Leasha1975 Wrote:
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> Hi! I'm a new shopper that just started this
> month. I've done about 15 shops and have about 15
> more that I'm committed to performing. So far,
> I've just created an excel spreadsheet where I
> list the shop, date, time, company, pay, reimburse
> limit, actual spent, how I'll be paid, and a
> checkoff for when I do get paid. As I get more
> and more shops on this list, I'm wondering if this
> is the best way to track it all. I also have a
> file folder that I keep anything I've printed for
> the shop and receipts broken down by month. What
> do you do? Do you have any tips?
Welcome! Always glad to share my input to new shoppers.
Since you're new, it's best to get yourself ahead of the time stay organized from the start.
1. I, as have many shoppers on here, use Excel spreadsheets to keep track of their assignments. My spreadsheet keeps in track of the following: Scheduled date, client and assignment name, mystery shopping company, assignment ID, address / phone number of location, mystery shopping company scheduler contact, etc. In addition, I strongly suggest you also keep track of fees, expense limit, actual expenses and how much you actually received from the MSC when you get paid. I'd also use this to keep in track of the miles used to travel for the shop.
2. One suggestion is to sync up your folder structure of your digital file with your spreadsheet (if you choose the digital route). I found it difficult to track simply my date and mystery shopping company, thus I "assign" my own "project number" for every single assignment I do. Ex. If I did an assignment for a restaurant, I'll assign this particular assignment "MSP001"; it's unique to this assignment, so it's easily traceable. So in my hard drive, I also have a folder I would name "MSP001." Inside this folder, I'll copy over THIS assignment's guidelines, questionnaire, my scanned receipts, my notes, audio recordings, my actual report submitted, any correspondence in regards to this assignment, the check from the MSC for this assignment, etc. You get the idea. The point is the treat every assignment as its own project. Yes, it'll be time-consuming sometimes; however, when a MSC follows up with you or if you're checking to see if you got paid, you can easily navigate using this structure. Plus it'll come in handy come tax-time. For the actual paper receipts, I also write down on the back my personal project number, "Project 001," for easy tracking and just throw it in a shoebox.
I try to limit the amount I print. So if you're wondering what I do with guidelines, reports I submit, etc. They're all digital and I save them in their appropriate folders. In this day and age, I can print all I want to PDF and it would all fit in my pocket (USB jump drives). Take advantage of technology.
3. I use a similar spreadsheet and file structure for filing other mystery shopping-related expenses that can be useful come tax-time as well.
4.Take advantage on the calendar on your phone. I use the one on my iPhone heavily as I have a busy schedule as it is as a full-time project engineer. ANY time I am assigned an assignment, I immediately log this into my calendar. If it's an assignment I applied for, but haven't been assigned, I still mark it in my calendar, but list is as "PENDING."
Shopping the Greater Denver Area, Colorado Springs and in-between in Colorado. 33 year old male and willing to travel!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2014 11:18PM by Tarantado.