Complete, close out and archive a project

All plansMember to tick checks, Owner or Admin to configure

Finishing a project in Onplana has three steps, all on the project’s Closeout tab:

Completion checks: your organization’s definition of done, the things that must be true before a project is marked Completed. Some are checked automatically from the project’s data, some are signed off by a person, and your organization decides whether open checks only warn or actually stop a project from being completed.
Closeout: once the project is Completed or Cancelled, record how it ended: a final baseline with its earned value, a closeout report, lessons learned, and a sign-off.
Archive: put the finished project away. An archived project is read-only for everyone and hidden from project lists until it is unarchived.

What	Plans
Completion checks, Off and Warn modes	All plans
Block mode	Enterprise and Enterprise+
Closeout, report, lessons learned, sign-off by the project owner	All plans
Sign-off by a named panel of reviewers	Enterprise and Enterprise+
Archive and unarchive	All plans

Three kinds of check

Kind	How it is answered	Can it block completion?
Automatic	Onplana reads the project data live every time the checks are shown	Yes, when it is marked required
Manual	A person ticks it done, or marks it not applicable with a reason	Yes, when it is marked required
AI	Advice for the team, ticked like a manual check	No. An AI check can never be required

The automatic checks

Check	Passes when
All tasks done	The project has tasks and every one is Done. A project with no tasks does not pass. No starter set uses it, because most projects close with some tasks deliberately left open
No open blocked tasks	No task is Blocked
All milestones complete	Every milestone is complete
No unresolved issues	Every issue is Resolved, Closed or Won’t fix. A Deferred issue still counts as unresolved
A project field is set	A project custom field you pick holds a value
Budget set	The project has a budget above zero
A baseline was captured	The project has at least one baseline

A project with no tasks does not pass All tasks done: there is no work to call done, so when that check is required an empty project shows a gap. It still passes No open blocked tasks, and a project with no milestones passes All milestones complete, since nothing is outstanding; the tab says “none” so you can tell the difference. If Onplana cannot work out a result (for example, the project field a check points at was deleted), the check shows could not check and never blocks.

Starter sets

You do not have to write checks from scratch. Until your organization chooses otherwise, every project uses the generic definition of done: all milestones complete and no open blocked tasks (both required), no unresolved issues, a baseline captured, sponsor acceptance, and lessons learned recorded.

Five more starter sets are ready to copy:

Software and product: navigation and help, plan gating, permissions, agent tools, docs, contracts, events, tests, analytics, operations and deep links.
Construction: snag list closed, inspections passed, as-built drawings and manuals handed over, final account agreed, site cleared, health and safety file delivered.
Marketing and agency: client approval, final assets delivered, usage rights cleared, results reported, final invoice issued.
Consulting: deliverables accepted, knowledge transfer, time and expenses billed, client feedback captured, client system access revoked.
P5 sustainability: five checks based on the PMI GPM P5 Standard, one for each of People, Planet, Prosperity, Process and Product. Each asks that the impacts in that area are assessed with a named owner (Planet also asks for a threshold), and Process asks that any impact over its threshold is escalated to a decision maker. None is required until you make it so.

Set your organization’s checks

Open Organization Settings, go to Configuration, then Completion readiness.
Pick a starter set and select Use this set. Onplana copies it into your organization’s own checks, which you can edit freely; the starter set itself never changes. Once your organization has its own checks, they replace the default set for every project.
Edit, delete or add checks. For each one choose the kind (automatic, manual or AI), whether it is required, and whether it applies to all projects or only strategic or operational ones. An automatic check needs a rule; the “project field is set” rule also needs the field.

Work through the checks on a project

Open the project and select the Closeout tab (in the Analytics group, beside Risks and Issues). Every project member can see it.

Automatic checks show their live result (met, not met, could not check) with a short detail. You cannot tick them; fix the project data instead.
Manual and AI checks can be ticked done, or marked not applicable with a reason (up to 500 characters). Give a check an owner from the project’s members so everyone knows who is answering it.
Run check records the current result as evidence without changing the project. The header shows the enforcement mode, the number of required checks still open, and the last recorded check.

Ticking checks needs permission to edit the project.

Choose what happens when checks are open

An Owner or Admin sets the enforcement mode for the organization:

Mode	What happens when someone marks a project Completed with required checks open	Plans
Off (default)	Nothing. Completion behaves as it always has and no check is recorded	All plans
Warn	The project completes, and the open checks are shown and recorded	All plans
Block	The project stays as it was, and the open required checks are listed	Enterprise and Enterprise+

The mode applies however the status changes: in the app, through an AI agent connected to Onplana, or from an automation rule. In Warn and Block, each attempt records a check, so you can see later what was open when a project was completed. If Onplana hits an internal error while checking, it lets the change through rather than holding the project.

Waive a required check

When a required check cannot be met but the project should still complete, an Owner or Admin can waive it from the Closeout tab with a reason. A waived check counts as met and no longer blocks. Waivers are written to the audit log, and revoking one keeps the record. AI checks are never required, so they never need a waiver.

Close out a finished project

When a project is Completed or Cancelled, the Closeout tab adds the closeout record. It moves through three states: Draft, In review and Signed off.

Select Start closeout. Onplana captures a final baseline named “Final closeout snapshot”, keeps the project’s earned value summary at that moment, and writes the closeout report. While the closeout is a draft, Recapture takes all three again, for example after late timesheets arrive.
Fill in the lessons learned and select Save lessons learned.
Under Send for sign-off, pick the reviewers and select Send for sign-off. With no one picked, the project owner signs off.
Each reviewer opens Review and sign off and chooses Sign off or Request changes (with a comment saying what needs to change).

