existing data into a suitable format, and maintain it for future references
• Data Review & Analysis—Data Entry VAs check data inputs to ensure their accuracy and relevance. They will compile and sort information, research data to complete company documentation, and ensure the data remains secure. While strategic reports aren’t their main responsibility, they help internal staff by giving access to data sources and responding to data related queries

How Much Does It Cost To Hire a Data Entry Virtual Assistant?

The cost for hiring a VA varies depending on the hiring company’s requirements, scope of work, and project length. The salary of a Data Entry VA will also depend on their qualifications, work experience, skills, and knowledge in the field. 

According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary for this role across the United States is approximately $33,799. The hourly wage is somewhere between $15 to $20, though this may vary from $10 to $50+ since VAs can set their own rates. 

Regardless of what rate you agree on, contracting a Data Entry VA is a much more cost-effective option than hiring a full-time employee for the role. Full-time employees are on a fixed payroll regardless of the scope of work, while most VAs are paid only for the hours worked.

Here’s are other reasons to hire a Virtual Assistant:

• More time to focus on business-critical tasks—Data entry is seldom a task that takes up an entire workday. That’s why most businesses divide data entry among different roles within the company. As a result, employees spend anywhere from 2 to 6+ hours every week on data entry. That’s almost an entire day per team member, each week, that’s spent on menial, tedious tasks. You can outsource data entry to a skilled Virtual Assistant and free up your team’s time to focus on their primary responsibilities and high-impact tasks
• Access to a global talent pool—Since data entry can be done remotely, you’re not limited by your company’s geographic location and can hire from anywhere in the world. This allows you to outsource data entry to experienced VAs for a fraction of the cost of hiring a full-time employee for the same job
• Zero overhead costs—The only cost associated with hiring a Virtual Assistant is the hourly rate you agree upon. You don’t have to provide office space and equipment or pay for the benefits full-time employees are entitled to, such as PTO, sick leave, insurance, maternity leave, etc. On top of that, VAs pay their own taxes

Expert Tips on Hiring a Data Entry Virtual Assistant

While a Data Entry Virtual Assistant can be an invaluable asset to your business, you can’t just hire the first VA you come across. You’ll be sharing sensitive company information with the Virtual Assistant, so you need to make sure that the person you end up choosing is meticulous, competent, and reliable.

If you choose a VA based on low rates alone, it might cost you a lot more in the long run. You’d have to constantly micromanage them, which defeats the purpose of outsourcing these tasks. On top of that, any errors during data entry can have a strong negative impact on your business.

Here are a few useful tips that will help you find the right Data Entry Virtual Assistant for your business: 

1. Write a super specific job post—In order to write a rock-solid job description, you need to describe the duties and responsibilities of the role in great detail. List the exact tasks you want to outsource to a VA, as well as the skills, experience, and tool proficiencies required to perform said task well
2. Test candidates—Don’t hire a VA based on their portfolio or profile alone. Portfolios are often embellished and don’t accurately represent someone’s capabilities. To remove any doubt, test every candidate that passes the initial screening. Interview promising candidates and ask plenty of questions to assess relevant skills and the background. This way, you will eliminate the individuals who aren’t the right fit for your company
3. Automate your hiring process—Manually reviewing dozens, if not hundreds of applications can quickly become overwhelming, especially if the applications are coming in from a couple different sources. On top of evaluating each candidate, you’d have to respond to hundreds of emails asking the same transactional questions. To prevent your hiring process from deteriorating into complete chaos, you should set up an automated hiring funnel with Workello

Hire a Reliable Data Entry Virtual Assistant Faster

You can think of Workello as the perfect virtual hiring assistant. Our fully automated hiring funnel is the product of countless hours, over $100,000, and dozens of iterations. With Workello, you can automate testing, scheduling, and email correspondence with candidates so you can focus on scaling your business and maximizing revenue.

Here’s how Workello makes hiring a Data Entry Virtual Assistant a breeze:

1. Signup for a free Workello account and launch your automated, pre-configured hiring funnel in less than 3 minutes
2. Post your job ads across LinkedIn, Monster, Facebook, Indeed, and all your other hiring channels and link to your Workello job ad
3. See all your candidates in a single, unified Workello dashboard, regardless of which hiring channel they applied from
4. Reject, test, interview, and send offers to Data Entry Virtual Assistants with a single click
5. Filter out unqualified candidates with Workello’s built-in testing feature
6. Trigger automated emails and move candidates through your hiring funnel simply by changing their status from a drop-down menu
7. Minimize transactional questions by enabling candidates to see a live status page that tells them exactly which stage of your hiring funnel they are in

Don’t waste hundreds of hours looking for a perfect Data Entry VA that’s supposed to save you valuable time. Set up a fully automated hiring funnel with Workello, cut your hiring costs by 50%, and start accepting ideal candidates today!

Sign up now and review 5 Data Entry VA tests for free.