Complete a Project and Start Follow-on Work

Completion closes the operational lifecycle while retaining commercial, review, communication, time, billing and release history.

Permission required

Completing, cancelling and archiving require Manage Projects. A reasoned delivery-control exception also requires Override Project controls. Unfinished mandatory tasks and milestones cannot be bypassed by that override.

Review completion readiness

An Active or On Hold Project can complete when:

• every mandatory milestone is Completed;
• every required leaf task is Done;
• required deliverables have a latest version;
• review-required deliverables are formally approved;
• required final assets are released.

The readiness panel links to each blocking source. Resolve the actual task, milestone, review or release record before trying again.

Important information

Outstanding Invoices do not by themselves block operational completion. They remain due, visible and collectible after completion. Completing a Project never marks an Invoice paid or waives a balance.

Complete the Project

Close delivery cleanly

1. Review the completion checklist and open every blocker.
2. Finish required leaf tasks and explicitly complete mandatory milestones.
3. Confirm the latest required deliverable versions, approvals and releases.
4. Review outstanding commercial records so the responsible team knows what remains.
5. Select Complete Project and confirm the outcome.
6. Request feedback or create follow-on work when appropriate.

An authorised, reasoned override can bypass supported delivery controls in an exceptional case, but not required task or mandatory milestone completion. The exception is recorded without fabricating an approval, release or Payment.

Cancel instead of complete

Use Cancel when work stopped without achieving the outcome. Record a meaningful reason. Cancellation preserves partial delivery and commercial history; it does not reverse Invoices, Payments or released assets.

Archive terminal work

Completed and Cancelled Projects can be Archived to remove them from everyday operational views. Archiving is not deletion. Authorised users can still retrieve the historical record and its linked documents.

Create follow-on work

Start a new Proposal or direct Project from the completed Project when the next request is a distinct engagement. Yepsta carries customer, location and source context only. It does not clone old tasks, client decisions, billing stages, Invoices, Payments or releases.

Use the continuing retainer Project instead when work is already governed by recurring cycles under the same accepted term.

Warning

Do not keep an achieved fixed engagement Active simply to hold future ideas. Complete it and create clean follow-on work so health, progress and reporting remain meaningful.

Tip

Before archiving, make sure finance and the client know where outstanding Invoices, released finals and the final update remain accessible.

Related guides

• Understand milestone and task completion
• Resolve deliverable approval and release
• Create follow-on work
• Run an ongoing retainer

Last reviewed: 1 September 2026