You have someone on your team who's exceptionally good at their job. They understand your business. They solve hard problems. Customers ask for them by name. And right now, they're spending three hours a week on data entry.
The hidden cost of misallocation
When your best people are doing work that doesn't require their skill level, you're paying for it twice:
Direct cost
If that person makes $150,000 a year, and they're spending 10% of their time on data entry, you're spending $15,000 a year on data entry. But you're paying the salary of someone way overqualified for the work.
Opportunity cost
More importantly: what aren't they doing while they're entering data? What problem aren't they solving? What customer isn't getting their attention? What strategic project is getting postponed?
That opportunity cost is usually much larger than the direct cost.
Why it happens
It happens because someone has to do it. It's not anyone's main responsibility, so it falls to whoever has an open slot on their calendar. Which is usually nobody, so it falls to someone whose other work is important enough to push aside for an hour.
How to fix it
The fix is simple in concept, hard in practice: make data entry someone's full-time responsibility. Not a side task. A real job. Someone who does it all day, so they get good at it. Who owns the quality. Who you can count on.
You'll pay less than you're paying now in opportunity costs. Your best people will get their time back. And the data will actually be reliable, because someone's holding themselves accountable to it.