The final baseline and earned value

The closeout shows the final baseline and the earned value figures calculated at the moment it was captured: schedule performance (SPI) for everyone, plus budget at completion, earned value, actual cost, cost performance (CPI), estimate at completion and variance at completion.

Cost figures follow the same rule as the project’s Finance tab: an organization Owner or Admin, or anyone whose project role has the budget read permission (the project Owner and Manager by default). Everyone else sees the schedule figures with a note that cost is hidden. A project with no rate cards or imported costs shows schedule figures only.

The closeout report

The report is a document in the project’s Project Documents library, so it is versioned, searchable and can be shared like any other document. It covers how the project ended (status, planned dates, tasks done), planned against actual (the first baseline against the final snapshot), the schedule side of earned value, and the lessons learned. Its “What the project leaves behind” section lists the project’s P5 Product and Planet checks with who inherits each one when your organization uses them, plus the matching lesson.

Each recapture saves a new version of the same document rather than a new file. The report never contains cost figures, because people who may not see cost can read the library; the cost table stays on the Closeout tab for those who can. If the document cannot be written (for example, your storage is full), the closeout is still saved and Try writing the report again retries.

Lessons learned

Five fixed questions, each up to 20,000 characters:

Lesson	What to record
What went well	What worked and should be repeated
What to improve	What to do differently next time
Schedule variance reason	Why the finish moved from the plan of record
Budget variance reason	Why the cost moved from the budget
What the project leaves behind	Impacts that continue after handover (use, maintenance, end of life, energy, waste) and who inherits each one

Anyone who can edit the project can change them while the closeout is a draft. They lock when it is sent for sign-off.

Sign-off

On every plan the project owner signs off. On Enterprise and Enterprise+ you can name a panel instead: up to 20 reviewers, each an active member of your organization (not a guest). Reviewers do not need to be on the project to read the closeout.

Every named reviewer must sign off for the closeout to be Signed off.
Any reviewer who requests changes sends it back to Draft, so the team can fix it, recapture and send it again.
The project Owner or Manager can also request changes, but only named reviewers count toward the sign-off.
Sending it for sign-off again replaces the reviewers and clears every decision recorded so far.

Reopening a project resets the closeout

Moving a Completed or Cancelled project back to a live status (for example Active) puts its closeout back to Draft and clears the sign-offs, since whatever was signed off no longer describes the project. Close the project again and recapture when it is really finished.

Archive a project

Archiving puts a finished project away without deleting anything. It is not the Recycle Bin: nothing is removed, and the project can be unarchived at any time.

Open a Completed or Cancelled project.
Select Archive project, either in the project’s … actions menu or in the Archive section of the Closeout tab. On a live project the menu item is shown greyed out until the project is completed or cancelled.
Onplana runs the organization’s archive checks, then asks you to confirm. Select Archive.

Who can archive and unarchive: the project Owner or Manager, or anyone with the Manage compliance permission (organization Owner and Admin by default).

The archive check. Archiving runs the checks your organization has set for archiving, under the same Off, Warn or Block mode as completion. In Warn, the confirmation lists the required checks still open and you can archive anyway; it is recorded. In Block, the open checks are listed and the project is not archived until they are done or waived. One automatic check is made for archiving: closeout signed off, which fails when the project has no closeout or it is not signed off yet.

What archived means

Read-only everywhere. Nobody can change the project or anything in it (tasks, documents, risks, issues, time, the plan) from the app, an AI agent connected to Onplana, or an automation rule. The project shows an “archived” banner. Approvals of time and expenses already logged still go through, and membership and sharing can still change.
Hidden from lists. Archived projects leave the Projects page, the status counts, the portfolio and named portfolios.
The status cannot change. To reopen an archived project, unarchive it first, then change its status (which resets the closeout, above).

Find and unarchive a project

On the Projects page, select Archived to see only archived projects. Open one and select Unarchive in the banner, the actions menu or the Closeout tab. Unarchiving keeps the closeout exactly as it was, signed off included, because the project is still finished.

Who can do what

Action	Who
See the Closeout tab, run a check	Anyone who can open the project
Tick a check, mark it not applicable, set its owner	Anyone who can edit the project
Start, recapture and send a closeout for sign-off, edit lessons learned	Anyone who can edit the project
Sign off a closeout	A named reviewer, or the project owner when no panel is named
Archive and unarchive	The project Owner or Manager, or the Manage compliance permission
Edit the organization’s checks, set the mode, grant or revoke waivers	The Manage compliance permission: Owner and Admin by default

FAQs

Does turning on Warn or Block change projects already completed? No. The mode applies the next time a project moves into Completed.

Can I use two starter sets at once? Your organization’s checks come from the sets you copy in, plus any you add. Copy the second set too, or add its checks by hand.

Why does an automatic check say “could not check”? It needs something that is not there, usually a project field that was deleted. It never blocks; an admin should edit or remove the check.

Do completed checks survive if a project is deleted and restored? Yes. Restoring a project from the Recycle Bin brings back its ticked checks and their owners, and its closeout with its sign-offs.

Is archiving the same as deleting? No. Deleting moves a project to the Recycle Bin. Archiving keeps everything in place, read-only, and unarchiving brings it straight back.

Why can I not change the status of an archived project? An archived project is read-only, status included. Unarchive it first.

Who sees the cost figures in a closeout? The people who can see the project’s Finance tab. The closeout report never contains cost, so it is safe to share with the whole team.

Configure evaluation criteria, the scorecards used at governance gates
Read audit logs, where waivers and mode changes are recorded

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