Top 7+ Free Best Online Data Entry Courses & Certificates

Data entry is one of those fields where you can secure a full-time entry-level position without needing a bachelor’s degree.

So if you’re looking to build a data entry career for yourself or get some cash on the side, you’ve come to the right place!

In this article, I have gathered some of the best online data entry courses in 2022 that will guide you through self-paced tutorials to give you the skills required to launch a career as a data entry operator or secure work in transcription.

These training courses could improve your efficiency as an administrative assistant, accelerate your typing speed and help you acquire more advanced data analysis skills. Many of these classes are also data entry certificate courses so that you can show proof of completion. 

You will develop a mastery of Excel (the primary data entry tool), learn how to set up your freelance business on Fiverr or UpWork, help satisfy the data entry work needed for data science and visualizations, plus much more. Let’s get started!

Top 7+ Free Best Online Data Entry Courses & Certificates (2024) (Free + Paid)

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1. Excel for the Real World: Gain the Basic Skills of Microsoft Excel (Skillshare)

First on my list is a top-rated data entry class from Skillshare that over 49,000 students and counting have taken! In this class, students will learn all the fundamentals of data entry from scratch, with no skipped steps.

Al Chen is an Excel expert who has over 10 years of professional experience working as a financial analyst at Google. Al is also the founder of KeyCuts, an Excel-focused company that provides consulting services to Fortune 500 firms.

In this 1-hour online data entry course, Al will teach you the basics of Microsoft Excel to build a strong foundation for your data entry career. You will learn about the ribbon, structuring your workbook, using shortcuts, selecting and formatting data, and tons more!

If you love this course, consider taking the second excel skills course in this series: Double Your Excel Speed with Keyboard Shortcuts (I also review this course within this article).

Don’t miss this golden chance to get a free 30-day trial for Skillshare by enrolling in any of the 29,000 other classes available.

• Beginner level
• 1 hour long
• Taught by MS Excel expert
• Free 1-month trial of Skillshare Premium
• 49,000+ strong student community

2. Practice Video: Data Entry, Data Types, Editing and Deleting (Coursera)

Excel has crowned itself the dominant spreadsheet tool used in all industries worldwide. So go through this short online data entry course on Coursera that will teach you the best practices to enter and manipulate data in Excel.

For this class, you will be instructed by MS Excel experts from Macquarie University. Over 480,000 students have taken this Excel course with an average rating of 4.9 stars.

Once you’re finished with this class, you will know how to work with data types so that you’re filling in the right data, how to speed up the data entry process, how to quickly edit and delete data, and much more.

The best part is that you can enroll in this online course for free, so you don’t have to pay anything to learn these valuable skills!

• Beginner level
• 7 minutes long video
• Taught by instructors from Macquarie University
• Certificate of completion
• Free access to course contents

3. Data Entry Course for Beginners (Udemy)

Starting a freelance data entry career can turn out to be quite lucrative. So for those who want to set up their own freelance business as a data entry specialist, this course is designed to help beginners acquire the skills to land their first data entry job.

For this data entry training, you will be taught by Azharul Rafy, a freelancer who has provided virtual administration and data entry services since 2012. Rafy has also taught over 13,000 students on Udemy through 4 published online courses. So for insights from a current freelancer, this is an invaluable resource!

Through 2 ½ hours of on-demand video, you will learn about the world of freelance data entry on platforms like Upwork. You will also go through the various kinds of data entry projects that you can encounter, strategies for acing those projects and building your clientele, and much more.

You will get a certificate of completion once you’re done with this online data entry course, so you can share it with your network and announce your official entry into this exciting market!

• Beginner level
• 2 ½ hours long
• Taught by an experienced freelancer
• Certificate Course
• Full lifetime access

4. Excel for the Real World II: Double Your Excel Speed with Keyboard Shortcuts (Skillshare)

Having deep knowledge of keyboard shortcuts can prove to be a superpower for data entry professionals because of the speed it adds to your workflow.

So if you want to be more effective and manage your time more efficiently as a data entry clerk, don’t miss out on this class!

Al Chen, who has 10 years of experience in Excel, will teach you in this course, which is the 2nd in a series of 3 online data entry courses produced by Al on Skillshare.

During this compact 1-hour class, Al will take you through the world of keyboard shortcuts in Excel by going over topics like moving around, selecting elements, making lists and filtering, using formula fills, formatting, and much more! 

Once you’re done with this online data entry course, you will find yourself completing your work 10 times faster than if you were still using a mouse!

• Intermediate level
• 1 hour long
• Taught by MS Excel expert
• 2nd in a series of 3 courses
• Free 1-month trial of Skillshare Premium

5. Xero Online Accounting – the Practical Data Entry Course (Udemy)

One thing you will find yourself doing quite often as a data entry professional is using Xero for online accounting and data entry. So if you want to become an expert at using Xero, this beginner class is a great introduction that is also very easy to follow.

