Mystery shoppers are always looking for ways to make more money. Some choose to pick up more assignments, and others hand-pick the higher-paying assignments whenever possible. The other side of mystery shopping is the ability to get new experiences, making this a great job without the doldrums many other types of jobs have. While many mystery shoppers enjoy trying a variety of assignments, they often shy away from audit assignments. If you haven’t tried an audit assignment, you may want to pick one up in the near future. Here’s what you need to know about this type of mystery shopping assignment.

Two Types. Audit assignments can either be concealed or revealed. With a concealed audit assignment, your tasks in the store will remain cloaked, just as with most other types of mystery shopping assignments. With a revealed audit assignment, your provider will give you a letter which you will present to the store manager. This letter tells the manager what you are doing in the store, and you go about your business with the store staff aware of your presence and function.

The Tasks. With an auditing assignment, you are usually checking to make sure the store complies with various laws or possibly company policies. You may check for everything for fire code compliance and safety compliance, to even auditing prices to make sure the price tag shown to customers matches the actual price that is rung up. Read through the assignment guidelines carefully and ensure that you accurately understand the requirements and that you are comfortable performing the job function.

Time Required. Audit assignments can take anywhere from under an hour to several days to complete. The tricky thing about audit assignments is that some of them do not give an estimated time to complete. As you are reading through the assignment requirements, look for the time to complete if it is shown. If it’s not shown, try to estimate for yourself how long it will take you to complete the assignment. Make sure the pay properly compensates you for your time. The last thing you want to do is to commit to a full day of work for what you normally can get paid for just an hour’s worth of work.

The Proper Equipment. Many audit assignments will require you to take photos during your site visit. There is often a requirement for a certain type of camera as well, such as the use of a high quality digital camera over a cell phone camera. Make sure you have the proper equipment on hand to complete the assignment before you request it.

Audit assignments can be a great change of pace from your typical mystery shopping assignments. Both the concealed and revealed assignments offer you some variety to the typical restaurants, retail stores, and so on that you normally visit for mystery shopping assignments. If you haven’t tried an audit assignment or if you haven’t done one recently, you may want to consider signing up for one soon to make more money and add some variety to your mystery shopping job!