Closing the Job
In the weeks following delivery of your piece, you will receive invoices from vendors who worked on your job. Review them against the estimated costs to be sure you are being charged correctly and are staying on budget. Approve them, give originals to Pam Blumenson, print production specialist, who will pass them on to the front office. You may want to keep a copy for yourself. You may need 1-3 months before all your charges, such as mileage and Fedex, have been entered into Filemaker Pro.
When you think all the charges have been entered, send a note to everyone involved in your project and let them know you will soon be closing the job and to make sure that they enter any lagging expenses. After that, wait a week or so before closing out your job.
Some Steps to Follow
- Model Releases - make sure you have model releases for any photography included in the job bag, your file, with a copy to the Jane Hart, media archivist.
- Mark ups - Talk with your designer about marking up a sample of the final printed piece with all the information about sources of photography, including file names, to go to the media archivist.
- Copies - send copies of the finished product to outside contributors, such as writers, photographers, or illustrators.
- Closing Statement - make detailed notes about the job in Filemaker Pro in the closeout section. It is especially important to include details about any important decisions, special processes, and use of outside consultants.
- Billing - If not done already, formally close the job in Filemaker Pro and notify the front office of the final charges. When you have a UR or Central Administration job, you charge out-of-pocket expenses only. A UR account will be billed against an internal account. A job for any other offices will require an IPO, journal entry, or PO.
- Charge the actual amount of the job. If your job is under or over the IPO, journal entry, or PO, check with your supervisor to determine what to do.
- Once the front office has moved/charged the money, email your client to let him or her know the job has been closed and what amount was charged.
- Job Bags - go through job bag and make copies of anything you need for your own personal file. Return the bag to the print production specialist. Approximately six months after the job delivers, Pam will return the job bag to you to clean out. Leave in routing sheets and approvals, the MOA, and any other items that are of crucial importance for the next project manager who may work on a reprint. Keep any other items in your own files.
Sample job closing emails [DOC]
Sample closing statement [DOC]
Post-Project Meeting
After a project is over, it is a good idea to hold an internal meeting with design and production to discuss the things that worked—and the things that didn’t. You can document what you discuss and use it as a reference for yourself.
If the project may be repeated, you may also want to share your findings with your client, though you’ll want to edit your notes to exclude items that might matter for our internal process, but don’t affect the client. You can also hold a meeting with the client to discuss if it will be helpful in planning the next project.