Question of Payment for Data Entry

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networkn

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#91220 8-Oct-2011 16:18

Hi There!

I have two systems I need to move data (once) between. I would prefer to pay per entry moved rather than per hour, but is this legal? I believe it should be very possible to move 1 complete record every 2 minutes or less which would make it at least the minimum wage regardless, but I have a fairly set budget for the work.

Anyone able to tell me if I am likely to fall foul of the law if I offer $400-500 to a person who can move these 500-550 records? (it's just copy and paste).

Kyanar

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#530933 8-Oct-2011 16:44

If I recall correctly, you can employ them as an independent contractor and pay whatever rate you want, however you need to be careful that they don't run afoul of IRD's "reclassification" rules - if they're doing the data entry at home on their equipment in their own time, that should be fine. It then becomes up to them to declare the income to the tax department and pay tax, you just pay them the whole lot with no regard for taxes.

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#530961 8-Oct-2011 18:23

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just use a tool like Macro Express?

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networkn

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#530973 8-Oct-2011 18:52

I am not sure if it would work, but since it's 2 discrete databases I am not that excited about trying macro's due to the possibility of it going horribly wrong. Plus it wouldn't take long to get through $500 of testing to ensure it's all gone smoothly.

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#531325 10-Oct-2011 00:32

networkn: I am not sure if it would work, but since it's 2 discrete databases I am not that excited about trying macro's due to the possibility of it going horribly wrong. Plus it wouldn't take long to get through $500 of testing to ensure it's all gone smoothly.

Copy both to a testing environment and do it that way.

Surely doing this an automated way is going to reduce any human keying errors?

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#531331 10-Oct-2011 00:54

Yeah what are the databases involved, eg: MySQL, SQL Server etc?

Would be less error prone too write a script or program to read the records out of one DB and insert them in the other imo.

Kaos36

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#532040 11-Oct-2011 18:07

Are you looking for more staff to do the data entry?

I use to do this work years ago and loved it, years ago as in back when MS Access 2000 was the latest, would courier me the data about 2000 papers at a time and I would complete them save to disks and courier them back would take me 3 to 5 days to complete 2000 papers working at my own pace from home. I would put in about 6hrs a night. Some times I had a deadline but most times as long as I got them done by the end of the week. Paid me by cheque back then and I did my own taxes. I would love to get back into this type of work and I would presume this type of work being much faster now - upload the data to the server ect instead of sending by courier.

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networkn

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#532041 11-Oct-2011 18:11

Kaos: Are you offering to do it? Are you in Auckland?

sleemanj

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#532116 11-Oct-2011 21:52

You could get somebody international to do it, as a contract - see odesk.com etc, I bet you'd find somebody in India, former Soviet nations, South America etc who would do it for not much more than a few bucks an hour (or better, probably a very low quote for the whole lot).

Of course if it's highly confidential data, maybe you want somebody you can suss-out in person.

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#532142 11-Oct-2011 22:40

I have a couple of reliable guys on call in Auckland who could complete this quickly then send an invoice for you to pay when complete (they look after and pay their own taxes). Message me and I can pass on sample data and entry screens to quote.

networkn

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#532148 11-Oct-2011 22:50

Yah confidentiality is key, it will need to be onsite at my office.

Kaos36

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#532153 11-Oct-2011 22:57

networkn: Kaos: Are you offering to do it? Are you in Auckland?

No not in Auckland - Coromandel. I would do it though, if its a work from home job.

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