Project close-out report

A formal document marking a project's completion, summarizing final deliverables, budget performance against the original estimate, and any outstanding items.

Example

A close-out report shows the project delivered on the agreed scope, came in $3,200 over the original budget due to three approved change orders, and lists two minor outstanding revision items to be completed within the week.

Why it matters for agencies

A close-out report that explicitly separates "over budget because of approved change orders" from "over budget because of unmanaged scope creep" gives an accurate picture of project health — conflating the two makes it impossible to tell whether overruns are a documented, billed cost of client-requested growth or a real process failure.