Audit & Assurance
Spend enough federal money and the audit stops being about your financial statements and starts being about how you spent the grant.
A non-federal entity that expends $1,000,000 or more in federal awards during its fiscal year must obtain a single audit, or in limited single-program cases a program-specific audit, under 2 CFR 200.501. The threshold rose from $750,000 under the 2024 revision to the Uniform Guidance, effective for fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024. The reporting package and data collection form are due to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse the earlier of 30 days after receiving the auditor's report or nine months after the end of the audit period. Goldenthal & Suss Consulting P.C. performs single audits for nonprofits, governments, and housing and healthcare entities across New York and New Jersey.
The most common way organizations get this wrong is to test the wrong number. The threshold is measured on federal awards you *expended* during the fiscal year, not what you were awarded, not what you were promised, and not what hit the bank account. A three-year $2.4 million grant does not trigger a single audit on day one; spending $1,000,000 of it in one fiscal year does.
Pass-through funding counts. Money that reaches you from a state agency, a county, or another nonprofit but originated federally is a federal award in your hands, and it belongs in the total. Organizations that only count checks received directly from Washington routinely under-count and discover the requirement late.
The 2024 Uniform Guidance revision moved several numbers at once. If your reference points predate it, they are wrong:
OMB issued a further proposal in May 2026, with comments closing in July 2026 and a contemplated effective date as early as October 1, 2026. As of this page's review date it is not final. Its focus is grant administration and award terms — pre-award review, agency termination authority — rather than audit thresholds. The single audit threshold remains $1,000,000 and the de minimis rate remains 15%.
We track this and will tell affected clients if it finalizes with anything that changes their engagement.
Beyond the financial statement opinion, a single audit adds an opinion on compliance for each major program and a report on internal control over compliance. Major programs are identified through a risk-based process, not by size alone, so a smaller program with prior findings can be selected over a larger clean one.
Testing follows the compliance requirements in the OMB Compliance Supplement that apply to each major program — activities allowed and unallowed, allowable costs and cost principles, eligibility, period of performance, procurement and suspension and debarment, reporting, subrecipient monitoring, and matching where applicable.
The recurring ones are rarely exotic. Procurement documentation that does not evidence the required competition or the suspension-and-debarment check. Time-and-effort records that do not support how payroll was charged. Subrecipient monitoring that was performed but not documented. A Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards that does not reconcile to the general ledger.
The SEFA is worth its own attention: it drives major program determination, so an error there does not just create a finding, it can send the whole audit after the wrong programs.
An entity that expends $1,000,000 or more in federal awards during its fiscal year must obtain a single audit or a program-specific audit, under 2 CFR 200.501. The threshold was raised from $750,000 by the 2024 revision to the Uniform Guidance and applies to fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024.
Yes. Federal money that reaches you through a state agency, county, or another nonprofit is still a federal award and counts toward the $1,000,000 threshold. Only counting funds received directly from a federal agency is one of the most common ways organizations miss the requirement.
The reporting package and data collection form must be submitted to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse the earlier of 30 calendar days after you receive the auditor's report or nine months after the end of the audit period. For a December 31 year end, the nine-month date is September 30 of the following year.
No — it includes one. A single audit consists of a financial statement audit plus additional compliance work: an opinion on compliance for each major federal program and a report on internal control over compliance. You get both in one engagement, not two separate ones.
Sources & review
Threshold and effective date per the 2024 Uniform Guidance revision to 2 CFR 200.501. Submission deadline per 2 CFR 200.512. May 2026 OMB proposal confirmed not final and not threshold-changing as of 2026-08-20. Reviewed 2026-08-20. Thresholds and deadlines change — confirm current requirements before relying on them.
Tell us about your organization and the deadline you are working toward. We will tell you what the engagement involves and what it costs.
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