Budget Like a Boss: A Creator’s Checklist for Tracking PR and Campaign Spend with Monarch Money

Stop wrestling spreadsheets: track PR and campaign spend like a pro with Monarch Money

If you’re a creator or small publisher, you know the drill: scattered receipts, a dozen Google Sheets, and an impossible month-end scramble to prove PR ROI. You don’t need another spreadsheet. You need a repeatable system that replaces manual reconciliation with one source of truth — fast. In 2026, with AI-powered workflows and tighter creator budgets, that system is Monarch Money (on sale now), and this guide shows exactly how to use it to track PR outreach, press kit costs, and influencer campaign budgets.

Why Monarch matters for creators in 2026

Monarch Money has become a go-to budgeting app for freelancers, creators and small teams because it blends bank-grade account connections with flexible budgeting controls. In early 2026 Monarch ran a promotional offer — use code NEWYEAR2026 to get 50% off the first year, bringing new-user pricing to roughly $50/year — making it an affordable, centralized place to retire messy spreadsheets for good.

Beyond price, three trends make Monarch especially relevant now:

• Creator economics are tightening: More creators need repeatable ROI proofs to secure sponsors and ad deals.
• Tool consolidation: Teams prefer one-pane budgeting that connects bank accounts, cards and receipts to reduce manual exports.
• Data-first PR: Earned media is measured not just by impressions but by cost-per-placement and revenue attribution — which requires clean spend data.

What this guide gives you

Actionable steps and a downloadable budget template so you can:

• Set up Monarch to track campaign and PR spend
• Replace spreadsheets with categories, budgets and exports
• Calculate cost-per-placement and campaign ROI
• Automate receipt capture and reporting for stakeholders

Quick setup — 6 steps to replace spreadsheets with Monarch

1. Create a dedicated business view. If you run both personal and creator finances, separate them by using a dedicated set of accounts or a “business” grouping in Monarch so your PR and campaign expenses don’t mix with groceries.
2. Connect the accounts you use for campaigns. Link the cards, bank accounts, PayPal, and any virtual card provider you use for influencer payments or press kit purchases so transactions flow in automatically.
3. Build custom categories and subcategories. Create categories that reflect PR and campaign line items: Press Kits, PR Agency Fees, Media Gifts, Influencer Fees, Creator Fees, Sponsored Content, Distribution, Event Costs, Shipping, and Software Tools.
4. Choose your budgeting style. Monarch supports both flexible and category budgeting approaches. For creators running many short campaigns, category budgets with monthly caps work best; for long product launches, flexible budgets per campaign are easier to adjust.
5. Import historic data + receipts. Use Monarch’s account sync and Chrome extension to pull in past transactions and any Amazon/Target purchases related to kits or swag. Add richer context in the transaction notes (campaign name, outlet, journalist).
6. Download and attach receipts to transactions. For any manual payments (wire transfers, checks), upload receipts or screenshots to the transaction so you have one-click auditability for sponsors and finance reviews.

Why categories + transaction notes beat tags

Categories give you clean P&L lines. Transaction notes provide the context each line needs: campaign names, outlet, and pitch stage. Together they make exports actionable for PR measurement and stakeholder reporting.

Download your Monarch-ready campaign budget template

Use the CSV template below to seed Monarch (or any accounting tool) and stop copying expense rows between sheets. Click to download, then upload to Monarch or paste into your accounting system.

Download the Monarch PR & campaign budget CSV

If you prefer to paste manually, copy the CSV rows into a spreadsheet and then import them into Monarch via the app’s import function (or use them as the basis of your accounting uploads).

How to structure categories and budgets (recommended)

Use this hierarchy to keep reporting clear and exportable to stakeholders:

• PR & Comms (parent category)
  • Press Kits (design, print, shipping)
  • PR Agency Fees
  • Media Gifts
  • Press Events
• Influencer Campaigns (parent category)
  • Influencer Fees
  • Creator Production (shoots, editing)
  • Ad Spend (boosted posts)
• Tools & Subscriptions (analytics, pitch tools)
• Misc & Contingency

Daily workflow to keep budgets tight

1. Daily sync: Let Monarch pull transactions; review new items within 48 hours and assign them to a category.
2. Add campaign tags in notes: For each transaction, add the campaign name and outlet in the notes field (e.g., “SpringLaunch — The Verge — Outreach”).
3. Match receipts: Upload invoices, contracts, or screenshots to the transaction record so each line has proof attached.
4. Weekly review: Export a category-filtered CSV of PR & Influencer spend and reconcile with your pitch tracker and invoices.
5. Monthly report: Use Monarch’s exports to compute cost-per-placement and campaign ROI for your sponsor or internal report.

Calculating PR ROI with Monarch data

Once your transactions are categorized and annotated, here are the KPIs to track:

• Total campaign spend = Sum of all expense transactions tagged with campaign name.
• Cost per placement = Total PR spend / Number of earned media placements. (Count placements from your PR tracker.)
• Earned Media Value (EMV) = Use your standard EMV formula for placements; add it to direct revenue generated from campaign landing pages.
• Campaign ROI = (EMV + Direct Revenue – Spend) / Spend. If you get a positive ROI, you can use that figure in sponsor negotiations.

