Review Project Status Before Closing
Before initiating closeout, finance and project teams should confirm that the project has reached the point where routine transaction activity can be completed. The review should cover project work, customer obligations, funding, billing, commitments, expenses, labor, subcontractor activity, and remaining administrative requirements.
- Project completion: Confirm that required deliverables and project activities are substantially complete.
- Transactions: Verify that labor, expenses, purchases, invoices, and other relevant transactions have been recorded.
- Commitments: Review open commitments and determine whether they require fulfillment, cancellation, or final processing.
- Customer activity: Confirm that billing, collections, credits, and customer adjustments are addressed.
- Contract requirements: Check that required documentation, approvals, and reporting obligations have been completed.
Complete Final Accounting Activities
Closing a project requires finance teams to make sure its financial activity is complete and appropriately classified. Final costs should be reviewed against supporting documentation, while outstanding journal entries and corrections should be posted before the project is placed into a closed status.
The chart of accounts is important during this review because final project transactions must be coded to the appropriate general ledger accounts and financial dimensions. Teams should validate that costs are assigned correctly and that final postings support accurate project reporting.
Where outstanding purchases or services have been received but invoices have not yet arrived, teams should review Accruals For Pending Invoices as part of the cut-off process. This helps ensure project costs are reflected in the appropriate accounting period before final closeout.
Teams should also review Cut Off Date Accruals when project activity spans a reporting cut-off. Applying the appropriate cut-off schedule helps align recognized costs with the period in which the related work or obligation occurred.
Resolve Accruals and Reversals
Outstanding accruals should be reviewed before project closure so temporary estimates do not remain unresolved in the final project records. Finance teams can compare accrued amounts with subsequently received invoices and actual costs, then process required adjustments or reversals.
A defined reversal approach helps ensure temporary entries are handled consistently during the close process. Configurable Accrual Reversal supports reversal timing aligned with the organization's close workflow, including processes designed around month-start or real-time requirements.
The objective is to leave the project with financial records that reflect the final known costs rather than unresolved temporary balances.
Complete Billing, Receivables, and Cash Activities
Project closeout should include a final review of customer billing and receivables. Finance teams should confirm that eligible billings have been issued, adjustments have been recorded, customer balances have been reviewed, and receipts have been appropriately posted.
For customer payments, cash application processes can help match remittances with invoices, identify unapplied cash, resolve deductions, and post receipts accurately. Completing these activities before project closure provides a clearer view of the project's final financial position.
Any remaining customer balance should be investigated and assigned to the appropriate follow-up process rather than left unexplained in the project records.
Validate Project Performance and Final Reporting
Once transactions and billing activities are substantially complete, finance teams should review the project's final financial results. Project Profitability provides a useful framework for comparing project revenue and associated costs to understand the financial outcome of completed work.
Project Evaluation can also support the broader review by examining financial and operational results against the objectives established for the project. These reviews can identify differences between planned and actual performance and provide useful information for future project planning.
Project teams should also compare final results with Project Budgeting records to understand how actual costs and commitments aligned with approved financial expectations. This creates a consistent basis for management reporting and project performance analysis.
Finalize the Costpoint Project Close
After accounting, billing, receivables, commitments, and reporting reviews are complete, authorized users can finalize the project's close status according to the organization's Costpoint configuration and control procedures. The final review should confirm that required transactions have been posted and that no known operational or financial activity remains outstanding.
Organizations using deltek Costpoint should also consider how project status changes interact with connected ERP workflows, integrations, reporting systems, and downstream finance processes. Maintaining consistent project status across connected systems helps preserve reliable financial data after closeout.
Close readiness should be managed as a defined sequence of reconciliations, journal reviews, documentation checks, and approvals. These close tasks can contribute to a faster close by giving finance teams a repeatable process for completing project-related accounting before reporting deadlines.
Best Practices for Project Closeout
- Use a close checklist: Document required accounting, billing, contract, documentation, and approval steps.
- Reconcile before closure: Compare project costs, billings, receivables, commitments, and supporting records before changing project status.
- Complete cut-off procedures: Capture eligible costs and review temporary entries before final reporting.
- Preserve documentation: Retain supporting records needed for audits, contract administration, and future financial analysis.
- Coordinate across teams: Align project management, accounting, billing, contracts, and finance before final closure.
Summary
Closing a project in Costpoint involves confirming project completion, finalizing transactions, reviewing costs and billing, resolving outstanding accounting items, validating financial performance, and completing required approvals. A structured closeout process creates a reliable final project record and supports accurate financial reporting, contract administration, and future project analysis.