Abstract
The article examines the accounting and audit treatment of marketing expenses incurred by creative projects. The relevance of the study stems from a structural mismatch between the economic nature of such expenses and their treatment under current Ukrainian accounting standards: although marketing activities of creative projects - branding, storytelling, identity development - generate long-term brand value, national accounting regulations explicitly prohibit the capitalization of internally generated trademarks and reputation as intangible assets, so these expenses are always recognized as period costs. The methodology combines regulatory analysis of national accounting standards and international standards, comparative analysis of accounting approaches applicable to conventional businesses versus creative projects, case-based illustration, and structural-logical synthesis. As a result, a four-criteria classification of marketing expenses of creative projects was developed, covering their relation to intangible value formation, source of financing, payment form, and promotion channel. Problematic areas of recognition and measurement were identified, including deferred economic effect, barter and sponsorship arrangements, and the linkage between targeted-financing income recognition and expense recognition under grant agreements. Specific audit risks were identified that are atypical for conventional marketing-expense audits, including the lower reliability of digital-marketing evidence sourced from platforms and influencers, the difficulty of assessing economic feasibility of intangible-outcome activities, and the need for dedicated procedures verifying compliance with grant budget lines. The study proposes a practical accounting subaccount nomenclature and an audit procedure checklist applicable to creative-sector organizations, particularly those operating under grant-funded international projects such as ERASMUS+. The findings extend existing accounting and audit literature, developed primarily for profit-oriented commercial enterprises, into the underexplored context of creative industries financing.