Perhaps get a wall calendar (or a couple of those freebies ones companies give out) and note your shops on that (company, shop, rate). At least it provides a good, quick visual.

I can see the last 950 shops which I have done for Ath Power. I just looked, and was surprised, because I thought that I could see them all. It does remember that I have done 1143 for Ath Power. Maybe how many it can show depends on the MSC? I just looked at Bare, and it shows 415 of the 423 which I have done for them.

@Sybil2 wrote:

@myst4au wrote:

Sassie makes it easy to see your past history of shops for companies which use that platform, but other platforms range from more difficult to impossible. And there is still the issue of where do you record mileage.

Sassie only keeps/shows that last 100 shops that you performed. I am way beyond that with many of my Sassie companies. You need more than a Sassie printout to take to your tax consultant.

I'll never understand why people are so afraid of technology and trying something new.

Sybil - I know exactly what you mean. I'm 76 and when I talk to people my age and they tell me they are bored, I ask if they have a computer and they tell me they do not know how to use one and as a result don't have one. As long as I have my computer, iPad, MP3 player, I am NEVER bored.

I agree about the spreadsheet. Anyone who downloads the one on this forum they can see that the columns are already set up and all they have to do is type in their information. The spreadsheet does the work for them. I also keep a daytimer but that only has the shop date, name, address and pay. I use that for my scheduling purposes simply because it's easier for me to use and old habits die hard. My friend tells me she keeps all of her appts. on her iPad and with 6 kids you can imagine the schedule she maintains. A while back she dropped it and broke it but all her info. was stored on the cloud so it was just a matter of replacing the iPad.

I don't have Excell or any MS Word Product. I mostly use free programs and they seem to work for me. I use thunderbird for an email client. Have found that the Imap protocol for mail is the best because emails stay on the server till I delete them. Have one account with the POP protocols and I can only access the emails from my home machine. As for spreadsheets, Google docs would work once it's set up that way. Then any PC with web access has your shop history available. Though I would want to use a VPN instead of a public Wi-Fi. (Damn auto-correct made it pubic Wi-Fi instead of public) For a spreadsheet, I use Open Office. For PDF's I use Foxit reader lets me put notes on a PDF form without having to subscribe to a service like Adobe does. Oh and another thing never go to this site when you have shops that you have to go do. I sometimes feel like one of my cats .. OH LOOK SHINEY!!!!

Oh look it's 15 hours later and here I am again and it's still Shiny. At least the shops are done and I will eventually get $180.00 not bad for 7 hours work. And now I know what a Gas Station audit entails. Oh and never ever say that you took the most amount pictures that they allow. Or take them and have about 3 feet to the left or the right between taking one and then the next.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2015 09:45AM by 2stepps.

Why oh why are so many badgering poor Lorrie68? If she is overwhelmed now just think how much more tasking it will be to learn Excel or a different spreadsheet. Lorrie, keep your records on paper - it's just the same as a spreadsheet anyway.

Meanwhile, I do have a spreadsheet. But I still have to match the payments to the sheet when it is a lump. Do you have some way around that?

Also, there are several other companies that go by other names. Often it is a fun guessing game when the check arrives or paypal payments hit until you learn who's who.

@pony123lucy wrote:

Why oh why are so many badgering poor Lorrie68? If she is overwhelmed now just think how much more tasking it will be to learn Excel or a different spreadsheet. Lorrie, keep your records on paper - it's just the same as a spreadsheet anyway.

Meanwhile, I do have a spreadsheet. But I still have to match the payments to the sheet when it is a lump. Do you have some way around that?

Also, there are several other companies that go by other names. Often it is a fun guessing game when the check arrives or paypal payments hit until you learn who's who.

Overwhelmed, indeed! LOL! Now, I'm even more confused as to why Ace is scheduling a shop for Ritter. They are both MSC's, aren't they?!

What makes you think that Ace is scheduling for Ritter? As far as I know, they are not. There are some companies which do scheduling such as Kern, and they have a job board, but Ace does not schedule for Ritter.

@Lorrie68 wrote:

Overwhelmed, indeed! LOL! Now, I'm even more confused as to why Ace is scheduling a shop for Ritter. They are both MSC's, aren't they?!

