Start with the decision, not the calendar
Use a monthly report when someone needs a regular operating view: what entered the evidence register this period, which campaigns contributed, what is still missing, and what needs attention next month. Use a campaign report when the reader needs to judge a defined launch or initiative against its original objective, audience, activities, outputs, and measured results.
Some readers need both. An owner may review monthly workload and evidence gaps while a launch lead needs a final Solstice campaign record. Do not force both questions into one headline total. Create two named scopes from the same reconciled inventory and explain their overlap.
| Question | Monthly report | Campaign report |
|---|---|---|
| Primary decision | What needs operating attention next period? | What should change in the next campaign? |
| Boundary | Fixed calendar or accounting period | Named campaign plus declared start and cutoff |
| Coverage included | All qualifying items in the period | Only items linked to the campaign |
| Activity context | Work handled during the month | Activities planned and executed for the campaign |
| Late evidence | Handled by a stated publication or discovery rule | Included if it fits campaign and cutoff, with discovery date visible |
| Typical ending | Priorities, gaps, and next month's actions | Learning, decisions, owners, and follow-up date |
Freeze four boundaries before calculating totals
Write a scope sentence at the top of the report. Name the period, controlling date, campaigns or markets, qualifying content, and evidence cutoff. For a monthly report, publication date is usually easier to audit than discovery date, provided late discoveries are recorded and amended consistently. For a campaign report, link each item to the campaign and choose an end date that matches the decision point.
Keep the evidence cutoff separate from publication date. A 30 September article discovered on 5 October can belong to the September publication period while being added after its first close. Decide whether to issue a labeled amendment or carry it in a late-discovery appendix. Moving it into October without explanation makes month-on-month totals impossible to reproduce.
| Boundary | Example declaration | Risk if omitted |
|---|---|---|
| Period | Publications dated 1 to 31 October | Items drift between reports |
| Campaign | Solstice records only | Always-on work enters the launch total |
| Evidence cutoff | Evidence checked through 3 November | Later links silently rewrite the report |
| Qualifying rule | Unique items with required proof | Reposts and weak mentions inflate the headline |
| Unknowns | Audience response and sales effect not measured | Readers infer outcomes from outputs |
Keep the same evidence layers in either format
Changing the report scope should not change the meaning of the data. Keep activities, observed outputs, qualitative observations, estimates, measured outcomes, and unknowns in separate rows or sections. A sent product is activity. A verified article is an output. Message presence is a qualitative observation. Audience or business change belongs under outcomes only when another source supports it.
AMEC's Integrated Evaluation Framework starts with objectives and distinguishes outputs, out-takes, outcomes, and impact. Its taxonomy cautions against using a metric from one level as evidence for another. A monthly total can therefore describe observed publication volume, while the report still says that awareness, preference, or revenue effect was not measured.
- State the objective and intended audience.
- List activities without calling them coverage.
- Derive output totals from unique evidence rows.
- Explain qualitative categories and reviewer judgments.
- Label every estimate with method, source, and limit.
- Attach outcomes only from a separate measurement source.
- Write unknown when the evidence does not answer the question.
See how matching totals can hide different coverage
The fictional Aster & Rue inventory contains nine unique candidates around the October close. Six have October publication dates: four Solstice items and two always-on items. Five of those six are evidence-ready; one Solstice mention still lacks sufficient proof. Two additional Solstice items were published in August and September, both evidence-ready. A final Solstice item was published on 2 November and remains outside both cutoffs.
The October monthly report contains six unique in-period items: five evidence-ready and one evidence gap. The Solstice campaign report, scoped from 25 August through 31 October, contains six campaign items: five evidence-ready and one evidence gap. Four October Solstice items sit in both reports. The August and September Solstice items appear only in the campaign report, while the two October always-on items appear only in the monthly report. The November item appears in neither.
| Inventory group | Rows | October monthly | Solstice campaign |
|---|---|---|---|
| October Solstice | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| October always-on | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| August and September Solstice | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| November Solstice | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Total candidate rows | 9 | 6 | 6 |
| Evidence-ready rows | 7 within either scope | 5 | 5 |
| Missing-proof rows | 1 within both scopes | 1 | 1 |
Design the last page for the reader's next action
A monthly report should end with a short queue: evidence to complete, follow-ups due, recurring topics, contacts to review, and decisions that must be made before the next close. Keep open tasks out of the coverage total. If a prior month changes, issue a dated correction rather than changing an old deck with no record.
A campaign report should end with decisions tied to its objective and evidence: keep, change, test, or stop. Name an owner and review date for each action. Avoid the empty conclusion that the campaign needs more coverage next time. Specify which audience, message, media context, evidence practice, or workflow should change, and state what remains unmeasured.
Build and freeze the report you actually chose
In a spreadsheet, filter the same evidence register twice, preserve the filter criteria beside each summary, and store the included IDs. Recalculate the totals, open a sample of proof, and save a dated final copy. The downloadable cutePR coverage report workbook can support this sequence without an account.
cutePR can scope manually entered records by period, campaign, market, product or pair, and audience, then freeze a report snapshot with web, Excel, and PDF output. Current exports use English labels. The product does not collect coverage automatically, schedule report delivery, provide shared client spaces, infer reach, or calculate causal ROI. Those limits should remain visible when deciding whether its current reporting workflow fits your process.