Introduction

This chapter will look at some of the work needed at the end of the project to bring it to a close and leave the paperwork tidy and well ordered for future reference. We will also look at how the project should be evaluated and how the feedback can be used and incorporated in your future work as a PM running successful exhibition projects.

Finances

One of the first things you will need to ensure once the exhibition is open is that all of the contractors and consultants have been paid. Throughout the project you should have been keeping your cost plan up to date (see Chapter 10). Now is the time to go back over the plan and tidy up.

Check that all the purchase orders you raised have been recorded and, with your finance team or specialist, record what has already been paid out (ideally you will have been reconciling this monthly, but it never hurts to do a double check at this stage). Deal with any outstanding payments and invoices. You will probably want to chase up outstanding invoices, as it is best to get as much finished now as you can, so that you can record the project as financially complete once everything has been paid out. If you have installed a temporary exhibition, check that you have the budget reserved for the deinstall and that your finance team is aware that the project will not be closed until after you have completed that process; this may mean that the project stretches across another financial year.

For longer-term installations or exhibitions you may need to record some of the assets that have been bought or created for the exhibition as ‘fixed assets’, which become part of the museum's list of equipment or holdings that are unlikely to be sold off or disposed of within the coming year. Fixed assets are often reported as a line in formal financial end-of-year accounts, so consult with your finance officer or team about whether this is necessary.

Report to your finance team any retentions or payments that you have agreed that will be held until later, so that they can plan for this money to leave the museum's accounts at the right time. You may have been asked to create a cash flow forecast earlier in the project.