The same information gets typed into two or three systems

An order comes in by email, gets typed into a stock system, then typed again into an invoice. A job gets logged on paper, then again on a spreadsheet, then again in the accounts package. Each step feels small and reasonable on its own. Together, they mean the same fact exists in more than one place, with no reliable way to tell which copy is right.

What that costs

It isn't really about typing mistakes. It's about what happens once there are two versions of the same fact: an address updated in one system and not the other, a quantity that matches the quote but not the delivery note. The hours spent re-typing are at least visible if you look for them. What the drift between the copies costs is not.

What tends to help

Usually it's a small connection between two systems that already exist, or a shared record that everything downstream reads from, rather than a full replacement of either system. Read more in what errors actually cost you.

Work out what the same pattern is costing in your business with the admin cost calculator, or see how the Admin Automation Audit maps it.