Sounds like a silly question, doesn't it ? I started keeping a master list of all the shops I have been doing, and how much I am supposed to be paid. This record-keeping is fairly time consuming and cuts into time I could use doing shops or other things in my life.

How do YOU manage to keep your shops and payments straight ?

I keep a spreadsheet. When I'm assigned the shop I enter it on my spreadsheet (date, company, company being shopped, shop fee, reimbursement, total owed). Then I check the spreadsheet every day to see who I have to shop that day. I have a column for when I'm paid and I mark off the date.

As well, each time I'm assigned a shop I put the company name and the total down on the bottom of the spreadsheet so I know exactly how much each company owes me. Works well for me and it's not time consuming.

When I finish a shop, I put the folder in a file drawer. When I get paid, I take it out of the file drawer and put it in a storage box. Am I high tech or what?

I use an old-fashioned daytimer. List job ID, company, shop/address, pay/reim, mark them paid in red when I get the money in the bank. I have transferred all this info. to a spreadsheet so as to be prepared for tax season but it just seems so much quicker to open my daytimer rather than turning on the computer and digging out the spreadsheet. And I can take the daytimer with me, for instance, when i go to my daughter's or if I travel and then if I see a shop, it's easy to check to see if I can do it.

I designed an Excel spreadsheet for my own use. It started really simple, but got more elaborate with multiple linked pages over the years.

I use excel and if you are experienced in excel, you can really do some advanced stuff. I don't see anyone mentioning a column for when it should be paid. On my summary sheet it is linked in such a way that every day I expect money that month shows, and the amount expected by msc.

This way if it doesn't come, I know which msc office I'm going to be taking a road trip too.

I use iCal (The Mac calendar) for all scheduling and most record keeping because it's just faster and easier than Excel for someone like me that is forgetful. I'm guessing the Google calendar could work the same way.

I have custom statuses (requested, assigned, completed and paid) that I can set for each shop and it will sync reminders on my phone and iPad about actually performing the shop, submitting the reports and checking up on payments.

I delete the paid shops from the calendar and move the info into Excel at the end of each month for accounting purposes. I have always been frustrated at lacking a way to easily link the calendar assignments with the accounting portion of things, since a shop scheduled in September could be paid anywhere from September to December, or even the following year.

For me, this system works quickly and I can easily filter out paid/unpaid shops, and keep everything paperless, which is important to me.

Thanks to all of you who have explained yourt system for keeping track of things. I am incorporating a lot of your methods and suggestions. Otherwise I will be swamped.

I also use a spreadsheet. First I veritcally list each day of the month. When I get a job I horizontally list the MSC, Client, Address, Payment, Reimbursement, and any special notes. All of this information I put in 'bold'. When I've completed the report for that shop, I 'unbold' the line. I do this because I have so many other things going on and can forget that I didn't finish a report. When I receive payment, I put the date of payment in the special note section. I also note either a 'D' for direct deposit, 'P' for Paypal or 'C' for check. Finally I change the color of the line to green as an indication that I've been paid for that shop. As time goes on, if my spreadsheet for the month isn't all green, then I know I need to follow up on those payments that aren't.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2012 03:09PM by HaveARayDay.

I wrote my own Excel spreadsheet.

Its the best way in my opinion.

You can keep track of payments, reinbursments and distances.

What a great system ! Thanks for telling us about it.



HaveARayDay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I also use a spreadsheet. First I veritcally list
> each day of the month. When I get a job I
> horizontally list the MSC, Client, Address,
> Payment, Reimbursement, and any special notes.
> All of this information I put in 'bold'. When
> I've completed the report for that shop, I
> 'unbold' the line. I do this because I have so
> many other things going on and can forget that I
> didn't finish a report. When I receive payment, I
> input the date of payment and either a 'D' for
> direct deposit, 'P' for Paypal or 'C' for check.
> Finally I change the color of the line to green as
> an indication that I've been paid for that shop.
> As time goes on, if my spreadsheet for the month
> isn't all green, then I know I need to follow up
> on those payments that aren't.

I use [WWW.MINT.COM]

All expenses made for Mystery Shopping are filed under "Secret Shopping Expenses" Label. At this point, its automatic because a lot of places I only go while working. Then in the description, I put notes about reimbursement info. Then when I get paid, it gets labeled in the "Secret Shopping Income" level. I'm a fan of automation and budgeting.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2012 03:39PM by rawraw.

I am very low tech so for those of you who do not do scores of shops per month, I just keep a running list of my shops on a loose piece of lined three ring binder paper. Each time I accept a job I note in handwriting on the left name of comp using abbreviations. So one line might look like this:
MF BF MDR 8/3 (range8/1-16) % U11+7 10.53+7 17.53 ck 9/28


Shop comp(MF) and shop name/location(BF MDR)and date(8/3) or range.(1-16 is avail if I need to change the date of the shop request)
Leave a space and put in the reimb level+fee(I use check instead of % in front of this column once the job is completed and I use the less than figure instead of % but neither of these are avail in my email program(U11+7 means I can spend up to $11 and get a fee of 7) the next space I put in the amt I spent+fee (actual expense was 10.53+7 so I now what to expect in the check) and the end space I fill in amt pd and either pp or ck or dd for pay pal, check, dir dep and date pd.(17.53 ck 9/28)

I just run my eye down the column with the checks looking for jobs not done. I run my eye down the last column looking for empty ones where I have not been pd.
This is very low tech but since I do not shop more than 10-15 per month I don't want to bother with a computer sheet. At tax time I can add up all the +$$ amts on that column to know what I might have to report. I only have a page or two both sides per year. I can just run my eye down the list of pd shops looking for a company like MF to see how long i usually have waited for pay and if the shop not pd is in line with the usual.

Just for those not doing hundreds and hundreds of shops and not wanting to use a computer spread sheet...this works fine.