Checklist: What Finance Needs From Marketing Before Launching a Big Campaign

Checklist: What Finance Needs From Marketing Before Launching a Big Campaign

Hook: Marketing is ready to scale—budget approved, creative locked, channels queued. Finance is left guessing when the cash will be spent, when payments clear, and how to forecast bank balances accurately. That mismatch creates last-minute freezes, missed vendor payments, and weeks of reconciliation pain. This checklist fixes that by forcing marketing to deliver the specific, finance-ready inputs needed to forecast cash and protect working capital.

Why alignment matters now (2026 context)

In 2026, marketing execution is faster and more autonomous than ever. autonomous-business trends and platform innovations—like Google’s total campaign budgets for Search and Shopping—let campaigns self-optimize spend over defined windows. That reduces manual budget tweaks but increases the need for precise cash timing and spend controls from the start (Source: Google, Jan 15, 2026).

At the same time, finance teams are under pressure to produce real-time balance visibility and compliant audit trails. Marketing must deliver clean, consistent inputs so automation in finance can produce accurate cash forecasting and reconciliation (Source: ZDNET, 2025).

Top-line checklist for finance-ready campaigns

Below are the non-negotiable items finance needs from marketing before greenlighting a major campaign. Treat this as the pre-launch handoff every time.

1. Final approved campaign budget (total and by channel) — total campaign cap, channel-level caps (PPC, social, affiliates), and daily or weekly pacing limits when applicable.
2. Expected cash timing — invoice dates, payment terms, settlement delays by vendor/processor, and expected cash-out schedule.
3. Tracking parameters and attribution IDs — utm templates, platform-specific IDs (e.g., GCLID), conversion event names, and offline conversion mappings finance can reconcile to ledgers.
4. Spend authorization & approval evidence — budget approvals in the ERP or documented sign-off emails tied to GL codes and cost centers.
5. Payment flow & vendor details — vendor legal name, bank details, payment terms, expected invoice cadence, and contingency payment routes.
6. Forecasted KPIs & CPA targets — expected CPR/CPA, projected monthly burn curve, and break-even timeframes to inform scenario forecasts.
7. Contingency & kill-switch rules — thresholds (spend, ROAS, or CPA) prompting pausing or scaling down, and the responsible approver.
8. Data feeds & access — which APIs, dashboards, or daily reports finance will receive, and the SLA for those feeds.
9. Reconciliation mapping — how campaign line items map to accounting GL accounts, including fees, refunds, taxes, and chargebacks.
10. FX, tax, and platform fee assumptions — expected foreign exchange coverage, withholding tax, and explicit fee percentages for cost-to-cash modeling.

How each item helps cash forecasting (practical guidance)

Finance needs more than a budget number. Here’s how each checklist item feeds into accurate cash forecasting and reconciliations.

• Total + channel budgets: Translate into maximum cash outflows per period. If Google’s total campaign budgets are used, finance can model a capped total rather than open-ended daily spends—this reduces exposure (real-world advantage reported in Jan 2026 public rollout).
• Expected cash timing: Payment timing often lags ad impressions by platform settlement windows. For example, some ad networks settle weekly and take 3–7 days to remit. Map campaign activity to expected settlement dates to convert marketing spend into actual bank outflows.
• Tracking parameters: UTM/GCLID data enables matching ad spends to conversions and to invoice receipts. This is essential for finance to validate cost per acquisition and to allocate costs across products or departments.
• Approval evidence and GL mapping: Ensures spend is posted to the right accounts immediately, reducing later reclassification work.
• Contingency rules: Feed scenario branches into cash models—if CPA rises 20%, what's the new burn rate and runway?

Pre-launch delivery template (what marketing must hand to finance)

Use this template as a required attachment to every campaign brief. Share it in the campaign kickoff and make sign-off mandatory.