@myst4au wrote:

What makes you think that Ace is scheduling for Ritter? As far as I know, they are not. There are some companies which do scheduling such as Kern, and they have a job board, but Ace does not schedule for Ritter.

@Lorrie68 wrote:

Overwhelmed, indeed! LOL! Now, I'm even more confused as to why Ace is scheduling a shop for Ritter. They are both MSC's, aren't they?!

Yep, it was an email from Ace and they advertised a job through Ritter. I couldn't figure that one out.

Truly odd that Ace would be using Ritter, or the other way around. Sometimes a scheduler does a favor for another scheduler and uses their own mailing list. Maybe that was it?

I have received that same email and I work for both companies separately. Couldn't figure out why either.

PS - Where is the sample Spreadsheet located on the forum?

Mileage is best logged right when you are in the car.

I keep a pocket sized 2 year calendar right in the dash (costs a buck at the dollar store) and record my mileage daily. I keep the calendar in the car and only use it for that purpose - when I am sitting at a long stoplight I total the weeks mileage if I have forgotten to do that for awhile - then put the total at the bottom of each month.

Done and Done.

I obtain my mileage from Google Maps. Many times, I do errands in between shops, so my car mileage would not be accurate.

I have been using MapQuest for years. Tax professionals say that it counts as a contemporaneous record for income tax purposes.

There are several companies that I am signed with that occasionally send out a shop for another msc. The last one I got a few days ago and they specifically said these were not their shops but they were helping out a fellow scheduler. Sometimes if they have trouble getting some jobs filled with the people signed on to their own company they contact a colleague in another company and ask that word of their job be sent out to the people signed up with the other company.

If you log into PayPal and check the payment, it gives you the time frame of the shops you were paid for.

Also, HSN/Service Sleuth usually posts the date payments were posted in your shop log.

The spreadsheet link in the new shoppers area seems to not actually have a spreadsheet link anymore. The thread has closed as far as I can tell - or am I missing something?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/2015 09:14PM by jkow.

The spreadsheet is still there - I just tried to download it was successful in bringing it up. I believe the thread was intentionally closed as the purpose was to just give the link to the spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet is pined to the top of the New Mystery Shopper page, it is the 3rd post down. I downloaded that right when I started it's posted by Mert credited to Flash. It's an awesome spreadsheet that has some formulas built in so as you enter new shops it starts adding in the totals for you. So you can see to date how much you have in fees, reimbursements etc...

Lorrie, I'm fairly new to the whole MS online system too, and trust me it's super confusing when all these companies are shopping the same clients, I was confused and then different companies are moving to different systems. I was signed up with Goodwin under the Sassie system, then people were talking about it in prophet system, so I thought for sure it's a different company, it's the same company but they have different jobs under two different systems, I guess they are slowly moving over yes totally confused me, I signed up again under the prophet system before I figured that out and got another welcome email different login.

I'm not super proficient on Excel but can do the basic stuff, I do have to say it's very easy to put everything on the spreadsheet. I started to even put jobs that I requested in there too and if I don't get assigned that job, I move it to the bottom of the sheet and that way I can see if there is a pattern for certain jobs maybe? Also with a spreadsheet it is easy to change stuff vs on paper, you are crossing it out and re-writing etc.

Then you can sort all the jobs by due date so you can see everything that way, and when you need to figure out payment you can then sort by MSC.

I feel like now you can learn everything online, from baking a souffle, to changing oil on your car, to fancy reverse french braiding your kid's hair. I'm sure there is an easy Youtube video on how to learn basic excel. Since Flash has already created all the formulas you don't even need to do that. It does the summation for you. Also, in my area, sometimes the libraries offer basic computer classes too.

Good luck!

Hi Lorrie. You do not need to register with those others (Mershimer, etc.) Also, a columnar should work great. That's all a spreadsheet is anyway. The advantage with the spreadsheet is that it totals for you, you can sort it alphabetically or numerically, you can insert rows, etc. Those are nice features but not necessities. About the binder to keep your completed forms, you could also save them as PDFs. I didn't know this until I read it on the Forum, but all you have to do is select print and then select PDF as your printer. Then you name it, and you're done.

Edited to add Mershimer, meant to reply to a specific post and to fix a typo.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/2015 09:15AM by Roxie.