Award Closeout

Closeout Certification for Federally Funded Awards

To document the fulfillment of the Principal Investigator’s grant obligations to the federal sponsor, the PI should complete the closeout certification form.

The Closeout Certification process is initiated automatically through Banner. 

Banner will send an email notification to the Principal Investigator after the STAR GCA moves the workflow to SPA.  This first notification, with a link to the closeout certification form, will be received approximately 45-60 days after the grant ends.  The PI will then have a minimum of 30 days to certify and submit the form. 

If the form has not been received when SPA financially closes the grant, a reminder email will be sent to the PI. 

Closeout Certification Form Instructions

Award Closeout

Award Closeout Checklist

Sponsored Projects Costs Overruns

Closeout of a grant or cooperative agreement is usually a routine administrative activity at the end of the project. Uniform Guidance provides instructions for the closeout of a federal award. The University is expected to submit all final financial, programmatic, and other reports, such as technical, property and inventions, within 90 days after the end of the award period. Federal award closeout requirements are generally the same for all federal agencies however closeout procedures vary by award and the terms of the award should be considered during the closeout.

When a project is ending the closing team in the Accounting and Financial Compliance group of SPA works with PI’s, STAR GCA's and Departments to ensure all appropriate expenses have been applied, final billing and financial reporting completed, final payments collected, and other reports have been submitted before closing out the grant funds.

The closeout process is automated through Banner workflow so that processes can be completed sequentially by PI’s, Departments, STAR GCA's, and the closing team in SPA.

Title to equipment, acquired during the project period, normally vests with the University. If title does vest with the University there are no further responsibilities to the sponsor after closeout. Uniform Guidance states that the equipment should continue to be used for the project, if it is continued, or on other federal projects, but if there is no further use for it, an institution may dispose of it.

Record retention requirements for federal awards are specified in Uniform Guidance. The University applies the same record retention requirements to nonfederal awards. Financial records, supporting documents, statistical records, and all records pertinent to an award must be retained for three years from the date of the final expenditure report or, for awards that are renewed quarterly or annually, from the date of the submission of the quarterly or annual financial report. If any litigation, claim, or audit is started before the end of the three year period the records must be retained until the end of the action.

Closeout of Subawards

UNH will not close out a prime award until all subawards issued under the prime award have been closed out.

• Subawards must be processed for closeout and formally closed on a timely basis
• Closeout actions should begin immediately following the expiration of the subaward performance period
• Subawards will only be considered formally closed when all applicable closeout requirements have been accomplished

Subaward closeout requirements:

1. Verification with UNH PI of the following:
   
   • Deliverable items/services have been delivered/performed
   • Inventions or discoveries report from UNH principal investigator (PI)
   • Residual property – property remaining at subaward facility
2. Items generally provided by subawardee:
   
   • Reports of patents, inventions, or discoveries
   • Report of residual property
   • Final certified cumulative invoice statement
3. Interim subaward change order/amendment to deduct/add funds
4. Final invoice processing and payment
5. Final amendment

Closeout of Fixed Price Contracts

A fixed price contract is a type of contract where the payment amount does not depend on resources used or time expended. Fixed price contracts may involve significant financial risk to the University because the PI has agreed to perform the work regardless of the actual cost of conducting the project. Therefore, great care must be taken during the budget development and project negotiation stage to ensure the amount requested from the sponsor includes all anticipated allowable direct costs and indirect costs based on use of the appropriate full federal or non-federal F&A rate.

At the project end date STAR will reach out to the PI to determine if deliverables have been completed and accepted by the sponsor or if an extension is needed. If activities for the project remain, the PI must obtain a no cost time extension (from SPA or from the sponsor if the latter requires), requesting the amount of additional time needed and updating progress information or any budgetary detail the sponsor requests. SPA must countersign requests to sponsors.  Any remaining balance will be subject to the residual balance guidance.