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# How to handle data that comes from outside your company
- URL: https://blog.jestor.com/handle-data-from-outside-your-company/
- Published: 2026-09-16T18:55:49.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-16T18:55:49.000Z
- Author: Bruno Bannach

To **handle external data** safely, validation has to happen at the boundary. Data arriving from clients, suppliers or partners has not been through your rules, and once it is inside your records, correcting it is far more expensive than rejecting it was.

## Why external data corrupts internal records

Someone outside your company fills a form with their own conventions. Dates in a different format, names spelled differently, values with unexpected units.

Imported without validation, that becomes part of your registry, and every report built on it inherits the inconsistency.

Where external data enters:

- Public forms completed by clients or candidates
- Spreadsheets sent by suppliers
- Integrations with partner systems
- Documents read by **OCR**
- Data entered by anyone outside your process

## Controls at the boundary

| Control          | What it prevents                      |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------- |
| Field types      | Dates and numbers stored as text      |
| Connected fields | Invented values for known entities    |
| Required fields  | Incomplete records entering           |
| Validation rules | Values outside a plausible range      |
| A staging stage  | Unreviewed data reaching the registry |
| Update links     | Duplicates from repeat submissions    |

## Step by step to protect your data

1. **Use the correct field types** on every externally facing form.
2. **Replace free text with connected fields** wherever the value exists internally.
3. **Require the fields you would chase** if they were missing.
4. **Add plausibility rules**, catching impossible values.
5. **Land external data in a staging stage** before it reaches the registry.
6. **Validate OCR output** before it advances.
7. **Use update links** rather than forms where a record already exists.

## Why a staging stage is worth the extra step

Validating at the form catches format problems. It cannot catch a supplier registering under a name that already exists with a different spelling. A short review stage before data joins the registry catches exactly that class of problem, which is the expensive one.

## Why choose Jestor

In **Jestor**, public forms enforce field types and required fields, connected fields prevent invented values, update links write to existing records rather than creating duplicates, **OCR** output can require validation, and a staging stage is simply another phase in the process.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Where should external data be validated?

At the boundary, before it joins your registries. See [jestor.com](https://www.jestor.com/?ref=blog.jestor.com).

### What does a staging stage catch?

Near duplicates and anything needing judgment, which field validation cannot detect.

### How do I avoid duplicates from repeat submissions?

Use update links, which write to the existing record.

## Video Tutorial: Step by Step

With **Jestor**, you can automate workflows, connect teams, and build internal systems your way, all without code and powered by **AI**. Discover Jestor at [jestor.com](https://www.jestor.com/?ref=blog.jestor.com) and see how to take your company's operations to a new level of efficiency and control.