Monitoring & Evaluation
Accounting/Tally System
The primary goals of keeping track of products sold are to accurately distribute the money among the three women’s groups who make the different products, to provide feedback to Belaku as to what products sold best, and to keep track of the money.
After much deliberation and trial-and-error, we decided that the best way to keep track of products sold is to record on a sheet of paper the quantity sold, the product name, the amount of money received, and a running total. This way, if buyers are short a dollar or want to buy many items for a discounted price, this can be recorded.
Sample:
| Quantity | Product Name | Listed Price | Subtotal | Total |
| 3 | Silk scarf | $20 | $60 | $60 |
| 5 | Greeting cards | $3 | $15 | $75 |
| 3 | Silk scarf | $20 | $55 | $130 |
Note that the last buyer did not have $60 for the scarves, but since we decided to sell the product anyways, we record $55 in the subtotal column.
Before each sale, one member exchanged $20 for change at a bank, and “lended” this money to our cash envelope. After people started buying products, the $20 could be redeemed by the member. During the sale, it is important that only one person handle the money and record receipts. This person should communicate with other members so that after a product is sold, this person is always notified. After the sale, we verified that the amount of money on our receipts and in our cash envelopes were equivalent.
Recording Lessons Learned
It is a good idea to collect volunteers’ thoughts as to what sold well or how best to attract buyers. This can easily be done by having volunteers fill out an online form on Google Docs (docs.google.com). You can also have a sheet of paper for volunteers to write down lessons learned after they finish their shift, or call volunteers at the end of the day. It is best to use the lessons learned to improve the current sale, and not simply future sales.
After the sale
After each sale, members may either want to store the cash in a secure location, or deposit it into a bank and note the amount. Someone should enter the receipts into a spreadsheet, preferably an online spreadsheet like on Google Docs (docs.google.com) if there will be multiple sales and multiple data enterers. This way, after all the sales, there will be 3 ways to verify accurate sales information and money in the cash envelope: counting the money in the cash envelope or deposited into bank accounts, the difference between the pre- and post-inventory counts (Appendix A on the Final Report), and the aggregate receipts. The latter two options also allow you to verify the number of products sold, not just money collected.
