HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — For most people, the end of the year comes in December, somewhere between the holidays, family plans and the arrival of new free bank calendars.
For the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the year ends Sept.30. This is what’s known as the end of the fiscal year.
Across the USACE, the end of the harvest month brings a surge of activity tied to funding, contracts, customer requirements, technical reviews, legal sufficiency, project delivery, financial closeout, and more. It’s a time when priorities sharpen, schedules tighten, and teams are asked to turn months of planning into immediate, executable action.
At the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, the work is especially complex. Huntsville Center supports customers not only across the Army but also throughout the Department of War and the federal government through programs that reach far beyond the Center’s home in Alabama. Unlike a traditional geographic district, Huntsville Center’s work is program-based, customer-driven, and often executed in coordination with USACE teammates worldwide.
That ups the game, raising the stakes for year-end from a simple financial deadline to a full-contact fiduciary team sport.
For team members across the Center, managing the year-end workload is less about muscle memory and more about flexibility, blending the precision of the nation’s top engineers with holistic flourishes from people who truly care.
Amy Toney, a project and program manager at Huntsville Center, said her year-end workload has changed over time, but the key to managing it remains the same.
“I think the best answer I can give to this is through the PDT,” Toney said, referring to the project delivery team. “I don’t do a whole lot of contracts anymore the way I used to. I’m working more with funding. So I have to work with my proponents up at headquarters and with the local groups I support.”
For Toney, the work cannot be done in isolation.
“You can’t manage it without meetings and without talking things through,” she said. “You just have to.”
Her work hack is also one of the most repeated year-end themes: teamwork and communication.
“Communication is key,” Toney said.
That same idea is shared throughout the Center. Jasmine Kennedy, a contract specialist, said that managing year-end starts with knowing what matters most.
“Managing that year-end workload can definitely be challenging, but I find that following three easy steps makes a huge difference,” Kennedy said.
Her first step: prioritization.
“Take a moment to decipher what absolutely must get done first within your timeframe, and what can comfortably wait,” she said.
Her second step: consistent communication, especially with supervisors, leaders, and teammates who need to know where actions stand.
“Whether you are running ahead of schedule or catching up, always keep leadership and personnel updated on where you are with your tasks,” Kennedy said. “It is always best to be proactive rather than waiting for someone to ask.”
And third: using downtime well. During year-end, waiting for a review, approval, or input from another office does not mean the work stops. Kennedy said those windows are opportunities to get ahead on the next requirement.
“When you are waiting on reviewers to approve your work, use that time to tackle your advance plan,” she advises. “Focusing on things you can complete ahead of time now means you will thank yourself later when the time comes.”
Richard Perry, the Geo Sciences Branch Chief in Huntsville Center’s Engineering Directorate, said the Center’s ability to manage year-end depends on a shared commitment across the project delivery team.
“Try to meet all the suspenses we’ve agreed to; coordinate with the PDT; make sure everybody’s on the same page, and hopefully not wait until the last minute to get everything done,” Perry said.
That coordination matters because year-end work often involves many different offices, each responsible for a different part of the process. A customer requirement may need funding validation, technical input, acquisition planning, legal review, and contracting action before it can move forward. If one part of the team is out of sync, the entire process can slow down.
Perry said that Huntsville Center employees understand that connection.
“I think we work really well together as a PDT, and we work with the programs to make sure, ‘Hey, we’ve made this commitment, let’s stick to it,’” he said. “For the most part, we do.”
While contracting officers, program managers, and engineers are often at the center of year-end execution, the work also depends on people behind the scenes who ensure information moves quickly and accurately.
That is where the Business Integration Office plays a role.
Yaimara Lozano Sanchez, a data scientist with the Business Integration Office, said her team supports year-end efforts by improving communication between teams and senior leaders.
“We just try to streamline what’s going on so we can have a live data stream so they can make decisions faster,” Lozano Sanchez said.
The office builds dashboards, applications and automations that help employees track work, answer questions and provide information when leaders need it. During year-end, those tools can be especially important because decisions often need to be made quickly.
“If we have any questions or reports that they’re asking last minute, we have to be able to put it together and deliver as soon as they ask for it,” she said.
Lozano Sanchez said the Business Integration Office’s most stressful period often occurs before the final year-end push, when tools must be ready, tested, and understood by the workforce.
That preparation includes training employees before they are under pressure, so they already know where to find information and how to use available resources when the pace picks up.
“We try to provide training before the time comes,” Lozano Sanchez explains. “So when people are under stress, they are familiar with what we offer to help them.”
In that sense, year-end support is not only about responding to the moment. It is about building systems early enough for people to rely on them later and about coming together as a team.
“We are actively listening to customers and working to get those major projects done before the end of the year,” agreed Kyle Rieben, also a data scientist with the Business Integration Office.
But Rieben said that managing year-end is not only about dashboards, deadlines, and deliverables. It’s also about morale.
His team uses food, lunches, and small gatherings to help people get through the final push. Pizza parties, team meals, and informal moments of connection may sound simple, but during a stressful period, they help remind employees that they are part of a team.
“People always love food,” Rieben said.
Those touch grass moments away from the hustle and bustle help remind the team to center themselves so they can take care of the mission.
“When you ride on an airplane, they say to put the mask on yourself before you put it on the child,” Rieben explained. “You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of anybody else.”
Year-end will always bring pressure. Funds will arrive late. Priorities will shift. Reviews will stack up. Customers will call. Leaders will ask for updates. Teams will be asked to move quickly without cutting corners. The end of the fiscal year will test both systems and people, whether seasoned professionals or those new to the dance.
For Huntsville Center, year-end is more than a calendar deadline. It is an annual reminder that mission success depends on preparation and communication, and on pushing through the final stretch together, because here, no one gets through the final push alone.