01 · The ProblemData entry never shows up on an invoice. It shows up on every timesheet.
Ask a firm what a tax return costs and they’ll quote their fee. Ask how many minutes go into typing and they’ll hesitate. Data entry has no line of its own. It dissolves into “preparation”, somewhere between opening the file and reviewing it.
Yet it is the only part of the file that requires no judgment. The amounts already exist: they’re printed on a T4, an RL-1, a receipt. Someone reads them, then retypes them, box by box, into the tax software. In Quebec, they do it twice: once for the federal return, once for the provincial one.
What you don’t measure, you can’t manage. So let’s measure.
02 · The Typical FileOne employee, a spouse, a child. 40 minutes of typing.
Our assumption: a salaried Quebec taxpayer with a spouse, one child in daycare, and some savings. Nothing exotic. It’s the file that comes back hundreds of times every season.
What the client sent
- T4 and RL-1
- T5 and RL-3
- RL-31
- RL-24
- RRSP receipt
- 2 donation receipts
- 6 medical receipts
Data entry time, step by step
40min
- 5 min
Client profile
Identity, address, marital status, spouse, dependent child.
- 15 min
Slips
Six federal and Quebec slips, about 2.5 minutes each: find the box, type, move on.
- 9 min
Receipts
RRSP, donations, medical expenses: add up, sort, carry over.
- 7 min
Proofreading
Check every entered amount against the source documents.
- 4 min
Corrections
The misplaced decimal, box 14 typed into box 24, the forgotten receipt.
- Total40 min
The Quebec exception
The RL-1 repeats most of the T4’s amounts, but with its own box numbers. T4 box 14 becomes RL-1 box A; box 22 becomes box E. Same data, two grids, two entries. It’s a step firms in other provinces never have to take.
These durations are an assumption, not a study. A student file takes 15 minutes to enter; a file with two rental properties takes over an hour. Think our 40 minutes is too high or too low? The calculator below takes your numbers.
03 · The BillWhat one file costs, before anyone reviews it.
According to Job Bank, the median wage for an accounting technician in Quebec is about $28 an hour. Add roughly 25% for employer contributions, vacation, and statutory holidays, and one technician hour costs the firm close to $35.
Direct cost
$23
per file
40 minutes of technician time at $35 an hour, wages and contributions included.
Opportunity cost
$60
per file
The same 40 minutes, if they went to review or advisory work billed at $90 an hour.
Share of the fee
16%
of the price
On a file billed at $150, typing alone eats nearly one dollar in six.
The real cost of data entry isn’t what it costs. It’s what it crowds out: careful review, advice, one more client.
04 · The ScaleMultiply by 600 files. The number becomes a headcount.
A mid-sized firm files a few hundred personal returns per season. Let’s say 600. Forty minutes, six hundred times: 400 hours. Ten full 40-hour weeks spent copying numbers that were already printed.
Between February 1 and April 30, a season runs about 13 weeks. Manual data entry ties up one full-time employee for three quarters of it. Often, that’s the seasonal hire you worked so hard to find in November.
Manual data entry · T1/TP1
400hours
per season, retyping numbers that were already printed.
600-return firm · 40 min of data entry per file
10 weeks of one full-time employee
40 min
per file
$23
per file
$14,000
per season
Assumptions: technician at $35/h (Quebec median wage + contributions), 40-hour weeks.
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05 · Blind SpotsWhat the math doesn’t count yet.
Our 400 hours are a floor. They only measure typing. Four more costs pile on top, harder to quantify and often more expensive.
The error that comes back in June
The CRA and Revenu Québec match every return against the slips filed by employers and institutions. A mistyped amount resurfaces as a reassessment months later: a client call, research, an adjustment request. A minute saved in April costs an hour in June.
April fatigue
The 500th entry doesn’t get the same attention as the 5th. The further into the season, the more proofreading matters, and the faster it gets done. Manual entry concentrates risk at the worst possible moment.
The queue
A complete file waiting for someone to be free to enter it is a file that isn’t moving. Data entry sets the throughput of the whole firm: nothing gets reviewed until something gets entered.
Misused talent
A trained technician who knows the credits and can spot an inconsistency spends a quarter of the season copying. They know it. The best ones leave for places that ask them to think.
06 · Your NumberSwap our assumptions for yours.
Three sliders are all it takes. No data is stored or transmitted.
400
hours of typing per season
$14,000
direct cost per season
$23.33
per file
10
40-hour weeks
0.8
full-time employees, all season long
07 · What to DoThree levers, from simplest to most profitable.
- 01
Time ten files
Before changing anything, measure. Pick ten ordinary files this season and record typing time alone, from the first box to the last. You’ll have your real number, and a baseline for next year.
- 02
Download what governments already have
The CRA’s Auto-fill My Return service and Revenu Québec’s tax data download import part of the slips into your tax software. Use them. But know their limits: data arrives around mid-March, you need valid authorization for every client, and receipts (donations, medical, child care) still have to be entered.
- 03
Automate the rest, keep the judgment
Typing is the part of the file that doesn’t need an accountant. Validation does. The right split: the machine reads and enters, the human checks and signs off.
With ClicBook: T4 and RL-1 boxes are read automatically, the accountant validates each amount next to the document, and the robot enters the complete return into the tax software, even overnight.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do the 40 minutes come from?+
From a breakdown of data entry work for a common profile: client profile, six slips, receipts, proofreading, corrections. It’s a working assumption, not the result of a study. A simple file is closer to 15–20 minutes; a self-employed client or rental properties take far longer. The calculator lets you use your own number.
Why $35 an hour and not our billing rate?+
Because that’s what data entry actually costs the firm: the median wage of an accounting technician in Quebec (about $28 an hour), plus roughly 25% in employer costs. Your billing rate measures something else — what those hours could have earned. That’s the opportunity cost, shown separately.
Doesn’t CRA and Revenu Québec auto-fill solve the problem?+
Partly. It saves typing the slips governments have received, but only from around mid-March, and only for clients who have authorized you. Donation, medical, and child care receipts, files opened early, and late slips still have to be entered by hand.
Is automating data entry risky?+
No riskier than handing it to an exhausted human in April, as long as an accountant validates every amount before it goes into the return. That’s ClicBook’s principle: no amount is entered without validation, and review happens on a return that’s already entered.
SourcesSources & Further Reading
- Wages for accounting technicians and bookkeepers (NOC 12200)Job Bank · Government of Canada
- Auto-fill My Return for professional tax preparersCanada Revenue Agency
- Professional representative: filing for an individualRevenu Québec
- Filing an individual’s income tax returnRevenu Québec
The durations and rates in this article are working assumptions, meant to be replaced with your firm’s own numbers. The median wage comes from Job Bank (Statistics Canada data). Sources last verified: October 2, 2026.