1. Campaign Summary
   • Campaign name and ID
   • Objectives (awareness, acquisition, retention)
   • Start and end dates
2. Budget & Spend Controls
   • Total campaign budget
   • Channel-level budgets (PPC, social, affiliates)
   • Daily/weekly pacing caps or use of platform total budget feature
   • Authorized overspend tolerance (if any)
3. Cash Timing & Payment Terms
   • List of vendors/platforms and their payment terms
   • Expected invoice dates and frequency
   • Payment method (credit card, ACH, invoice) and settlement lags
4. Tracking & Attribution
   • UTM structure and example URLs
   • Platform IDs (GCLID, fbclid, etc.)
   • Conversion event names and mapping to revenue accounts
   • Offline conversion import cadence (if applicable)
5. Reconciliation & Accounting Mapping
   • GL codes for each channel
   • Cost centers and product tags
   • Expected fees and tax treatment
6. KPIs, Forecasts & Scenarios
   • Target CPA/ROAS and expected conversion volume
   • 3 scenario burn curves (best, expected, worst)
   • Trigger thresholds that change spend
7. Data Access & SLAs
   • Dashboard links, API credentials, and access roles
   • Daily/weekly report cadence and delivery time

Detailed issues to resolve before launch (finance checklist)

Use this operational checklist to close the loop on the template above.

1. Confirm spend caps are enforceable — If marketing intends to use platform features like Google’s total campaign budgets, confirm finance understands how that feature enforces limits and whether it can be overruled by automated bid strategies.
2. Model settlement lag — For each channel, add expected settlement lag into the cashflow model (e.g., campaign runs 1–7 May, platform invoices on 10 May, settlement hits bank on 14 May).
3. Lock GL codes and accounting rules — Pre-map expected line items, including ad platform fees, agency commissions, VAT/GST, and payment processor fees.
4. Authorize payment methods — Confirm cards or vendor accounts have enough limits and that finance has payment visibility for reconciliation.
5. Agree on reporting schema — Ensure marketing’s reporting fields match finance’s ledger fields (date, channel, campaign_id, cost, tax, currency) and that tracking templates are centralized via a canonical builder such as the UTM template.
6. Set a kill-switch with a single point of control — Document who can stop spend and how quickly—this reduces time-to-action in emergencies.
7. Forecast refunds & chargebacks — Estimate expected refunds/returns that will reverse cash in subsequent periods.

Case example: How a UK retailer avoided cash shortfalls

Beauty retailer Escentual used Google’s total campaign budgets during a 72-hour promotion and increased traffic 16% while staying within budget (Google rollout, Jan 2026). Their finance team required marketing to provide channel caps, expected settlement dates, and daily tracking feeds. By modeling the expected settlement lag and fees, they avoided a potential short-term overdraft and reconciled actual spend within three days of campaign close.

How to convert campaign data into cash forecasts (step-by-step)

Finance teams should run this workflow each time a campaign is handed over.

1. Ingest campaign budget and schedule — Enter total and channel budgets into the cash model, including start/end dates and pacing caps.
2. Apply settlement lag multipliers — For each platform, multiply campaign spend by expected settlement lag to derive the date cash leaves the bank.
3. Include fees and taxes — Add platform fees (percentage or flat), payment processor fees, and estimated taxes. Use the highest-likelihood scenario for base forecasts and open scenarios for stress tests.
4. Map to GL and produce forecasted journaling — Pre-create journal entries so accounts payable can match invoices directly against the campaign line item and GL code.
5. Create daily-to-weekly burn curve — If marketing provides a daily pacing plan, align that with expected cashflow. If using total campaign budgets (auto-pacing), model multiple pacing scenarios: front-loaded, even, and back-loaded.
6. Publish an adjusted cash runway — Incorporate campaign outflows into the company-wide cash runway and flag if runway falls below thresholds.

Quick formulas and examples

Use these simple calculations in your forecasting spreadsheet or cash tool:

• Expected Bank Outflow Date = Campaign Spend Date + Platform Settlement Lag (days)
• Net Campaign Cost = Gross Spend + Platform Fees + Payment Fees + Taxes
• Adjusted Daily Burn = (Total Campaign Budget / Campaign Days) * Settlement Timing Factor

Example: 30,000 GBP campaign over 10 days, platform settles weekly with a 5-day lag and fees of 6%.

