The best tools to manage brand deals, step by step.

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The short answer

Most creators don't need a dedicated brand-deal platform until they're running several deals a month. Start with three things you control: a media kit that updates itself, a simple pipeline in Notion or Airtable, and an invoicing tool that accepts bank transfers. Add a client-management tool (HoneyBook, Dubsado or Bonsai) once contracts and follow-ups start slipping. Treat marketplaces (Passionfroot's Partner Network, Collabstr, TikTok One, YouTube Creator Partnerships, Instagram's creator marketplace) as lead sources, not as the place your business lives. On a $2,500 deal, the gap between the cheapest and most expensive way to get paid in our Example is about $375.

Brand deals are rented income: the brand sets the budget and the timing. This guide is about running them like a business, so more of each deal reaches you and the relationships stay yours. If you want income that doesn't depend on sponsors, read our guide to monetize your expertise beyond brand deals.

Decision criteria

• Deal volume. One or two deals a quarter: free tools and a spreadsheet are enough. Several a month: you need a pipeline and contract templates.
• Where deals come from. If brands find you through a marketplace, the marketplace may take a cut of that deal and of repeat deals with that brand. If they find you directly, keep the deal off-platform.
• Who owns the contact. Brand emails and deal history should end up in a tool you can export. A platform inbox doesn't count.
• How you get paid. Card payments cost about 3%. ACH or bank transfer costs much less. Ask for bank transfer on anything above a few hundred dollars.

The workflow, step by step

Step 1: Capture inbound inquiries in one place

Inquiries arrive through DMs, email, link-in-bio forms and platform marketplaces. Pick one inbox to route everything into: a dedicated partnerships email address on your own domain is the simplest owned option. Reply to DMs with that address.

Tools that help:

• Beacons: includes a contact form for inbound brand interest and an AI brand-outreach email generator on every plan, according to Beacons' pricing page.
• Passionfroot: a bookable storefront where brands pick a package, submit a brief and book a date. Passionfroot says it's free for creators, with no monthly fee.
• Platform marketplaces: TikTok One (18+, at least 1,000 followers to take part in projects, per TikTok's help center); YouTube Creator Partnerships, formerly BrandConnect (YouTube Partner Program members, 18+, in an eligible country, no active strikes); and Instagram's creator marketplace (18+, professional public account, at least 1,000 followers, per Instagram's help center). All three put you in front of advertisers who are already buying.

Stan is a storefront for selling your own products. We found no brand-deal or media-kit tool on Stan in its help center or pricing, so don't buy it for this job.

Step 2: Publish a rate card and media kit

A media kit answers the brand's first three questions before they ask: who your audience is, how well your content performs, and what a deal costs. A static PDF goes stale in a month. A live one doesn't.

• Beacons offers a media kit that updates daily, rate cards, a pricing calculator, media kit analytics, a custom media-kit domain and gated access on all plans, including Free.
• Passionfroot's storefront shows live audience stats, packages and rates, testimonials and booking forms.
• YouTube Creator Partnerships includes a media kit and rate setting inside YouTube Studio for eligible channels.
• A designed PDF from Canva still works for brands that want an attachment. Update the numbers monthly.

Whatever you use, publish rates as packages (for example, one integrated video plus two short-form cutdowns) with usage rights and exclusivity priced separately. Those two lines are where creators most often give away value.

Step 3: Put every deal under contract

For anything paid, get a signed agreement covering deliverables, dates, approval rounds, usage rights (where, how long, paid ads or organic), exclusivity, payment amount and terms, and what happens if either side cancels. Brands often send their own paper. Read the usage and exclusivity clauses before you sign.

• HoneyBook: contracts with e-signatures, proposals, invoices and payments on all plans. Starter $29/mo, Essentials $59/mo ($49 billed annually), Premium $129/mo ($109 billed annually), with a 30-day trial.
• Dubsado: contracts with e-signature, forms, proposals and invoices on both plans. Starter $35/mo or $335/yr; Premier $55/mo or $525/yr, with a 21-day trial and no card required. Workflows, the scheduler and Zapier are Premier-only.
• Bonsai: contracts, proposals and invoicing for freelancers. Basic $15/user/mo, or $9 billed annually.
• Standalone e-sign: Dropbox Sign (Essentials $15/mo) or PandaDoc (a free eSign plan; Starter $35/seat/mo monthly or $19 billed annually). Both offer some free signing, though their pages state the free limits inconsistently.

Passionfroot handles contracts as file attachments in its messaging inbox, according to its creator page. It doesn't have its own e-sign tool, so pair it with one of the above.

Step 4: Track deliverables

Each deal has a brief, a draft date, approval rounds, a go-live date, links to the live posts, and a report due date. Track them in one place with a status column.

