How to track brand deals without losing money to your own memory
Short version: track every deal through nine stages, from Pitched to Paid, and record three dates per deal: next follow-up, delivery deadline, and invoice due date. The deals that cost you money are almost never the ones a brand kills. They're the ones that quietly stall in No Response, or sit at Delivered with an invoice nobody is chasing.
The quick answer
Track each deal through these nine stages, and record the rate, deliverables, usage terms, and three dates for every one:
- Pitched, then No Response if it goes quiet
- In Talks, then Negotiating once money is discussed
- Deal when terms are agreed, then Filming
- Delivered, then Paid, the only real finish line
- Declined, so dead pitches stop cluttering the active list
Why brand deals need a pipeline, not a memory
One active deal is easy. Three is where it starts breaking: one brand is waiting on a draft, another owes you a reply about rates, a third owes you money from last month, and the pitch you sent Tuesday needs a follow-up you've already forgotten scheduling. None of those items is hard on its own. What's hard is that they all live on different clocks, and your head is a bad place to run four clocks at once.
A pipeline fixes this because every deal has exactly one current stage, and every stage has an obvious next action. You stop asking "what's going on with all my deals" and start asking "which deals need an action today," which is a much smaller question.
The nine stages, and what each one is for
Pitched
You sent the pitch. Set a follow-up date the moment you log it, because "I'll remember to check in" is how pitches die. If you're still writing the pitch itself, start with the pitch writing guide.
No Response
The stage most trackers skip, and the reason follow-ups don't happen. Moving a deal here is not admitting defeat. It's scheduling exactly one polite follow-up, then letting it go if that lands nowhere.
In Talks
The brand replied and there's a real conversation. Log the contact's name and what they asked for, because this is the detail you'll need verbatim in two weeks.
Negotiating
Money and terms are on the table. Record the rate you quoted and what it includes, especially usage rights, so the number on the eventual invoice matches the number in the thread.
Deal
Terms agreed. Before anything else, log the delivery deadline and the payment terms. Those two dates drive everything downstream.
Filming
Work in progress. The delivery date is now the live clock, and a tracker that surfaces "delivery due in 2 days" beats one that tells you it was due yesterday.
Delivered
The dangerous stage. The work is done, the excitement is over, and the invoice clock is running whether or not anyone is watching it. Deals that sit here unwatched are where creators lose real money.
Paid
The only real finish line. Delivered is not done. Paid is done.
Declined
Dead, on purpose. Keeping declined deals out of the active view keeps the list honest, and keeping them recorded at all tells you later which kinds of pitches went nowhere.
The three dates that make it a system
Stages tell you where a deal is. Dates tell you when to act. For every deal, record a next follow-up date, a delivery deadline, and an invoice due date, and then work from whatever is due today rather than rereading the whole list. On the payment side, the escalation schedule worth copying: a friendly nudge a few days past due, a firm reminder around 14 days overdue, a final notice around 30. Those are the thresholds Hookline's Deal Tracker uses when it escalates its chase-payment reminders, and the full follow-up wording is in the invoicing guide.
If you use a spreadsheet instead
A spreadsheet genuinely works, and it's what I'd recommend over any tool you won't open. Give it columns for brand, contact, stage, rate, deliverables, usage terms, and the three dates, and sort by next action date, not by brand name. The honest weakness is that a spreadsheet never taps you on the shoulder: it won't notice a follow-up is due or an invoice went two weeks overdue. You have to bring the checking routine yourself, on a schedule, or the sheet quietly becomes a diary of things that already went wrong.
What to look for in any deal tracker
- Stages that match how deals actually move, including a No Response stage
- Per-deal fields for rate, deliverables, and usage rights terms, not just a name and a number
- An attention view: what needs a follow-up, delivery, or payment chase today
- Escalating overdue-payment reminders, so chasing money doesn't depend on your mood
- Your data stays yours: exportable, and not held hostage by the tool
I built a tool for this part
The Deal Tracker runs this exact pipeline: nine stages, the three dates, an attention list for what's due today, and escalating chase-payment reminders on overdue invoices. Free, no credits, stored locally in your browser, with CSV export so the data is always yours.
Common questions
What stages should a brand deal tracker have?
Nine: Pitched, No Response, In Talks, Negotiating, Deal, Filming, Delivered, Paid, Declined. The two most skipped are No Response, which drives follow-ups, and Delivered, which is where unpaid invoices hide.
Can I just track brand deals in a spreadsheet?
Yes, and it beats nothing. Add date columns for next follow-up, delivery, and invoice due, and check them on a schedule, because the sheet won't remind you on its own.
When should I follow up on an unpaid invoice?
A friendly nudge a few days past due, a firm reminder around 14 days overdue, a final notice around 30 days. Short, factual, in writing.
What should I record for each deal?
Brand and contact, rate, deliverables, usage rights terms, current stage, and the three dates: next follow-up, delivery deadline, invoice due date.
This pipeline is the working system built into Hookline's own Deal Tracker, described here so it's useful even if you run it in a spreadsheet. Nothing on this page is legal or financial advice. Set it up once in the free Deal Tracker and let the reminders do the remembering.