Collab Butler — Kanban tracker for every brand collaboration in flight

What Collab Butler does

Once you're working with brands at any scale, you need somewhere to track each deal that isn't your inbox. Collab Butler is that — a Kanban-style board where each card represents one brand collaboration and moves through stages as the deal progresses.

It's distinct from Pitch Butler (which tracks pre-deal pipeline: prospect → pitched → replied → negotiating → closed). Collab Butler picks up after the deal closes: post-production, posted, paid, completed. Together the two cover the full lifecycle.

Before you start

Nothing required — Collab Butler doesn't import or automate anything. It's a pure tracking workspace. You add cards manually as deals come in.

Optional: an Export JSON habit. There's a Delete All button and it's literal and irreversible. Export before any big clean-up.

Adding your first collab

1. Open Collab Butler in the left nav.
2. Click New Collab. A new card appears.
3. Fill in:

• Brand name — required.
• Stage — picks from a default set (Pitched, In Production, Posted, Awaiting Payment, Paid, Completed). You can rename stages globally in settings.
• Deadline — date the content is due. Used for filtering "what's due this week."
• Payout — the agreed fee (one-off or per-deliverable).
• Notes — free-form. Stash the brand contact's email, the brief, links to draft content here.

1. Drag workflow tags from the right-side tag shelf onto the card to layer in content-type signal: "Reel posted", "Story posted", "Awaiting approval", etc. Tags are visual modifiers on top of the stage; you can have multiple per card.

Filtering and views

The top filter bar slices the board by:

• Stage — show only cards in one stage. Useful for "what's posted but not paid yet" or "what's pitched but not started."
• Brand — show only cards for one brand (if you've done multiple deals with them).
• Tag — show only cards with a specific workflow tag.
• Free-text search — across brand name + notes.
• Deadline window — within X days. Useful for weekly planning.

Exporting

Two formats:

• Export JSON — the full structured backup. Use this before any clean-up; the file can be re-imported via the same workspace later.
• Export CSV — a flattened version for taxes, accounting, agent reports. Each row is one collab with stage, payout, deadline, paid status.

JSON exports are zero-loss. CSV exports flatten the workflow tags into a comma-separated cell.

Tuning over time

• Stage list — the default stages cover most workflows. Customize in settings if your process differs (e.g. add "UGC delivered" between Posted and Paid).
• Workflow tags — same idea. Default shelf is a sensible starter set; add your own (e.g. "Edit due", "Brand reviewing").
• Per-card payout — be consistent on currency and pre/post-tax. Collab Butler doesn't validate; the totals in exports rely on you being clean.

Where the data goes

Collab cards live in the preseed cache. The full board state syncs into the app's regular backup flow.

Common gotchas

• Delete All actually deletes — JSON export first. If you've already hit it without an export, the previous app-level backup might have a copy in {userData}/InfluencerButler/backups/ — check before assuming the data is gone.
• Drag-to-stage doesn't fire — make sure you're dropping the card on the stage column header, not the cards stacked under it.
• CSV export missing fields — CSV flattens nested structures. Use JSON if you need the full record.
• Two collabs with the same brand — Collab Butler doesn't dedupe; one brand can have multiple cards (one per deal). Use the brand filter to see them side-by-side.

Related

• Pitch Butler tutorial — the pre-deal CRM. Pitch Butler tracks deals that haven't closed yet; Collab Butler picks them up after they have.
• Content Butler tutorial — production calendar for the content each collab requires.