• Notion: the free plan is unlimited for individuals. Notion's template gallery includes several community-made brand-deal trackers and creator CRMs. Paid plans start at $10/seat/mo billed annually ($12 monthly).
• Airtable: better if you want views by brand, due date and payment status. The free plan allows 1,000 records per base, 5 editors and 1,000 API calls a month. Team is $20/seat/mo billed annually ($24 monthly).
• HoneyBook and Dubsado both have project pipelines, so you can skip a separate tracker once you're on one of them.

If Notion isn't your thing, our Notion alternatives page covers other options.

Step 5: Invoice the moment the contract is signed

Send the invoice (or the deposit invoice) when the contract is signed, not when the post goes live. Net-30 or longer terms are common on brand paper, so the clock should start as early as possible.

• Stripe Invoicing: 0.4% per paid invoice on Starter, 0.5% on Plus, on top of payment fees (US cards 2.9% + $0.30; ACH 0.8% capped at $5).
• Wave: free Starter plan. Cards 2.9% + $0.60; bank payments 1% ($1 minimum).
• QuickBooks Payments: invoiced cards 2.99%; ACH 1% ($1 minimum).
• PayPal invoicing (US): 3.49% + $0.49 when the brand pays with PayPal; 2.99% + $0.49 for standard cards, per PayPal's fee page as of Oct 1, 2026.
• Beacons invoices: Beacons says invoices are excluded from its 9% seller fee; payment processor fees still apply (Stripe 2.9% + $0.30).
• Passionfroot generates invoices automatically and can send the payment link as soon as a brand accepts a proposal.

Step 6: Get paid (and know when the money lands)

• Bank transfer/ACH is the cheapest way to receive a large payment. Put it first on your invoice.
• Payout timing varies: Passionfroot says card payments go to your Stripe account and pay out on Stripe's schedule (usually 2 to 7 business days), and its USD bank-transfer option usually takes 3 to 5 business days after the brand pays. HoneyBook's blog lists 2 to 3 business days for cards and 7 to 8 for ACH, with paid instant deposit available after a payment history builds up.
• Marketplaces with escrow hold the brand's money until approval. Collabstr holds payment until the brand approves the work; the brand has 72 hours after submission to request a revision or open a dispute.
• Platform deals: YouTube says creators negotiate and sign directly with the brand and are paid by the brand on direct deals. TikTok's help center describes base pay, revenue share or both, paid through its Rewards Center.

Chase late payments on day one past due, politely and in writing. Your contract should state the payment terms so you have something to point to.

Step 7: Report results and ask for the renewal

Send a short report within the agreed window: live links, views, reach, engagement, clicks or code redemptions, and screenshots of native analytics. Brands renew creators who make their job easy. A scheduling and analytics tool like Metricool can pull cross-platform numbers into one report; the native insights screenshots are what most brands ask for.

End every report with a renewal offer: next month's slot, a bundle price for three, or a usage extension.

Tools by creator stage

Who owns the brand relationship

This is the question most comparisons skip.

• Your own inbox, CRM and invoicing tool: you own the contact and the history. Export it whenever you want.
• Passionfroot: creator-sourced ("organic") deals carry no creator fee according to Passionfroot's pricing article. Deals from its Partner Network carry a 15% fee from your payout, and that fee keeps applying to repeat bookings from partners you met there. Network deals must stay on-platform. We couldn't read Passionfroot's terms (the page returned an error), so we haven't confirmed how it treats taking a network brand off-platform.
• Collabstr: 15% from the creator on each sale, plus a 10% hiring fee charged to the brand (5% on the brand's Premium plan).
• Platform marketplaces: conversations happen inside TikTok, YouTube or Instagram. Move confirmed contacts into your own tracker as soon as the deal is signed.

Example: what a $2,500 sponsorship nets you

Example (hypothetical). Assumptions: a US creator, a single $2,500 flat-fee sponsorship, one invoice, paid in USD by a US brand. No currency conversion, refunds, disputes, taxes, agent or manager commission, or instant-payout fees. Subscription costs are excluded because they're spread across many deals. Fees are each vendor's published standard US rate on Oct 7, 2026.

What the Example shows:

1. The payment method matters less than the marketplace commission. Card vs ACH moves the result by $50 to $70. A 15% marketplace fee moves it by $375.
2. Ask for ACH or bank transfer. On a direct deal it's the cheapest option on every invoicing tool listed.
3. Marketplace fees can be worth it for deals you would never have found. They're expensive for brands you could have reached yourself, and for repeat deals.

What this won't do

• No tool fixes underpricing. Price usage rights and exclusivity separately, and know your rates before an inquiry arrives.
• Contract templates aren't legal advice. Have a lawyer review your standard terms once, especially usage and exclusivity.
• Fees and eligibility change often. Passionfroot's own help articles disagree on who pays the 5% fee on organic deals, and HoneyBook's pricing page and blog list different card rates. Check the vendor before you rely on a number.
• Disclose sponsored content as each platform and your local advertising rules require.
• If you're paid as a business, keep records for tax. Check your local requirements.