worth it???.......Not worth it??....

I made my own tracker in Excel.

@James Bond 007.5 wrote:

I made my own tracker in Excel.

Same here. I'm an Excel pro, but you don't have to be to make your own.

I have been using it for the last few months just did not know if anyone else did and had an opinion. I do not have excel but i would not be opposed to getting it but it is about the same price a year. I guess I just wanted to see if there was anyone that uses it all the time.

You can get it free from the APP Store for iOS devices. (Excel, Word & PowerPoint)

I'd never trust an app to keep tract of my shopping spreadsheet.

I keep it in Dropbox, and drag a copy to my phone where I can access it if data is down and keep it backed up on a USB stick weekly in my fireproof safe along with ALL of my shopping emails.

I don't use Microsoft Excel anymore and use [www.libreoffice.org] on the PC.

I finally settled on OpenSuite 8 PRO [www.mobisystems.com] for my Android as it works flawlessly with my Open Document Format ".ods" spreadsheets on the phone.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2015 02:31AM by scanman1.

Hi! Everybody,

This is a repeat of a separate post elsewhere on this site, so save yourself some time if you have already read it there. I just wanted to give everyone a chance to see my feedback on this subject. Time is money!

I have been using MyShopTracker since 06/2011, which was about 3 months after I started in this business. Not only do I use it for Mystery Shopping, but also for Merchandising. It allows the user (you) to put new client business addresses in the form, if they were not already there previously. This goes for places you shop, as well as companies you shop for. I find it to be user friendly and pretty much self explanatory. I do not know how I could have gotten along without it, since I know nothing about how to work a spreadsheet. Because of this, I have been able to build a solid business with more than enough work for one person to handle. The cost is not only tax deductable, it pays for itself in freed up time so you can get other more important jobs accomplished. I would gladly pay twice as much as they currently charge and would not bat an eye about it. The few times I have had any concerns about technical issues, my inquiries were addressed in a timely manner and follow up was also given as needed.

Personally, my biggest concern with this company is that they could find themselves not making it worth their while to continue to offer this service. I would be left out in the cold, having to take extra time I can ill afford to learn how to do this with a different method. They deserve our support and the ability to make an honest buck on this service. It costs money to run a web site and have technicians on hand when problems arise, as they always do when it comes to machines. Who knows how many other hidden expenses are involved in a site of this magnitude? Why is everyone always looking for a FREE handout?

Thank you Chris!!

Sounds interesting. I signed up for the free one to test it but would gladly pay if it does what it says it does.

Well ... I signed up for the free version to test it out ... no confirmation email, no response to the "resend password" email and no response from the Contact Us link after explaining the above problems.

Not too impressed at this point.

By the time I found out about it, I already had an Excel spreadsheet set up that works fine for me.

Well ... I am trying to like this program, but maybe not. It took repeat messages just to be able to log int but now that that is fixed I am not sure I want to do all this data entry.

If the paid version had some kind of an import or copy paste feature, then yes. But entering all the shop info into each field is just too time consuming (one reason I don't do a spreadsheet).

My very first attempt was a shop not included on their list of MS - and no way to enter it manually so I couldn't even enter my first shop if I wanted to (MS was SPG - Service Performance Group) now I am again waiting for a reply from CS. Too many bumps in the shop tracking road for me.

I do keep a hard copy of all my shops, but it is just a notebook (one I carry with me and one that I keep track of payments). I find the old school method to be far less time intense, even though I am completely literate in bookkeeping programs - I just begrudge the time it takes to do the data entry.

Service Performance Group is on the list I am looking at! I have overlooked some MS companies in the list before, too. When this happened, I added them on my own, sometimes, only to discover that they had already been there previously, after all. That gave the same company two (or more) listings. This confused me as to which one I should use for the next entry for that company. I decided that if I aways add the new data to the first entry in line, I should not go wrong. If I'm looking up info for a shop I already added, I check the first listing first, all the way down the line until I find it or it's not there.

Here is another pointer. If you do not find a shop you KNOW you entered, check under A Closer Look! Since this is the first listing and a default by design, if you fail to enter the companies name, it always ends up under A Closer Look.

Yes, it can be intimidating at first, but as with any business, you need to apply yourself. Take a couple of deep breaths, work on it every chance you get, take a lot of breaks until you become focused and "in the groove." Once that happens, get as much finished as you can during the focused set. You will eventually find it easier as you go along.

I did get a quick response from the company (they read the board) and apologized for jumping to conclusions.

I think it is going to take some time to get used to this program, but I can see once the original data entry is done it would get easier (like adding all the location info as a separate entry). I am cutting back on MS shopping in favor of more steady merchandising and auditing work so maybe this won't be the daunting task it appears to be at the moment.

I use this for Merchandising and Auditing, as well. As far as I'm concerned, it's all the same business I'm in. This is especially so if you are an Independent Contractor with the Merchadising and Auditing work, too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2015 03:54AM by ChrisBaley.

Chris - I can see where this would be useful for merchandising. I think though if I did a LOT of shops per week that the data input would get pretty tiresome, but for less frequent entries it can be handy.

There is no phone app for this yet from the looks of it - but accessing via phone shouldn't be too hard.

Since MyShopTracker monitors these posts, as you stated earlier, I wouldn't be surprised to find they will have one on the drawing board in the (near, hopefully!) future. I have nothing but good feelings about this company. It was founded by a shopper and they know where we're coming from. That would be something I would love to learn to do, make apps.

Take this into consideration. . .the consequences of not entering the jobs in as you do them. You have to enter them someplace. The job isn't finished until it's recorded, as well as reported. I find MyShopTracker the best yet. Of course, it is also the only system I have ever used. I am very comfortable with it. I wish you much success with whatever method you find works best for you!