What is an audit RFP?
An audit RFP is the document an organization issues to buy audit services: scope, entity facts, federal expenditure history, timeline and evaluation criteria. For a single audit, procurement must follow the federal procurement standards or the FAR (2 CFR 200.509).
Last verified: 2026-09-20 · Every figure links its source.
What is in an audit RFP?
- Who the entity is: size, fiscal year end, programs, locations.
- Federal awards expended and whether a single audit is required.
- Scope: financial statement audit, single audit, any agreed-upon procedures.
- Prior-year findings and their status.
- Timeline: questions due, proposals due, selection, fieldwork, report, filing deadline.
- Evaluation criteria and their weighting.
- Fee schedule format, so bids are comparable.
Our step-by-step version, with a sample you can copy, is on how to write a nonprofit audit RFP.
Source: 2 CFR 200.509 · Last verified: 2026-09-20
How do county governments issue RFPs for auditing services?
Through their own procurement process, which for federal award purposes must satisfy the federal procurement standards or the FAR (2 CFR 200.509). In practice that means a public solicitation with a written scope, a fixed question-and-answer window, a public due date and documented evaluation. Counties and school districts typically publish on their own procurement page, and often also in a state or regional bid portal.
We index the ones we can verify against the issuer's own page — the live list is on open audit RFPs.
Source: 2 CFR 200.509 · Last verified: 2026-09-20
How often should you RFP for audit services?
The Uniform Guidance does not set a cycle; the procurement standards and your own policy do (2 CFR 200.509). Multi-year engagements with option years are common, and a re-bid at the end of the term is the norm rather than a signal of dissatisfaction. Our own measurement of the filings is that 13.9% of nonprofits with single audits in both audit year 2023 and 2024 appear with a different auditor in the later year (data as of 2026-09-20).
Source: 2 CFR 200.509 · Federal Audit Clearinghouse · Last verified: 2026-09-20
How can a nonprofit request an audit or put one out to bid?
If you are the organization, you engage the auditor: write the RFP, send it to firms that audit organizations like yours — our directory is built from filed single audits — and select on the criteria you published. If you are not the organization, you cannot commission an audit of it; what is available to you is the public record, including filed single audits and Form 990. See where to find a nonprofit's audited financial statements.
Nonprofits can post an RFP with us at no cost on post an audit RFP.
Source: 2 CFR 200.509 · IRS, public disclosure of exempt organization returns · Last verified: 2026-09-20
Questions and answers
What is an audit RFP?
The document an organization issues to buy audit services, setting out the entity, the scope, the timeline, the evaluation criteria and the fee format.
How do county governments issue RFPs for auditing services?
Through a public procurement process that, for federal award purposes, must meet the federal procurement standards or the FAR, usually published on the county's procurement page or a bid portal.
How often should you RFP for audit services?
No federal rule sets a cycle. Multi-year engagements with option years are common, and organizations typically re-bid at the end of the term.
Can you request an audit for a nonprofit you do not run?
No. Only the organization can engage its auditor. What is public is the filed record: single audits in the Federal Audit Clearinghouse and Form 990.
Can anyone petition for an audit of a nonprofit?
Members of the public cannot commission one. Concerns about a charity are directed to the state charity regulator or the IRS, which decides whether to open its own examination.
Are Florida nonprofits required to bid out audits?
Florida is not in our verified set for that question, so we publish no answer. Check the Florida requirements directly, and note that federal procurement standards apply whenever the audit is a single audit.
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This is public-record information, not accounting or legal advice.