More and more businesses are making decisions based on data, therefore having good data quality is essential. Having unreliable data that can’t be trusted makes it impossible to make good decisions based on that data. Good data is accurate, valid, and available for data analysis and business decision-making and creates an accurate perspective of how your business is doing and if you are achieving your goals. This article covers why good data quality is essential and why “garbage in equals garbage out”.
The slogan “garbage in, garbage out” is commonly used in the field of computer science and data analysis and refers to businesses getting bad data quality as a result of poor data entry. If you feed your systems with the wrong information, you won’t get the insights you want and you won’t be able to trust your data. For the data output to be reliable, and for systems or applications to be useful, the data entry must be accurate, and the data must be of good quality. Bad data quality leads to “garbage insights”. This can for instance be caused by errors made when manually updating data across systems, systems being unable to communicate or understand each other, or crucial information being unavailable to the people in need of it.
When developing a business strategy and setting your business goals, being able to manage your master data to achieve these goals and generate results, as well as being able to monitor your businesses progress, is crucial. If you are working with bad data, you’ll end up making decisions based on the wrong basis. This will for example lead to unnecessary repeated tasks and errors leading to less satisfied customers and slower business growth. Instead of having bad data slow businesses down, focusing on getting and maintaining good data can let businesses focus on their strategy and decision-making based on valuable insights.
As the amount of data stored and used for making business decisions increases, more companies are starting to understand the importance of having good data. Achieving this, on the other hand, is challenging, and many companies are still struggling to trust their data without manually checking it. While manual checking is one way to ensure the information you are using is correct, businesses should instead focus on the end goal and work on solving the challenges of getting accurate data entry. Remember, the data you receive is only as good as the data that is put in. Garbage in equals garbage out, meaning that inaccurate information can lead to wrong decisions. Although the ultimate goal is to have a 360-degree view of your business's data, managing it and being able to trust the data for decision-making is a journey, not a destination, and it is essential to constantly work towards finding good solutions for this.
Data that is correct, fit for its purpose, and available to those who need it on the other hand will improve the quality of our business’s strategies and decisions. Having the data synchronised across all systems, updated, correct at all times, and accessible to those who need it, will enable employees to perform their work tasks faster and better, increasing customer satisfaction and ultimately increasing business profit.
As a Tripletex user, you understand the importance of having accurate financial data for your business. However, without proper synchronisation between your accounting and CRM systems, your data can quickly become outdated and inconsistent. This can lead to issues such as incorrect customer billing or payment processing, payroll errors, compliance issues, and reputation damage. With our free six-month trial of data synchronisation between Tripletex and HubSpot, you can ensure that your financial and customer and employee data is accurate and up-to-date across both systems. By syncing your Tripletex accounting system with HubSpot, you can transfer financial data such as invoices, expenses, and payments between the two systems seamlessly. This not only saves you time but also reduces the risk of errors and ensures that your business operations and decisions are based on good data.
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