• Daily nominal spend = 3,000 GBP
• Projected bank outflow per day (approx) = 3,000 + (3,000 * 0.06) = 3,180 GBP, shifted by 5 days

Advanced strategies for SMBs in 2026

Small and mid-size businesses can punch above their weight by combining simple automation with rigorous controls:

• Automated feeds into accounting — Use APIs or middleware to feed daily ad spend into your accounting system, mapped to GL codes. This reduces manual entry and speeding reconciliation.
• Runbook for spend anomalies — Predefine steps when spend pacing deviates +20% from plan: notify finance, pause bids, or reallocate budget. See field playbook examples like the Field Toolkit.
• Use platform-level total budgets for short blasts — For short promotions, total campaign budgets (Google’s 2026 expansion) reduce operator overhead and cap exposure.
• Centralize tracking templates — Maintain a canonical UTM builder so every campaign has consistent parameters for finance matching.
• Adopt rolling 30-day cash forecasts — Update forecasts daily during campaigns to reflect real spend and settlement timing.
• Regular post-campaign P&L — Produce a campaign-level P&L within 7 days of close that reconciles marketing reports to bank activity and invoices; see examples from SMB ops playbooks.

Audit & compliance checklist

Integrating marketing into financial reporting increases auditability.

• Retain signed budget approvals linked to invoices for audit trails.
• Store tracking templates and conversion mappings centrally to defend expense allocations.
• Keep vendor agreements and payment terms in the procurement system.
• Log who triggered a kill-switch and why; keep a time-stamped record for governance.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

Address these frequent causes of misalignment before they derail forecasts:

• Pitfall: Marketing gives only a single budget number with no timing. Fix: Require a spend schedule and settlement assumptions.
• Pitfall: Platform auto-bidding increases daily spend unexpectedly. Fix: Use hard caps and create alert hooks for spend velocity.
• Pitfall: Tracking parameters inconsistent across channels. Fix: Enforce a canonical UTM standard and verify sample URLs before launch.
• Pitfall: Finance lacks access to live dashboards. Fix: Provision a read-only dashboard and automated daily CSV/API feed.

"For finance, the difference between campaign success and cash stress is timing and traceability. Get those right and marketing can move fast without putting the business at risk."

Action plan: Implement this checklist in 7 days

Use this practical 7-day rollout to operationalize the checklist for your next campaign.

1. Day 1: Marketing fills the campaign delivery template and shares vendor/payment details.
2. Day 2: Finance maps GL codes and confirms payment capacity and card/ACH limits.
3. Day 3: Set up tracking parameter verification and sample URL checks.
4. Day 4: Model cashflows with settlement lags; publish draft forecast and runway impact.
5. Day 5: Agree on kill-switch thresholds, SLA for reports, and access to dashboards.
6. Day 6: Carry out a quick dry run of reconciliation with a small test spend or historical data.
7. Day 7: Final sign-off from CFO and head of marketing; schedule daily reporting during the campaign.

Key takeaways

• Provide spend caps and timing, not just totals. Platform features like total campaign budgets help, but finance still needs timing and settlement assumptions.
• Deliver tracking parameters and GL mappings up front. This reduces reconciliation time and improves auditability.
• Model multiple pacing scenarios. Use best/expected/worst-case burn curves and fold them into the firm’s cash runway.
• Automate feeds where possible. Daily API or CSV feeds to the accounting system let finance reconcile faster and forecast in near real-time.
• Agree kill-switch rules and SLAs. Quick action on overspend prevents cash surprises.

Next steps — get started with a template

If you run campaigns in-house or with an agency, institute the campaign delivery template as a pre-launch gate. Require sign-off from finance and marketing leads before any ads go live. For SMBs, automating feeds and using platform total budgets for short promotions are high-leverage steps you can implement quickly in 2026.

Call to action: Want a ready-to-use campaign handoff template tailored for SMBs? Download our finance-marketing pre-launch checklist and a reconciliation mapping spreadsheet to integrate into your ERP. Protect your cash runway—get the template and a 30-minute implementation playbook at balances.cloud/checklists.

Related Reading

• Briefs that Work: A Template for Feeding AI Tools
• Micro-Drops & Flash-Sale Playbook for Short Promotions
• Scaling Small: Micro‑fulfilment & Ops Playbooks
• Rapid Edge Content Publishing — ship local live content fast
• Detecting and Labeling Nonconsensual Synthetic Content: Feature Spec for Developers
• Mini-Me Matching: Gifts for You and Your Pup — Stylish Outfits & Accessories
• CRM Integration Patterns for Microapps: Webhooks, SDKs, and Lightweight Middleware
• 9 Quest Types in Practice: Examples From Fallout, Elden Ring, and Modern RPGs
• Train Like a Pro Flipper: Using AI Guided Learning to Master Marketing and ROI Modeling