As for your instructor, you will be taught by Marion Thomson, a Xero certified advisor who has been running her own business for the past 6 years.

Over the span of 3 hours, Marion will teach you the basics of using Xero through 24 practical assignments spread out over the entire online course. She will guide you through how to perform day-to-day data entry, design and issue sales invoices, run reports to check your data, and much more.

Don’t worry if you forget all the valuable things you learn in this online course – with full lifetime access, you can come back and access the contents whenever you want to!

• Beginner level
• 3 hours long
• Taught by Xero Certified Advisor
• Full lifetime access
• Certificate of completion

6: Excel Tips and Ticks: Save Time In Excel (LinkedIn Learning)

Next in our list of data entry courses is one that will improve your efficiency with Microsoft Excel. 

This course is taught by Excel enthusiast Dennis Taylor. With over 25 years of experience, he has authored or co-authored multiple books on spreadsheet software and presented over 500 Excel webinars to various audiences. 

A few examples of the key tips and tricks covered here include: creating formulas rapidly, accelerating data entry, and using worksheets efficiently.  Additionally, learn the power of pivot tables and the time-saving drag and drop technique.

There are 13 chapter quizzes to reinforce your learning along the way.

• Intermediate level
• 4.5 hours
• Popular: 419,000 learners have bookmarked this data entry course
• Taught by renowned MS Excel expert and author
• Certificate Program
• Free access for new LinkedIn users

7. Excel: Shortcuts – Creating a data entry form (LinkedIn Learning)

Next on my list is another LinkedIn Learning short course that will teach you the essential skills for professional data entry: using forms to fill data in Excel. This video is part of an intermediate-level online course on LinkedIn about Excel shortcuts that make working with the software easier and faster.

Your teacher in this online course will be Curt Frye, a Microsoft Excel expert who is the author of Microsoft Excel Step by Step for the Microsoft Press. Currently, Curt serves as the president for Technology and Society, Incorporated.

In this 3 ½ hour course, you will learn how to create a data entry form in Excel that will greatly simplify the task of filling huge amounts of data inside an Excel spreadsheet. Once you’ve learned this skill, you’ll feel much more comfortable about big data entry jobs.

Note: this data entry course is on an older version of Microsoft Excel, but the topics covered here are still largely consistent with the current version; hence why it’s stayed popular so long.

So if you can spare more time and go over the complete online course, you’ll learn a lot more shortcuts about Excel that will add extra dimensions to your data entry skillset!

• Intermediate level
• 3 ½ minutes long video
• Taught by renowned MS Excel expert and author
• Certificate of completion
• Free access for new LinkedIn users

8. Excel Spreadsheets Made Easy (Skillshare)

The final entry on my list is a beginner-level training course on Skillshare that is perfect for anyone stepping into the world of data entry and Excel for the first time. Taken by over 500 students, this online course will get your data entry career up and running.

Karin Rodgers, a veteran freelance computer teacher, will be instructing you in this class. Karin has over 20 years of experience with tools like MS Excel and will use it to provide useful advice in this online course.

In this 1-hour long online data entry training, Karin will start from scratch and show you how to get started with MS Excel. She will teach you topics like creating spreadsheets, adding data, manipulating data, working with formulas, and much more.

If you’re completely new to computers and afraid of the steep learning curve, this online course will make the process much easier!

• Beginner level
• 1 hour long
• Taught by a veteran computer teacher
• Free 1-month trial of Skillshare Premium
• Perfect for complete beginners

Frequently Asked Questions: Data Entry Clerk Jobs

Can I learn Data Entry on my own?

You certainly can. There are plenty of online YouTube data entry exercises; it just takes discipline to work through them.

The only drawback to the self-taught approach is that you don’t earn a credential. For some companies, even a basic certificate from LinkedIn Learning or Coursera can make a big difference when applying for a role with dozens of applications.

How can I get my first Data Entry Job?

The easiest way to gain some experience is by taking on small data entry projects on a freelancer platform like Fiverr or Upwork. This is how many companies try out new employees before hiring them full-time. And even if it doesn’t lead to ongoing work, you’ll build a 5-star data entry work portfolio, quickly attracting more.

If you want a window into what this might look like, check out this video:

What are the qualifications of a Data Entry Clerk?

The good news is that basic data entry jobs can be done from home, and most High School graduates have the necessary skills to qualify.

You need:

• A high school diploma or equivalent (GED)
• To type at roughly 50-60 words per minute or higher
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office (most typically Excel)
• A high degree of organization, focus, and detail orientation
• Basic computer setup with high-speed internet access

And if you want to get into the more advanced aspects of the role, then more advanced Excel Skills combined with good analytical ability are also required.