I apologize if these points have already been covered, I have mainly been spending my time on the page with the list of companies methodically going through and regestering with all that support my area. Than being said, I haven't had a lot of time to browse other topics.

My questions:

1.Is there a way of finding out what companies use what shopper companies? For example; if I really enjoy eating at Arby's, or shopping at Target; is there a way to find out who recruits the clients for these shops?

2.If I did not print a copy of my IC agreement or W9, is there a way to recover it to print a hard copy? I assume this will vary slightly from place to place.

3.I am currently collecting unemployment. I started doing shops on June 1st. Do I report wages when the shop is performed or when I receive payment?

Thanks in advance; this forum has been unbelieveably helpful~!

Lynlee

lynleestar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I apologize if these points have already been
> covered, I have mainly been spending my time on
> the page with the list of companies methodically
> going through and regestering with all that
> support my area. Than being said, I haven't had a
> lot of time to browse other topics.
>
> My questions:
>
> 1.Is there a way of finding out what companies use
> what shopper companies? For example; if I really
> enjoy eating at Arby's, or shopping at Target; is
> there a way to find out who recruits the clients
> for these shops?

Yes and no...Search the job boards and the forums, and usually you can figure it out. You need to be signed up with lots of MSC's, and search other areas
than where you live sometimes, to figure it all out.
>
> 2.If I did not print a copy of my IC agreement or
> W9, is there a way to recover it to print a hard
> copy? I assume this will vary slightly from place
> to place.

Most can be printed at the MSC site. Even after the initial sign up.
>
> 3.I am currently collecting unemployment. I
> started doing shops on June 1st. Do I report
> wages when the shop is performed or when I receive
> payment?
>

No clue, but my gut is that these don't play nicely together.


> Thanks in advance; this forum has been
> unbelieveably helpful~!
>
> Lynlee

Hi Lynlee!

If you find some listing of who shops whom you have found somebody who was seriously breaking the confidentiality clause of their ICA. If you do a little detective work of your own you can often figure out what company has what client. I keep a list of clients and companies for my own use (no breech of ICA there because I am not sharing the list). As I am checking company job boards I usually check to see what is available outside my area to help flesh out my list. When I read on a forum that "the pickle stand that used to be with XYZ is now at PDQ", that is usually enough of a clue to update my list for the pickle stand. But if I don't know who the pickle stand is I will go to PDQ and start searching around for a pickle stand in various parts of the country. PDQ may not specify "TONY'S PICKLES", but there are a whole lot of ways for figuring out that the place is Tony's. I may not have a Tony's in my area right now, but I will put them on my list because six months from now somebody may say "the ice cream place is shopped by the same company that does Tony's Pickles"

In many cases you will find that the same client is shopped by different companies in different parts of the country. Similarly you are likely to find that the same physical location is shopped by multiple companies. I am thinking specifically of a location near me that is shopped by the chain brand itself, it is shopped occasionally by a soda company and it is shopped by the fast food franchise inside.

You mentioned specifically Target. I have shopped them for the credit cards and for the coffee franchise and seen them shopped for a few other things, but I have never seen a shop of the store itself. So "Is Target shopped?" Yes,but as parts but not the whole that I know of.

About the unemployment, you report the jobs when you do them. I drew unemplyment for awhile last winter.

Brenda

Okay....you report the jobs when you do them. What happens then if it is an invalid shop and you don't get paid?

The rules are different in different places. My unemployed son in TX asked about when to report some part time work he was doing and was told to report it when he got paid. He did so. It was about $130 so made no difference in his weekly unemployment check because it did not exceed his threshhold for full payment. Check with your unemployment office as obviously rules differ in different states.

Remember also that as an ICA you are doing tax reporting as a business so the payment you receive may include both fee and reimbursement. As a business you
have expenses such as mileage to deduct from your fee and a reimbursement is not considered 'income'. Thus, for example:

fee = $10
reimbursement = $8
miles to do job = 12
Check received $18
"Income" portion of check = $10
mileage deduction = 12 * $.55 = $6.60
Net income (before any other allowable deductions) = $3.40

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2009 03:57PM by Flash.