Here is some real molding data that proves, for this company in particular, that performance isn't dependent on pricing.
Does the information even pass the common sense test? If a company has reported double the sales, then did resin pricing go up 100 percent? If not, then they probably moved more material than last year, may have installed additional machines, added workers or made an acquisition. We look for these indicators.
And now I plan to rage on about duplicates. Clean data means even more when you look at percentages. Your promotional material may say 40 percent use a product, but can we be sure you didn't count Bill and William as two, or what about "The Little Tikes Company" vs. "Little Tikes Co.?" Did that count as two, too?
The same person handling the data entry is the best person to capture and trap errors, in order to aggregate clean numbers when reporting results. This also paves the way for that same person to design the data entry procedures, automate what is repeatable and create a check and balance system to proof the work. None of these are off-the-shelf skills. Finally, as a public service announcement, I urge you to include your data entry folks in the decision making for purchasing software programs for data.
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