After the expiration or termination of the project period for a discretionary grant or cooperative agreement, you are required to submit various reports and documents to close the grant.
Closeout is a process that takes place after the expiration or termination of the project period for a discretionary grant or cooperative agreement. The Notice of Award (NoA) provided in the last year of your grant will have information regarding closeout of the project.
The purpose of closeout is to ensure:
- Final reports are received and evaluated
- Allowable costs are determined
- Amounts due to either the federal agency or to the recipient are determined, and payment arrangements are made
As a grant recipient, your organization must meet several requirements before closing out a grant in the final budget period of the project. Preparation for closeout should begin three months prior to the end date of the grant in order to accurately forecast expenses and any adjusting entries that need to be made.
Failure to submit timely and accurate final reports may affect future funding to the organization.
Closeout Preparation
Within 90 days of the end of the project period you must:
- Reconcile financial expenditures associated with the award
- Liquidate all obligations incurred under the award
- Submit to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Payment Management System (PMS) the final quarterly Federal Cash Transactions Report (FCTR)
- Submit into eRA Commons the Final Financial Report (FFR, SF-425) (PDF | 1.2 MB)
- Submit to eRA Commons the final progress report or other reports required by the terms and conditions of the award
- Submit to eRA Commons a Tangible Personal Property Report (SF-428) (TPPR) to account for any property acquired with federal funds
- Return any funds due to PMS as a result of refunds, corrections, or audits
The required reports (FFR, final progress report, and TPPR) as noted above must be submitted in eRA Commons within 90 days of the end of the project period. Failure to complete the closeout process in 90 days may result in a unilateral closeout of the grant by SAMHSA. This may affect future funding of Federal programs and result in the reimbursement of funding to SAMHSA.
Reports Due to eRA Commons for Closeout:
Final Federal Financial Report (FFR)
FFR – Summary of Instructions and Guidance (PDF | 151 KB)
SAMSHA requires submission of a final FFR (SF-425) report found in eRA no later than 90 days after the end of the project period. The final FFR must:
- Not include unliquidated obligations
- Account for all funds awarded within the grant document
- Reconcile with disbursement reporting to PMS
Submitting the Final FFR:
- Recipients must submit the FFR via the eRA Commons system. SAMHSA will not accept FFRs submitted by email or uploaded as an attachment into eRA.
- To submit the FFR in eRA Commons, the recipient must be:
- Registered in eRA Commons; and
- Assigned the Financial Status Reporter (FSR) role in eRA Commons for the recipient organization. The individual in the recipient organization assigned the FSR role is responsible for reporting the statement of expenditures for the grant.
- Verify the FFR is complete and accurate before submitting in eRA.
Final Progress Report (FPR)
The final progress report usually provides the accomplishments and barriers experienced in meeting the goals and objectives identified by the grantee. The report should span the entire life of the grant project. Program may provide specific instructions for preparation and submission of your final progress report, which would be included in the terms and conditions on the NoA.
Tangible Personal Property Report (TPPR)
The Tangible Personal Property Report (SF-428 and SF-428B) must be completed as part of closeout. Tangible property for this purpose is:
- Acquired Equipment with an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more
- Residual Unused Supplies with total aggregate fair market value exceeding $5,000
Recipients may provide a comment in box 8 on form SF-428 that no equipment was purchased with a value of $5,000 or more, if applicable to the project.
Record Retention
Your organization generally must retain financial and programmatic records, supporting documents, statistical records, and all other records that are required by the terms of an award, or may reasonably be considered pertinent to an award, for a period of three years from the date the final FFR is submitted.
If an audit, litigation, or other action involving the records starts before the end of the appropriate retention period, the records should be maintained until the end of the appropriate retention period or until the audit, litigation, or other action is completed, whichever is later.