By Mehak Kausar
FAR 4.804-5 lists fifteen actions before a contract file closes. Here is the government contract closeout checklist, and which items you control. FAR 4.804-5(a) names fifteen actions a contracting officer must verify before a federal contract file closes. This guide walks the list, marks the items your company controls, and shows where cash gets left behind. Closeout runs on a list the government owns. FAR 4.804-5(a) sets out fifteen actions a contracting officer must verify before a contract file closes. This government contract closeout checklist walks that list, marks the items your company controls, and shows where money goes missing. Roughly half the fifteen wait on something you file, sign or return. The rest sit with auditors, property administrators and the contracting officer. Nothing closes until every applicable line clears. The Government Contract Closeout Checklist FAR 4.804-5(a) (https://www.acquisition.gov/far/4.804-5) names the actions in a fixed order. Classified material disposition comes first. The final patent report must clear, and so must the final royalty report. No value engineering change proposal may stay open. The plant clearance report has to arrive, and property clearance with it. Interim or disallowed costs need settlement. Price revision has to finish. The prime contractor must settle its subcontracts. Prior year indirect cost rates need settlement. Any termination docket has to close. The contract audit must finish. Your closing statement must be complete. Your final invoice must reach the government. Last, the contracting officer reviews contract funds and deobligates the excess. Several of the fifteen will not apply to a given award. A firm-fixed-price services contract with no classified work, no government property and no patent reporting clears most lines on the day of final acceptance. A cost-reimbursement contract with furnished property and three subcontract tiers touches nearly all of them. Once the actions check out, FAR 4.804-5(b) requires the contracting officer to prepare a contract completion statement. It carries the contract number, the last modification and the contractor name. It also carries the dollar amount of excess funds and the final voucher or invoice details. Then it states "that all required contract administration actions have been fully and satisfactorily accomplished." That statement authorizes the file to close. ! Three closeout time standards measured from evidence of physical completion: six months for firm-fixed-price, twenty months for all other contracts, and thirty-six months where indirect cost rates need settlement (https://mhhifytmrlyksfrjacvi.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/2026/10/government-contract-closeout-checklist-figure.png) The clock starts when the contracting officer receives proof of physical completion, not on
FAR 4.804-5(a) names fifteen actions a contracting officer must verify before a federal contract file closes. This guide walks the list, marks the items your company controls, and shows where cash gets left behind.
Closeout runs on a list the government owns. FAR 4.804-5(a) sets out fifteen actions a contracting officer must verify before a contract file closes. This government contract closeout checklist walks that list, marks the items your company controls, and shows where money goes missing. Roughly half the fifteen wait on something you file, sign or return. The rest sit with auditors, property administrators and the contracting officer. Nothing closes until every applicable line clears. The Government Contract Closeout Checklist FAR 4.804-5(a) (https://www.acquisition.gov/far/4.804-5) names the actions in a fixed order. Classified material disposition comes first. The final patent report must clear, and so must the final royalty report. No value engineering change proposal may stay open. The plant clearance report has to arrive, and property clearance with it. Interim or disallowed costs need settlement. Price revision has to finish. The prime contractor must settle its subcontracts. Prior year indirect cost rates need settlement. Any termination docket has to close. The contract audit must finish. Your closing statement must be complete. Your final invoice must reach the government. Last, the contracting officer reviews contract funds and deobligates the excess. Several of the fifteen will not apply to a given award. A firm-fixed-price services contract with no classified work, no government property and no patent reporting clears most lines on the day of final acceptance. A cost-reimbursement contract with furnished property and three subcontract tiers touches nearly all of them. Once the actions check out, FAR 4.804-5(b) requires the contracting officer to prepare a contract completion statement. It carries the contract number, the last modification and the contractor name. It also carries the dollar amount of excess funds and the final voucher or invoice details. Then it states "that all required contract administration actions have been fully and satisfactorily accomplished." That statement authorizes the file to close. ! Three closeout time standards measured from evidence of physical completion: six months for firm-fixed-price, twenty months for all other contracts, and thirty-six months where indirect cost rates need settlement (https://mhhifytmrlyksfrjacvi.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/2026/10/government-contract-closeout-checklist-figure.png) The clock starts when the contracting officer receives proof of physical completion, not on