Here are a few comments based on reading your post. These are meant as constructive and to help you in determining if any of these things make sense in your situation.
I worked on a System a number of years ago, where there were such things as Projects, Commitments, Applicants, Clients, Customers, Benefits, Payments etc. Some was an Applicant , seeking to have a Project , under a government Program. However, he wasn't really a Client until his Application was officially approved. An Application could be withdrawn, approved, declined... all depending on certain Program conditions.
If the Application was Approved, the terms of the Project were identified in terms of a Contract. The Contract spelled out who would do what by what data, and what penalties would/could be imposed if conditions were not met. (All legal like)
Often the project had many milestones, especially if there were "sub projects" within a master project.
To complicate things different Government programs had slightly different terminologies for many of the "similar things", and some conditions that crossed Program lines (such as maximum Government contribution).
To resolve many of the terminology differences, and to put some consistency on Programs and Projects, the concept of "Status" was adopted. You can think of status as a stage or step in a long line of steps.
Such things as (<i> I just made up these numbers and names to give you some ideas. Perhaps it can be applied to your situation or assist you with your situation</i>)
Pre application consultation
Application
--status 100 --
Application withdrawn/declined --status 101/102
Application approved
--status 200 ----
and so on and so on
Payment made
...
final payment made
--status 700---
project implementation
--status 750 --
benefit realized (xx %)
post implementation evaluation
--status 900 ---
Project Complete
-- status 999---
So a Project may have statuses 100,101,102,200,201,202,204...... 999
Each status must meet some criteria.
You may define the Project in terms of status, and you would know exactly where it stands.
This may be overkill for you, but maybe a similar concept would apply.
Good luck.
