Stop-work first-response checklist

How to Use This Checklist

A stop-work order, from a funder or from the lead organization that passed it down, suspends your award. It does not end it, so the job is to stop spending and protect your claim, not to shut down. The project lead, finance and the grants office work through it together. The effective date in the notice is the key fact: costs before it are generally fine, and costs after it are generally unallowable unless they are unavoidable and justifiable. Check off each item and write the date beside it. A suspension can turn into a termination, so keep records from day one.

	Stop-work or suspension order	Termination
What it does	Suspends all or part of the work; the agreement stays and can later become a termination	Ends the agreement
Your first move	Stop new spending, document from day one and preserve the claim	Read the termination clause, then check the letter for appeal instructions

First Hours: Read the Notice and Stop New Spending

• Read the notice for reasons, requirements, deadlines and the effective date.
• Check whether it stops the whole award or only named activities. Some notices let other work continue.
• Stop new activities, purchases and contracts that the notice covers, unless safety requires otherwise.
• Review the award clauses and consult legal counsel right away.
• Acknowledge the order in writing and promptly say you consider it a stop-work order with cost and schedule impacts. This helps preserve your claim from day one.
• If scope is unclear, ask in writing: whole award or named tasks, and what reporting is still due.

If you think a project is affected but nothing reached you, ask the funder.

Subawards, Vendors and Commitments

• Pass the order to every subrecipient the same day, with the same effective date.
• Notify independent contractors promptly.
• Have finance confirm that payroll costing, equipment, open purchase orders, subawards and recurring charges have stopped charging to the award.
• List commitments you cannot cancel, and give finance a justification for reimbursement.

If you do not pass the order down, you will likely still be liable for their spending and will not be reimbursed for costs they incur after the stop date. Process allowable subrecipient and contractor invoices before the funder's deadlines.

Staff and Partners

• Confirm staff time and payroll stop charging to the award after the effective date.
• Talk to human resources, or whoever handles employment matters, before ending anyone's employment.
• Check employment law implications before any furlough or layoff.
• Tell your collaborators about the order.

Records and Cost Tracking

Costs during a suspension are typically not allowable unless they come from obligations made before the effective date, not in anticipation of the stoppage, and that would have been allowable without the suspension. Costs caused by the stoppage may be recoverable.

• Open a dedicated accounting code for stoppage costs, with a short narrative on each entry saying why the cost continued.
• Record the status on the effective date: photograph the work, inventory materials on hand, note where each subaward stood.
• Document all costs caused by the stoppage.
• Record your efforts to cancel costs you could not stop.
• Securely archive project data under your policy and the funder's retention guidelines.
• Inventory equipment and supplies bought with project funds.
• In the first week, find the claim and reporting deadlines in the award terms.

Communications and Reply

• Open a clear channel with the funder to learn what work, if any, may continue.
• Send the written acknowledgment and clarification request described above.
• Respond promptly to every funder request for information.
• If the award is canceled or terminated, tell your donors and explain the impact on your mission.

Appeal and Deadlines

• Check the termination letter for the funder's reasons and appeal instructions. Many funders allow only a short window, such as 30 days after cancellation, so check your own letter for the window.
• Call the funder's program officer for early feedback before you decide to appeal.
• Many contract-style clauses give you only 30 days from the end of the stoppage to claim extra time or money. Check your award terms for the actual deadline and put it in the calendar.

If the Order Lifts or Becomes a Termination

• Many stop-work clauses let an order run up to 90 days by default. Check your award for the actual limit. Track it, and ask the funder what it will do at the end: resume, extend or terminate.
• If lifted, track restart costs separately, such as hiring and training replacements for staff who left for lack of work, and assert your right to an adjustment in time.
• If terminated, read the termination clause in your agreement for what to submit and by when. It may call for a termination proposal.
• Keep documenting costs you could not stop. After a termination date, costs you could not immediately stop are allowable if you used all reasonable efforts to mitigate them.