An alternative to hiring a data entry clerk
Records pulled from emails, PDFs and forms, checked and entered in your system, with a person reviewing every exception.
Instead of hiring a data entry clerk, you can hand the work to Dull: a done-for-you service that extracts, checks and enters up to 300 standard records a month into your system, with a person reviewing every exception, for a flat monthly fee, month to month, with a fixed quote on a 15-minute call. Most businesses are live in about a week.
Here’s what the role involves, what a hire really costs once benefits are counted, how the alternatives compare, and the limits of what we take on.
What a data entry clerk actually does
- Key information from forms, PDFs, emails and spreadsheets into a system.
- Check entries for missing fields, typos and wrong formats.
- Update and clean up existing records.
- Find and merge duplicates.
- Pull simple exports and reports.
What hiring a data entry clerk really costs
BLS tracks data entry clerks as data entry keyers (SOC 43-9021), about 127,000 US workers in May 2025.
| Cost | Source | |
|---|---|---|
| Median salary | $41,340 a year ($19.88 an hour) | BLS, May 2025, SOC 43-9021 |
| Average salary | $43,310 a year | BLS, May 2025 |
| Benefits and payroll taxes | about $17,800 a year | BLS employer costs, June 2026 |
| All-in cost of a median hire | about $59,100 a year, or $4,920 a month | Median salary ÷ 0.70 |
| Time to fill the seat | a median of 39 days, before training | SHRM, 2026 |
| Dull | Flat monthly fee, month to month, quoted on a 15-minute call | How Dull pricing works |
BLS reports that wages make up 70.0% of what private employers spend per worker, and benefits and legally required payroll taxes make up the other 30.0% (Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026). Dividing the median salary by 0.70 gives the all-in figure. It still leaves out job ads, recruiter fees, equipment, software seats and the hours you spend training, so the real cost of a hire is higher. Pay also varies by city: the BLS page has state and metro figures.
This isn’t a like-for-like comparison, and we won’t pretend it is. A full-time employee works about 2,080 hours a year and can pick up anything you hand them. Dull’s pilot covers one process, up to 300 standard records a month. If the seat is bigger than that, tell us on the call and we’ll tell you honestly whether we can cover it.
Your options compared
| Option | Monthly cost | Time to start | Who checks the work | Commitment | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hire an employee | about $4,920 all in | median 39 days to fill, then training | You | Employment | Steady full-time volume, or work that needs someone on site |
| Temp agency | about $5,170 to $5,690 | usually faster than hiring | You | Per assignment | Short gaps, like covering leave |
| Offshore virtual assistant | about $571 to $900 hired directly, before agency fees | days to weeks to find and train | You | Varies | Broad, changing tasks when you have time to manage |
| Outsourced bookkeeper | varies by firm and volume | varies | The bookkeeper | Usually monthly | Accurate books, reconciliations and month-end close |
| Dull | Flat monthly fee, quoted on a 15-minute call | about a week | A person reviews every exception; you get a Friday summary | Month to month | One repeatable process you want off your plate now |
Temp cost is the median hourly wage plus a typical agency markup of 50% to 65% (American Society of Employers), over 2,080 hours a year. The virtual assistant range is the middle half of full-time asking rates in a 2026 survey of 1,385 Filipino VA applicants (Outsource Accelerator).
- Hiring gets you a dedicated person who learns your business and can take on anything. You also carry the salary, benefits, recruiting, training, and the gap when they’re out or leave.
- A temp agency covers the seat fast with no recruiting on your side. You pay the markup, and you still train and check the work, sometimes again with each new temp.
- An offshore virtual assistant is the cheapest per month. You find, train and manage them, check the work yourself, and handle time zones and turnover.
- A bookkeeper keeps your books accurate and closes the month. Daily invoicing, entry and chasing are a different job, so ask whether they’re included and what they cost.
- Dull is a set price, live in about a week, with a person reviewing every exception and a weekly report. It covers defined, repeatable work, not everything a full-time employee would do.
What Dull handles and what it doesn’t
What we handle
- Extract: details pulled from what you already receive: emails, PDFs, scans, purchase orders, web forms and spreadsheets.
- Validate: every record checked against your rules: required fields, formats, totals, duplicates and your customer or product lists.
- Enter: clean records go into your system, whether that’s QuickBooks, your CRM, your order system or a shared spreadsheet.
- Exceptions: anything unclear is set aside, reviewed by a person and sent to you with the reason and the question. Nothing is guessed.
- Report: every Friday, records done, exceptions and anything blocked.
A standard record is one document of one agreed type, like an order, an invoice or an intake form, with the same fields each time (up to about 20). If it can be handled with the same steps every time, it’s standard. Intake forms into a CRM, supplier invoices into QuickBooks and new customer setup are typical first processes.
What we don’t do
- Paying bills, sending payments or moving money. You approve and pay.
- Payroll, tax filings or anything that needs a licence.
- Approval decisions, like credit limits, refunds, write-offs or payment plans. We prepare them; you decide.
- Medical or dental patient records (HIPAA) and card numbers. They aren’t part of the standard pilot: if your work involves them, tell us on the call and we’ll go through what’s needed before anything starts.
- Phone calls with your customers. The pilot works by email and in your systems.
How the switch works
- A 15-minute call. Tell us which seat is empty or which work is piling up. We’ll tell you straight whether we can take it on.
- We learn your rules. You give us a login with only the access the job needs, about 20 examples of finished work, your “always” and “never” rules, and one person who answers our questions.
- Shadow first. We run alongside your current process on real records, and you check our output against yours before we take anything over.
- Live in about a week. Then you get a summary every Friday: what got done, what’s waiting on you and anything blocked. It’s month to month, so if we stop being worth it, you cancel.
When hiring is the better choice
Hire if the work changes every day and needs someone to decide what to do with each item, if it involves handwritten or physical paperwork on site, or if you need far more than one process covered by one person.
Related
Covering more than one seat? See the alternative to hiring an order entry clerk, the alternative to hiring an administrative assistant, the alternative to hiring an accounts payable clerk, and what Dull costs.
Frequently asked questions
The median US data entry keyer earned $41,340 in May 2025, according to BLS. With benefits and payroll taxes that is about $59,100 a year, or $4,920 a month. Dull charges a flat monthly fee, month to month, usually well below the all-in cost of a full-time hire. You get a fixed quote on a 15-minute call.
One document of one agreed type, like an order, an invoice or a form, with the same fields each time (up to about 20). If it can be handled with the same steps every time, it’s standard.
No. Dull is a service. We set it up, run it and are accountable for the result. You get a Friday summary and a short list of questions when something needs your call.
It’s set aside and reviewed by a person. If it needs your decision, we ask you before anything is entered.
We only use logins you create for us, with the narrowest access the job needs, and you can remove them at any time. We sign a confidentiality agreement before we touch your systems.