Check whether a single audit applies
Enter when your fiscal year begins and what you expended in federal awards to see which threshold applies.
- Threshold that applies
- Your federal expenditure
- Rule
This checker gives general information based on 2 CFR 200.501 and 200.502 as in effect in November 2026. It is not an audit determination, legal advice or accounting advice. Your independent auditor, your cognizant or oversight agency for audit and your pass-through entities decide what applies to your organization. Finance Ethics does not perform audits or attest engagements.
One date and one total
Have your grant ledger or last year's schedule of expenditures of federal awards open. The checker runs entirely in your browser and stores nothing.
Enter the date your fiscal year begins
The threshold depends on when the fiscal year began, not when it ends or when an award was signed. A year that began on 1 July 2024 uses $750,000. A year that began on 1 January 2025 uses $1,000,000.
Total your federal awards expended
Add expenditures under every federal award for that year, including direct awards, money received through a state or other pass-through entity, amounts you passed to subrecipients, and loans or non-cash assistance where they apply.
Read the outcome and its notes
The result shows which threshold applies and whether your total reaches it, with notes on program-specific audits and what counts. Totals close to the line get a warning, because one late invoice can move them.
Confirm with your auditor
The result is general information, not an audit determination. Take it to your independent auditor and your pass-through entities before you plan the year.
The rule the checker applies
Under 2 CFR 200.501, a non-federal entity that expends $1,000,000 or more in federal awards during its fiscal year must have a single audit or, in limited cases, a program-specific audit. OMB raised the threshold from $750,000 in its April 2024 revision of the Uniform Guidance, for auditee fiscal years beginning on or after 1 October 2024. Fiscal years that began earlier keep the $750,000 threshold.
Expended, not awarded
The test is federal awards expended in the year, measured by when the activity happens: costs incurred, funds disbursed to subrecipients, loan proceeds used, property received. A three-year, $2,400,000 grant signed this year does not count in full this year. What you spend under it does.
Who the rule covers
Subpart F applies to states, local governments, Indian Tribes, institutions of higher education and nonprofit organizations. It does not apply to for-profit organizations, although a pass-through entity can set its own audit or monitoring terms in a for-profit subaward. Payments you receive as a contractor selling goods or services under someone else's federal award do not count.
When a program-specific audit is possible
If all your federal expenditures fall under one federal program, other than research and development, and that program's rules do not require a financial statement audit, you may elect a program-specific audit instead. For research and development, all awards must come from one federal agency (or one agency through one pass-through entity), and that agency or pass-through entity must approve it in advance.
Below the threshold
An entity under the threshold is exempt from federal audit requirements for that year, but its records must stay available to the federal agency, pass-through entities and the Government Accountability Office. State law, foundation agreements and lenders may still require an audit.
As of November 2026, OMB's proposed rewrite of the Uniform Guidance, published in May 2026, is not final, so these thresholds stand. For the policies and records behind a clean audit, see Grant & Uniform Guidance Compliance and the single audit readiness checklist. The illustrative scenario the first single audit follows a nonprofit crossing the line for the first time.
Edge cases worth checking first
Our fiscal year began on 1 July 2024. Which threshold applies?
$750,000, because that fiscal year began before 1 October 2024. The $1,000,000 threshold first applies to your fiscal year beginning 1 July 2025.
Do funds we receive from a state agency count?
Yes, when the state is passing through federal money. Federal awards received as a subrecipient count toward the threshold. Purely state-funded grants do not, although the state may set its own audit rules. Each subaward should state the federal Assistance Listing number for pass-through funds.
Do amounts we pass on to our own subrecipients count?
Yes. Disbursements to subrecipients count as federal awards expended by you as the pass-through entity, and each subrecipient also counts what it spends.
We have a federal loan. Does it count?
Often, yes. New loans received in the year count, plus earlier loan balances where the federal government imposes continuing compliance requirements, plus any interest subsidy or administrative cost allowance. Loans spent in earlier years with no requirement other than repayment do not count.
When is the audit due?
The reporting package goes to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse within 30 calendar days after you receive the auditor's report or nine months after fiscal year end, whichever is earlier. For a calendar-year organization, that means 30 September of the following year at the latest.
Is anything we enter stored?
No. The checker runs entirely in your browser and stores nothing on our servers or on your device. Close the page and the figures are gone.
Can Finance Ethics perform the single audit?
No. We do not perform audits or any attest work. We help you prepare the written policies, time and effort records, subrecipient monitoring files and schedule of expenditures of federal awards that your independent auditor will test.
Be ready before fieldwork starts
We prepare grant-funded organizations for a first single audit or a cleaner next one, with written Uniform Guidance policies, time and effort, subrecipient monitoring and a mock audit.