SPONSORSHIPS - INVOICES - PAID OR NOT
Brand Deal Tracker: Track Brand Deal Income, Sponsorship Payments, and Creator Invoices
Platform payouts arrive on a schedule. Brand deals do not. A sponsorship is agreed in a DM, invoiced in a PDF, routed through a procurement queue, and paid whenever the brand gets around to it, which is why creators lose track of thousands of dollars they have already earned. Earnly is the brand deal tracker that keeps every sponsorship on the same board as your YouTube, Twitch, and Etsy money.
Gross
Fees
Take-home
...
Next month Estimate
Payout calendar
Sample data for illustration
In short
A brand deal tracker is a running record of every sponsorship you have agreed to, showing the fee, the deliverables, the date you invoiced, the payment terms, and whether the brand has actually paid. It exists because brand deal income behaves nothing like platform income. YouTube pays on a fixed cycle whether you watch it or not; a brand pays when someone in their finance team approves an invoice, and nobody sends you a reminder if they forget. Payment terms in 2026 mostly land in three shapes: a 50/50 split with half at signing and half within about five business days of the post going live, net-30 from publish or invoice, and milestone terms that release money at signing, draft, and delivery. Creators who accept net-30 commonly price 5% to 15% above their 50/50 rate to cover four to six weeks of cash-flow risk. The fees themselves scale with audience and engagement rather than followers alone: nano creators with 1,000 to 10,000 followers commonly see $100 to $500 for an Instagram feed post, micro creators at 10,000 to 100,000 see roughly $150 to $1,500 per post and $500 to $5,000 for a YouTube integration, and macro creators above 100,000 negotiate into five figures. Earnly puts each of those deals on a row with the brand, the fee, the invoice date, the due date, and a paid or outstanding flag, then adds the ones that cleared into the same take-home total as your platform payouts, so the number you plan around includes sponsorship money instead of ignoring it. Earnly reads your numbers and never touches your money; it is not a bank, a payment processor, or a lender, and it does not provide financial, accounting, or tax advice. Plans start at $12 a month.
Why it matters
What this line of the statement buys you
Every sponsorship on one row
Brand, fee, deliverables, invoice date, terms, and status. The deal you agreed to in a DM three months ago stops being something you have to remember.
Paid, outstanding, or overdue at a glance
The most expensive thing about brand deals is the invoice nobody chased. Outstanding deals stay visible until the money lands, with the due date attached.
Sponsorship money beside platform money
A month can look thin on Twitch and strong overall because two brand deals cleared. Earnly totals both, so you are reading real income rather than platform income.
A clean record when 1099s arrive
Brands issue a 1099-NEC once they pay you $600 or more in a year. Having your own dated record of what each brand paid is how you catch a form that does not match.
How you use it
From connected to answered
Log the deal when you agree it
Add the brand, the fee, the deliverables, and the payment terms while the details are still in front of you.
Send the invoice from Earnly
Lite invoicing covers off-platform work, so the sponsorship you just delivered gets billed without opening a separate tool.
Watch the due date, not your memory
Each deal carries its expected pay date. Anything past it reads as overdue instead of quietly disappearing.
Read the year in one place
Brand deal income lands on the same board and in the same reports as your platform payouts, so annual totals are one number.
It works the same for every kind of seller: see it in action for freelancers, amazon sellers, youtubers or check the income tracker pricing.
Questions people actually ask
How do brand deals pay you?
Almost always by invoice, not by platform payout. You agree a fee, deliver the content, send an invoice, and the brand pays by ACH transfer or through a creator marketplace. The three common structures in 2026 are 50/50 (half at signing, half shortly after the post goes live), net-30 from publish or invoice, and milestone payments tied to signing, draft, and final delivery. Larger brands route invoices through procurement, which adds time that has nothing to do with your work. Earnly's lite invoicing for creators issues the invoice and keeps the deal on your income board until it is paid.
How much do brand deals pay?
Rates scale with audience size, engagement, and platform. Nano creators with 1,000 to 10,000 followers commonly see $100 to $500 for an Instagram feed post. Micro creators at 10,000 to 100,000 followers typically land $150 to $1,500 per Instagram or TikTok post and $500 to $5,000 for a YouTube integration. Above 100,000 followers, feed posts move into the thousands and YouTube integrations into five figures. Engagement rate moves the number as much as follower count does, and usage rights commonly add 20% to 50% on top of the base fee. Our guide to how much brand deals pay breaks the rates down by tier.
How do I keep track of my brand deals?
Log four things per deal and you will never lose one: the agreed fee, the date you invoiced, the payment terms, and whether it has been paid. Spreadsheets work until you have deals with six brands on three different terms, at which point the sheet stops being updated and the overdue invoice goes unnoticed. A brand deal tracker keeps the outstanding ones visible and folds the paid ones into your income totals. Earnly does this beside your platform payouts on the creator revenue dashboard.
What is a brand deal?
A brand deal is a paid agreement where a company pays a creator to make content featuring its product. It differs from platform monetization in that the money comes directly from the brand rather than from ad revenue or fan subscriptions, the fee is negotiated rather than fixed, and the payment arrives on invoice terms rather than a payout schedule. That last difference is the one that causes problems: a Twitch payout arrives on the 15th, while a brand deal arrives when it arrives.
Do I get a 1099 for brand deal income?
A US brand that pays you $600 or more in a calendar year is generally required to issue a Form 1099-NEC, and payments routed through a marketplace or payment platform can instead show up on a 1099-K, which for 2026 has a $5,000 reporting threshold. Deals under those thresholds are still taxable income even without a form, which is why your own record matters more than the paperwork that shows up. See 1099 forms for content creators for how the forms fit together. Earnly is not a tax advisor and this is not tax advice; confirm your situation with a qualified professional.