The Mystery Shopping thread - part 6

jdan9

nads wrote: »

Oh b****** I think I'm in some doodo.

Are the reimbursements from the visits (such as £5 spend on stamps or £2.90 spend on crapburgers) classed as Expenses?

Personally, I add the fee and reimbursement (and any other payment such as mileage, car parking, train tickets, whatever) together, to come up with a total paid for the job. Then I add together all the costs I have incurred doing the job - expenditure on purchases, mileage, train tickets, whatever), and subtract this from the total paid, giving me a total profit for the trip. Then the total of all the profits for all my shops is the amount I need to declare to HMRC.

jdan9

Does anybody know if it is acceptable to list a tip to serving staff as an expense when doing restaurant jobs?

xxvickixx

I would have thought it is acceptable. Sometimes if you pay by card you can add the tip to the amount so that you have a reciept for it. If you don't have a receipt then I guess as long as the amount is reasonable for a tip it would not be challenged. If you need proof that a tip was warranted you have your MS paperwork to prove the service was good.

I don't tend to tip when on MS jobs unless the service is exemplary as I figure that the tip should be reimbursed and my tip is the glowing report. As a rule I don't tip for bad service.


Edit: Shows what I know! Thanks Timmne.

Timmne

No it's not, technically. Unless you can call it a promotional gift then it'll be classed as a gift which isn't deductable from your profit.

owlet

jdan9 wrote: »

Personally, I add the fee and reimbursement (and any other payment such as mileage, car parking, train tickets, whatever) together, to come up with a total paid for the job. Then I add together all the costs I have incurred doing the job - expenditure on purchases, mileage, train tickets, whatever), and subtract this from the total paid, giving me a total profit for the trip. Then the total of all the profits for all my shops is the amount I need to declare to HMRC.

I have been doing it this way too. Do we enter the amount paid for the job in the month in which it is paid or do we enter it in the month in which the job was done? just thinking about GYP really - the job gets done in Feb so gets entered in Feb but they don't pay till march.

jdan9

Suppose if you look at very very literally, then they'd go in Feb - HMRC wants to know about your earnings, and you earn the money in Feb, so you put it in Feb's earnings. But that could be completely wrong, they might actually base it on when you're paid.

owlet

jdan9 wrote: »

Suppose if you look at very very literally, then they'd go in Feb - HMRC wants to know about your earnings, and you earn the money in Feb, so you put it in Feb's earnings. But that could be completely wrong, they might actually base it on when you're paid.

Yes, at the moment I've entered earnings in the month I did the job, but it occurred to me that might be wrong. Surely it is only earnings when it is received? Maybe it isn't important at all lol.

Becles

There are two methods of accounting - accrual and cash.

Suppose you did a simple £5 enquiry job today to be paid in March. If you used accrual accounting, you'd enter the £5 income today, even though you haven't actually got it, along with your expenses.

If you use a cash accounting system, you would enter the expenses for today, and not enter the £5 fee until you are actually paid it in March.

Both methods are suitable for MS work and the tax man won't mind which method you use, as long as everything gets accounted for. At the end of the day, if you're earning under about £15K, the tax man only needs to know the end figures and not loads of details, so it's not worth the effort getting bogged down in doing a fabulously detailed set of accounts.

owlet

Becles wrote: »

There are two methods of accounting - accrual and cash.

Suppose you did a simple £5 enquiry job today to be paid in March. If you used accrual accounting, you'd enter the £5 income today, even though you haven't actually got it, along with your expenses.

If you use a cash accounting system, you would enter the expenses for today, and not enter the £5 fee until you are actually paid it in March.

Both methods are suitable for MS work and the tax man won't mind which method you use, as long as everything gets accounted for. At the end of the day, if you're earning under about £15K, the tax man only needs to know the end figures and not loads of details, so it's not worth the effort getting bogged down in doing a fabulously detailed set of accounts.

Thanks Becles, that's really clear :T . I'll carry on as I was. Seems I was on track afterall

jdan9

Help needed!

I accepted a job that appeared on RE on Friday, for which all the visit dates had already passed. I assumed this was a visit some other shopper had released after they should have carried out the visit. I then immediately sent an email to the member of staff responsible for the shop, explaining that I'd accepted the visit, and asking if they still wanted the visit doing, and if so when they'd like it to be carried out.

This was at 3pm on Friday, and I still haven't received a response. Now, the system has sent me an automated message that I've failed to set a date within 48 hours, and has removed the job from my account, and deducted 2 points.

How should I reply to this? I've started to write a reply, but I can't work out how to convey the situation and my displeasure without sounding pretentious, snotty and petty!