Example

Small publisher “Leaf & Lens” runs a Spring Launch campaign:

• Press kit costs (design + print + shipping): $1,200
• Influencer fees (3 creators): $2,250
• PR freelancer: $800
• Ad spend for boosts: $500
• Total spend: $4,750
• Placements secured: 10
• Estimated EMV: $12,000
• Direct attributable revenue: $3,000
• ROI = ($12,000 + $3,000 - $4,750) / $4,750 = 2.11 (211%)

With clean Monarch categories, Leaf & Lens exports the campaign spend in 2 clicks and calculates ROI in a spreadsheet in under 10 minutes. That’s the time savings you get by ditching scattered sheets.

Advanced automations and integrations (2026-proof your workflow)

In 2026, many creators rely on automations to scale. Here’s how to stitch Monarch into a modern PR stack without coding:

• Automated receipt capture: Use Monarch’s Chrome extension to capture e-commerce receipts (Amazon/Target) and auto-attach them to transactions.
• Email to accounting: Set up a dedicated campaign expenses mailbox. Use simple rules to forward invoices to a team folder. Download receipts weekly and bulk-upload to Monarch.
• Virtual cards & one-off tracking: Use virtual cards for each campaign (available from many card providers). When those transactions land, they’re easy to auto-assign to a single campaign account in Monarch.
• Export to analytics: Export category-level CSVs from Monarch and import into your PR CRM or a Google Sheet where you combine placements and revenue for final reporting.
• Audit trail for sponsors: Share exports (PDF or CSV) with sponsors and attach supporting receipts for transparency — this builds trust and speeds payment cycles.

Common obstacles and how to avoid them

• Problem: Transactions arrive uncategorized.
  Fix: Create merchant rules and standardize vendor names in Monarch’s transaction notes (e.g., always write “PrintHouse — Press Kits”).
• Problem: Attribution gets lost between PR and sales.
  Fix: Use UTM-tagged campaign links for every sponsored placement and track revenue to those UTMs in your analytics; tie that revenue back to Monarch spend via campaign names.
• Problem: Multiple people need access but you don’t want to share financial logins.
  Fix: Export filtered reports from Monarch and share them through your team’s secure folder (Notion/Google Drive) instead of sharing the Monarch account.

Case study: How a two-person publisher replaced five sheets

Creators Jenna and Marco ran a small publisher and used five different Google Sheets to manage pitches, press kit quotes, influencer contracts, payments, and monthly budgets. After adopting Monarch and importing all past transactions, they created three campaign categories and centralised receipts.

Results within 60 days:

• Time spent on monthly reconciliation dropped from 7 hours to 90 minutes.
• They identified $600 in duplicate subscriptions and canceled them.
• They produced a sponsor-ready ROI package in under an hour for a pitch meeting — and closed a $12k campaign.

“Monarch turned our messy, error-prone process into something repeatable. We finally have numbers to show sponsors — not just gut feelings.” — Jenna, publisher

Checklist: Getting campaign-ready in a weekend

1. Sign up for Monarch and apply promo code NEWYEAR2026 to save 50% for the first year.
2. Connect campaign accounts and your primary business card.
3. Create parent categories: PR & Influencer.
4. Create subcategories: Press Kits, Media Gifts, Influencer Fees, Ad Spend.
5. Import historical transactions and attach receipts.
6. Set up monthly budgets for each category.
7. Standardize transaction notes for campaign names and outlets.
8. Export one campaign’s spend and calculate CPI & ROI in a sheet.
9. Schedule a weekly 20-minute review of new transactions.
10. Share a 1-page monthly report with sponsors/partners.

Final tips: Getting the most from Monarch

• Be consistent with naming. Campaign names in Monarch must match your PR tracker exactly for painless joins during reporting.
• Use separate cards where possible. Virtual or dedicated campaign cards make categorization and reconciliation much faster.
• Budget a contingency line. PR often has last-minute costs; a 10–15% contingency keeps you flexible.
• Automate exports for sponsor reports. Export category reports monthly and attach receipts to build trust and speed sponsor invoicing.

Why act now (and the Monarch discount)

2026 continues to be competitive for creators. Demonstrable ROI and fast, repeatable reporting are competitive advantages. Monarch’s UX and connection capabilities let you centralize that reporting — and right now the NEWYEAR2026 code gets new users 50% off, lowering the first-year cost to roughly $50. That price makes it an easy investment to replace time-sucking spreadsheets and establish a professional budgeting workflow.

Takeaway: Budget like a boss

Moving your PR and campaign budgeting from scattered spreadsheets into Monarch will save you time, reduce errors, and give you clean, stakeholder-ready reports. Use the downloadable CSV template to get started today, set up clear categories and notes for every transaction, and automate routine exports so you can focus on creative work and media relationships — not manual reconciliation.

Ready to try it? Download the CSV template, sign up for Monarch and apply code NEWYEAR2026, and run your first campaign month with a clean category structure. If you want a ready-made report format or a one-page PR ROI template, reply and we’ll share our reporting sheet you can copy into Google Sheets.

Call to action

Download the Monarch PR & campaign budget template above, claim the 50% off NEWYEAR2026 discount, and start replacing spreadsheets with a system that scales with your creator business. Budget like a boss — and spend your time on what grows your audience, not on chasing receipts.

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