3. Manual Data Capture

Although there are many methods of capturing data automatically, many businesses prefer to capture it manually.

Paper-based data capture forms

This is the most commonly used method of collecting or capturing data.

People are given a form to fill in with their personal details, e.g. name, address, telephone number, date of birth etc.

Once the form is completed, it is given to a member of staff who will enter the data from it, into a database or information system.

Computerised data entry forms

Whilst the customer is present or on the telephone, a member of staff could ask the customer the questions on the data entry form and type their answers directly into it.

This data will then be stored in the appropriate database table.

If paper-based data capture forms are used (as above) then the member of staff can take the information from the data capture form and manually type it into the data entry form.

If staff are doing this, it is important that the fields on both forms are laid out in the same order to speed up the process of entering the data.