In most surveys, consistency errors are corrected manually as opposed to automatically. The correction process, as done traditionally, is often very lengthy, time-consuming and painful. In surveys of small volume and high complexity, such as Household Surveys or Income and Expenditures Surveys, it is often desirable to apply the edit specifications rules at data entry time and resolve any errors immediately while the questionnaire is still at hand. This approach is not recommended for a census.

You can use the CSPro language to write consistency checks for virtually any part of your data entry application's level, form, roster, or field. The logic is executed as the data is being keyed. Any error messages are reported back on the screen, and the operator then has access to both the error messages and the questionnaire itself on the screen. The same logic can be run against the data after they are entered in either batch or interactive mode.