How to Create the Closing Report

The closing report (a Final report) closes your reporting cycle and covers the project's whole life: project-wide figures, finance, evidence and sign-offs. The guided page checks what is ready, tells you what is left and where to do it, and starts the report with the right dates.

Open it

Go to Projects → project → Reporting and click Closing report. (The New reporting period page also links to it from the Final option.)

The steps

Each step shows Done, To do or After you start, a sentence about what is missing and a button that goes to the right place:

1. Indicator calculations confirmed: every indicator's calculation is confirmed, so the report can say whether targets were met. See Understanding indicators and targets.
2. Earlier reports approved: your regular reports (Monthly to Annual) are approved or submitted. Activity, Situation and Custom reports never block this.
3. Project-wide figures complete: each indicator that adds up over time has a baseline, a target and a verified cumulative value. Rates and ratios are not reported cumulatively.
4. Finance reported: if finance is switched on, enter and verify the final figures. This step reads After you start, because finance is entered on the report itself.
5. Activities accepted: the closing report rolls up accepted activity records.
6. Donor template approved: or the built-in closing structure is used.
7. Sign-offs assigned: a project manager and an M&E officer are assigned to review and approve.

Steps still to do do not stop you starting; you can start and finish them as you go.

Start it

When the project can take a closing report, the page shows the dates it will cover (from the end of your last regular period to the project's end) and Start the closing report. It creates the Final period through the same checks as any other period and builds its checklist, then opens it.

When you can't start

The page says why. Common reasons: a closing report already exists (a link takes you to it), the project is Completed or Archived, or every part of the project's dates already has a period. A one-off over existing dates is a Custom report.

Related: How to create a reporting period, Understanding reporting periods.