How to prepare for a single audit
Confirm the threshold, engage a firm that performs single audits, build the schedule of expenditures of federal awards, then expect compliance testing on the programs selected as major and a federal filing deadline (2 CFR 200.512). In audit year 2024, 1,454 nonprofits appear in the Federal Audit Clearinghouse data for the first time (data as of 2026-09-20).
Last verified: 2026-09-20 · Every figure links its source.
How do you do a single audit for the first time?
- Confirm the threshold. Total federal awards expended in the fiscal year, measured under 2 CFR 200.502 — including subawards received through a state or city.
- Engage the right firm. Not every audit firm performs single audits; ask how many they filed last year and in which programs.
- Build the schedule of expenditures of federal awards with every element required by 2 CFR 200.510(b).
- Assemble compliance documentation program by program: award terms, eligibility records, procurement files, payroll allocations, reports filed with the agency.
- Expect control testing. The auditor plans testing to support a low assessed level of control risk over compliance (2 CFR 200.514(c)).
- Submit on time — the earlier of 30 days after receiving the report or nine months after year end.
Source: 2 CFR 200.502 · 2 CFR 200.510 · 2 CFR 200.514 · 2 CFR 200.512 · Last verified: 2026-09-20
What surprises first-time auditees?
- Coverage: a first-year auditee cannot be low risk, so major programs must reach 40 percent of federal awards expended (2 CFR 200.518(f), 200.520).
- Procurement: how you bought things with federal money is tested, not just what you bought.
- Subrecipients: if you passed money on, your monitoring is tested (2 CFR 200.332).
- Documentation of time and effort behind salary allocations.
- The schedule itself — reconciling it to the general ledger is usually the longest task in the first year.
Source: 2 CFR 200.518 · 2 CFR 200.520 · 2 CFR 200.332 · Last verified: 2026-09-20
How long does a first single audit take?
Published hour counts do not exist as a federal statistic, and we will not invent one. What is measurable is the calendar: for audit year 2024 the median nonprofit single audit reached the Federal Audit Clearinghouse 208 days after fiscal year end. First-year audits sit at the slower end of that distribution, because the auditor is building an understanding of controls from scratch and the schedule is being prepared for the first time.
Source: Federal Audit Clearinghouse · 2 CFR 200.512 · Last verified: 2026-09-20
How many nonprofits enter single audit each year?
In our copy of the Federal Audit Clearinghouse data, 1,454 nonprofits have their earliest single audit in audit year 2024. That is roughly 6.5% of the 22,398 nonprofit single audits for that year — a steady stream of organizations meeting these rules for the first time.
How we computed this: for each nonprofit organization in the data we took the earliest audit year present, then counted organizations whose earliest year is 2024. Our coverage begins with the years loaded from the FAC bulk files, so organizations whose first audit predates that window are not counted as first-time filers. Data as of 2026-09-20.
Source: Federal Audit Clearinghouse · Last verified: 2026-09-20
Questions and answers
How to prepare the single audit report?
Management prepares the financial statements, the schedule of expenditures of federal awards, the summary schedule of prior audit findings and the corrective action plan; the auditor issues the opinions and the schedule of findings and questioned costs.
How to do a single audit when it is your first year?
Confirm the threshold, engage a firm that performs single audits, build the schedule of expenditures of federal awards, assemble program compliance documentation, and plan for 40 percent coverage because first-year auditees cannot be low risk.
When conducting a single audit, what does the auditor need from us?
The schedule of expenditures of federal awards, award agreements and terms, procurement files, eligibility and payroll allocation records, reports filed with federal agencies, and the status of any prior findings.
First year? Build your audit RFP and compare firms properly.
This is public-record information, not accounting or legal advice.