Close Out Award

Summary

As your project comes to an end, there are essential tasks you will need to complete to ensure your award has an orderly close. Your award closeout procedures will vary based on the sponsor and whether your funding is in the form of a grant or contract.

Estimated Duration

You have 45 days to pay the expenses incurred during your award's performance period. Please reference your 60-day award close notice to review your closeout responsibilities.

How to Close Out Your Award

Award Closeout Notice

Review your 60-day award closeout notice and follow the applicable outlined required steps.
Award Funds

If you have an industry-sponsored clinical trial or fixed FIX award, you can submit a ServiceNow ticket to expedite your closeout and state the Chart Field String (CFS) you desire your residual funds transferred to at this time.

Terms and Definitions

Award Performance Period: Time period when the awardee is expected to complete award activities – typically indicated by the start and end dates in the notice of award (NOA).
No-Cost Extensions: The extension of a project period without additional funding from the sponsor.
Salary Cap: The maximum institutional base salary that may be used to calculate an individual’s salary to be charged to a grant or contract. Institutional base salary (IBS) does not include fringe benefits or facilities and administrative (F&A) costs associated with the individual’s salary.
60-Day Award Closeout Notice: Notice that triggers a series of actions by the principal investigator (PI) and post-award administrator to complete the award closeout.

View All Terms & Definitions

Expert Tips

Facilitate a Smooth Closeout

Read and follow outlined instructions on the 60-day Notice of Award Close letter from SPA.

Ensure the completion of encumbrances and no outstanding financial transactions, including cost transfers or posting expenses.

You must send invoices to the sponsor program for NBP and FIX awards and ensure all invoices are paid and posted to the award.
Specify Cost Sharing in a Proposal

Cost sharing occurs when the sponsor does not pay a quantified portion of the award costs. It is paid instead with resources within a department, institution, or other parties outside the funding source.

Types of Cost Sharing
Manage No-Cost Extensions for Your Award

Suppose you would like to request additional time for research. In that case, you may submit a request to your sponsored program and coordinate with your proposal specialist.

If you believe your request will receive approval, create a ServiceNow ticket to inform SPA not to start the award closeout process.
Request a Residual Transfer or Consolidation of Earned Funds

Create a ServiceNow ticket to request a consolidated residual transfer. If you want a specific CFS to transfer the residual, please list it in a ServiceNow ticket.

Submit all invoices to the sponsored program and ensure all invoices are paid and posted to the award.

You must complete all no-cost transfers or expense transactions.

If residual funds are more than 10% of the award amount or greater than $10,000, the PI must submit a statement explaining why the residual funds were not spent on the award’s research-required activities.

If your department has not established a process, approved by the department chair, to transfer earned funds on industry sponsored clinical trials; you will need to include documentation that you have the chair’s consent to move the funds to the PI’s consolidated account.
Determine Whether Your Award Has Been Closed

If it is 120 days past the award end date, it should be closed or is in the process of being closed. Ask your department if anyone received the GNR – Closeout report.

If confirmation is needed, create a ServiceNow ticket for SPA.
My Award Still Has a Balance. Can I Spend It?

If the award end date has passed (45 days for federal; 60 days for other sources), no one should post additional expense to the award.

SPA will no longer post a closing budget entry to zero out budget lines, so it is common for balances to remain listed.
What to Do With a Check After the Award Closes

Once the award is closed, it is incredibly problematic to reopen it. That is why SPA asks for all transactions to be posted to the award, including cash transactions, before the award begins the closeout process.

In the rare event where you receive a check after the award is closed, we recommend posting the check to the CFS, where we post residual funds.