The Mystery Shopping thread - VII

nads

sjw wrote: »

who are cri?

timmne wrote: »

consumer research international - not my cup of tea as they're american and have different ways of doing things - fees are about average but they pay by paypal so you lose a bit on the fee.

.... 1111 1111 11111

ukmonkey

Hollypear wrote: »

I am 59 and note the age limit on these jobs is 60 so amybe soon I wont hardly be able to do any MS's

I'm gob-smacked. Totally shocked.

I had you down as being in your late 20's/early 30's!

Timmne

She is - mentally!

ukmonkey

kman wrote: »

the latest phone job states that a photo must be taken, but you can't use a mobile phone to do it - how can you tell what a photo was taken with???

You CAN tell what device a photo was taken with as it is hard-coded into the properties of the image file (known as the exif data).

My phone even has Geo-tagging on it, so my photos are hard-coded with the lattitude and logitude of where the images were taken. I sure hope RE email me someday to dispute a photo of a branch, saying it's the wrong location, I really hope this happens, just so I can prove to them that their MSers aren't liars, as they seem to think all too often it seems...

EDIT: I see nads beat me to it!

ukmonkey

Right, I'm thinking about making a spreadsheet that we can all use to log our jobs, if you want to! To helpw ith tax etc.

What information should be in it?

So far my list is:

Date Job Completed
MS Company
Client
Job Ref #
Required Purchase Amount
Actual Purchase Amount
Reimbursement
Fee
Milage
Costs incurred on visit (e.g car parking)
Number of sheets printed
Date Payment Due
Payment Received?
Profit/Loss (+/-)




Anything I'm missing? I'll edit this list with people's suggestions.

Timmne

I've got a column of date paid, too. Also, profit per job, so I know where I ought to be driving further or printing more off

kman

What about actual expenditure as well...?
Parking costs?

MikeLB

I used to have a seperate spread sheet for every compnay primarily because TNS used to pay you as an employee but not they pay you as a contractor which makes it easier, strangely! But you have to adjust what each companyc alles a fee etc to fit into the headings

So I have one sheet for all my work with the following headings -

Date
MS Company
Client
Location
Job Ref
Spend Limit
Job Price
ActualPayment
Pay Date
Mileage

I also have one sheet with a mileage ready reckoner which I sat and made up one evening with all my local jobs so I fill the miles out as I go along. At the bottom of the spreadhseet I have a little table with this

Miles at 40p
Miles at 26p

Job Fees
Job Spends
Total Mileage
Income
Expenses

Profit

So all I need to do at the end of the tax year is add in my expenses such as Flights, Broadband etc and it takes under 30 minutes to get the figures sorted as they auto fill - I never claim for sheets of paper but you could add a column in for that too.

ukmonkey

MikeLB wrote: »

I used to have a seperate spread sheet for every compnay primarily because TNS used to pay you as an employee but not they pay you as a contractor which makes it easier, strangely! But you have to adjust what each companyc alles a fee etc to fit into the headings

So I have one sheet for all my work with the following headings -

Date
MS Company
Client
Location
Job Ref
Spend Limit
Job Price
ActualPayment
Pay Date
Mileage

I also have one sheet with a mileage ready reckoner which I sat and made up one evening with all my local jobs so I fill the miles out as I go along. At the bottom of the spreadhseet I have a little table with this

Miles at 40p
Miles at 26p

Job Fees
Job Spends
Total Mileage
Income
Expenses

Profit

So all I need to do at the end of the tax year is add in my expenses such as Flights, Broadband etc and it takes under 30 minutes to get the figures sorted as they auto fill - I never claim for sheets of paper but you could add a column in for that too.

Well I'm hoping to put together something that is all-signing, all-dancing based on another spreadsheet that I use for something else.

Why do you have too different rates for mileage? And why would you be claiming flights as expenses?!?!

nads

ukmonkey wrote: »

I'm gob-smacked. Totally shocked.

I had you down as being in your late 20's/early 30's!

Same here! Well can I say you type youthfully!