I have to say that we moved away from tickets and offered wristbands at a higher price but they were good for everything except food. We used a cash collector for food (had to be a board member) and they signed for the box and tallied and returned with the treasurer after filling out a cash box form. We did sell some tickets for folks if they didn't care for the bracelet but the response for the bracelet was tremendous and parents really appreciated not having to walk around with a million tickets in their hands.
We loved not having to keep track of the tickets. Our carnival that year brought in 8,000 (including a basket raffle). d

We never followed through on pursuing that but when we discussed it, we were hoping to get them to volunteer. At the time, several places around here had the automated counting machines and seem to use a fairly standard size ticket, although their own are custom printed, of course. (Note - more and more are going to to the electronic cards now.)

But we also discussed weighing them with a postal scale.

We weren't striving for an exact count, but close enough to 1) serve as a checks and balance against cash received and 2) have an idea of how much was spent at each station. The second part is very helpful for planning for next year.

Thank you for your suggestions - they are really helpful! How much would the arcade charge for counting the tickets? That's a really good check because hand counting may not always be accurate.

This is a very good idea as part of your checks and balances.

On the sales side, tickets should be treated like money. You should note the beginning number of the role or number of tickets given to sell (whether for a pre-sale or at a ticket desk). At the end of the night missing tickets should equal cash. If anyone (principal, counselor) has the ability to take comp tickets - they should be marked.

As tickets are presented for products/services, each station should have a coffee can or jar where the tickets are placed. (Do NOT recycle tickets unless they are counted before being removed.) At the end of the night, the tickets should be counted. We used to have a "station report" where each area would list their inventory, any problems, and the number tickets they ended with. (Counting these is also a great job for kids as the parents clean up. Just use a simple plan, like asking them to stack them in groups of 10 or 20. Then someone else can quickly bundle them into 100, 500, 1000. It's easy to lose count if you simply count a huge pile.)

We had talked about trying to make a deal with one of the places that has an arcade with automatic counting machine to count ours as a double check the next day, but we never followed through on it.

Counting the tickets was our first clue to an embezzlement. We ran an event that typically brings in total $400-$500. Our ticket count was over 500 ($1 ea), but the treasurer deposited less than $400. It's always possible to have more money than tickets - that just means not everyone used up the tickets they bought. And this is a volunteer situation- we don't expect it to balance on the nose. But when the cash is short more than 25% of what would be logically expected, there well could be a problem.

Our PTO's biggest fundraiser at the end of the year is a carnival where we pre-sell tickets 2 weeks before and at the door. The tickets are used for food, inflatables, drinks, raffles, etc. We need to "audit" these tickets to try to tie them into our total receipts. Does anyone have any suggestions on the best and most efficient way to do this?