In this article, Jason Workmaster discusses the life of a government contract and the steps contractors should take to plan for a successful close-out. Workmaster said that, even before a contractor has learned that it won the contract, it should be thinking about contract close-out. By doing so, the contractor "will maximize their recovery of cost overruns on their fixed-price contracts, minimize cost disallowances on their cost-reimbursable contracts, and reduce the risk of extended and contentious close-out processes," he said.