Grant close-out and early termination checklist

How to Use This Checklist

Close-out is how a funder confirms that all required administrative actions and all required work under the award are done. This page puts money, reports, property, records, partners, staff and communications in one place, in plain category language, so you can map each item to whatever your own funder calls it.

Start early. One institution recommends opening an advance checklist 180 to 90 days before the end date, and financial preparation should begin about three months out. Some funders send an automatic reminder about 30 days before the end date, but do not wait for it.

Give every item a named owner. Next to each one, record the status, the date finished and where the evidence is filed. The project lead and the finance or grants office should run this together. If the award is ending sooner than planned, start with "If the Award Ends Early," then work through the other sections.

Finishing the checklist does not end your duties on property, records or financial accountability, or your duty to report and return funds later found to be due through a refund, a correction or an audit finding.

Financial Close-Out

The ledger has to tie out before anything else can be signed.

• Forecast remaining expenses, starting three months before the end date.
• Post any adjusting entries in time.
• Reconcile every expenditure charged to the award against what was actually spent.
• Settle any outstanding obligations incurred under the award, not only the bills already paid.
• Work out whether money is owed back to the funder or still owed to your organization, and arrange payment in either direction.
• Check that the time and effort charged by the project lead and other key staff matches what was reported and allowed.
• Keep financial records and supporting documents for the retention period described below.

Final Reports

A common deadline for all close-out reports is 120 calendar days after the project period ends. Check your agreement for the actual date.

• Final technical report: project identifying details, significant results, examples of progress, technical difficulties and how you resolved them, and, for research awards, any resulting publications.
• Final progress report: progress toward the project's aims and the significant outcomes achieved.
• For research awards, an intellectual-property disclosure where required, covering every invention conceived or first put into practice from the start date through completion or termination.
• Final financial report.

In a common retention rule, the records clock starts on the date you submit the final financial report.

Property, Equipment and Records

Close-out covers real property and tangible equipment bought with award funds, not only the money.

• List equipment from three sources: what the funder gave you directly, what your team bought, and what a partner or subcontractor bought.
• Tag or physically verify equipment that was built or assembled under the award. A paperwork review alone will miss it.
• Sort items by value. A common threshold is about $10,000 or less in current value per item, and items under it can often be kept, sold or disposed of without further obligation to the funder.
• Ask the funder for disposal instructions on anything above the threshold.
• Keep financial records, supporting documents and statistical records for three years from the date the final financial report is submitted.
• Keep equipment and property records for three years from final disposal of the item. This is a separate clock, not the report date.

Some institutions ask for more. At least one research institution requires four years after final disposition or after close-out, whichever is later, for equipment, and four years for financial records, extended for lawsuits, patent applications, or misconduct and conflict-of-interest cases. Use the longest rule that applies to you.

Partners and Staff

Partners and staff are where close-outs stall, because their tasks depend on other people.

• Collect and process final invoices from every partner or subgrantee. The overall award cannot close without them.
• Ask partners for their property lists, including anything they bought with award funds, and get disposal instructions where needed.
• Keep enough staff on the close-out until it is done. Moving people to new priorities while grants are still closing leaves partner calls and emails unanswered.

Communities and Communications

Nobody should learn that the award is ending from someone else. Partners should hear directly from the funder or the lead organization, and in good time.

• Write a short communications plan: who is told, by whom, in what order and through what channel.
• Tell partners and subgrantees directly, and do not delay.
• Consider support for partners in transition, such as a bridge grant or loan, planning advice or referrals to other funders.

Without a plan, partners have ended up learning of a change through the media, and trust was lost.

If the Award Ends Early

Common causes include spending faster than planned, a project lead leaving with no replacement, cuts to the funder's own budget, or the funder requesting termination. Everything above still applies. These items come first.

• Read the termination clause in the award agreement. Most agreements have one.
• Forward any termination notice to the central grants or compliance office right away.
• Have the project lead, their department and the grants office prepare one formal response together.
• Assume every normal report is still owed, including financial and technical reports (and intellectual-property reports, where they apply), unless the funder explicitly waives it.
• Bring the financial reconciliation forward to see what may need to be returned.
• If the funding is government money, check whether it expires on its own schedule, for example about five years after appropriation, when undrawn funds return to the treasury.
• Move the partner and staff notices up, because the end date was not expected.

Sign-Off

Keep the finished checklist with your close-out records. Closing out does not end your duties on property, records or financial accountability, so keep it for as long as your retention rules require.