An alternative to hiring an order entry clerk
Sales orders from email and PDF purchase orders, checked against your price lists and entered in your system.
Instead of hiring an order entry clerk, you can hand the work to Dull: a done-for-you back-office service that takes the sales orders arriving by email and PDF, checks them against your products and customer pricing, and enters them into your order system, ERP or QuickBooks, 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.
This page covers the job, the real cost of a hire, how your options compare, and where Dull’s scope ends.
What an order entry clerk actually does
- Enter sales orders from emails, PDF purchase orders and portals.
- Check SKUs, prices and quantities against the product list and each customer’s pricing.
- Set up new customers and ship-to addresses.
- Send order confirmations.
- Flag stock and pricing problems to sales.
- Keep order status up to date.
What hiring an order entry clerk really costs
BLS tracks order entry clerks as order clerks (SOC 43-4151), about 75,000 US workers in May 2025.
| Cost | Source | |
|---|---|---|
| Median salary | $46,170 a year ($22.20 an hour) | BLS, May 2025, SOC 43-4151 |
| Average salary | $48,220 a year | BLS, May 2025 |
| Benefits and payroll taxes | about $19,800 a year | BLS employer costs, June 2026 |
| All-in cost of a median hire | about $66,000 a year, or $5,500 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 $5,500 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 $5,770 to $6,350 | 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
- Orders from email and PDF purchase orders entered into your order system, ERP or QuickBooks.
- Checks on every order: the SKU exists, the price matches the customer’s price list, quantities and totals add up, and the PO hasn’t been entered before.
- Anything off, like an unknown SKU, a price mismatch or a missing ship-to address, held and sent to your named person with the question.
- New customer and ship-to setup, checked against your rules.
- A Friday summary: orders entered, exceptions and anything blocked.
For example, picture a wholesale distributor whose customers email 15 to 30 purchase orders a day. Each PO is read, matched to the right customer and price list, and keyed in. A PO quoting last year’s price is held with a note for sales, instead of being entered at the wrong price and found on the invoice.
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 orders must be keyed within minutes of arriving, if most orders come by phone, or if the role is also your customer service desk. Tell us your cutoffs on the call and we’ll tell you straight whether we can meet them.
Related
Covering more than one seat? See the alternative to hiring a data entry clerk, the alternative to hiring a billing specialist, the alternative to hiring an accounts receivable clerk, and what Dull costs.
Frequently asked questions
The median US order clerk earned $46,170 in May 2025, according to BLS. With benefits and payroll taxes that is about $66,000 a year, or $5,500 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.
The one you already use: your ERP, your order system, QuickBooks or a shared spreadsheet. You give us a login with only the access the job needs.
The order is held and sent to your named person with the difference, so it isn’t entered at the wrong price.
Tell us your cutoffs and rush rules on the call. We agree turnaround before we start, and we’ll tell you straight if we can’t meet it.
Not in the pilot. We work in your systems and by email with your team. Customer calls stay with you.