Nonprofit Accounting Services, CPAs and Audit Firms
A nonprofit usually needs two different things: day-to-day accounting, which can be in-house bookkeeping or an outsourced accounting service, and, once an audit is required, an independent CPA firm to perform it. The firm that keeps your books cannot audit them, because independence is required by government auditing standards.
Last verified: 2026-09-16 · Sources are linked on every fact below.
How do I choose a nonprofit accounting firm or CPA?
Ask for the firm's most recent peer review report, how many nonprofit audits and single audits it signs each year, who will actually be on your engagement, what the fee covers and what would change it, and confirm that the firm is independent of the people who keep your books.
Source: GAO Government Auditing Standards · 2 CFR 200.509 · Last verified: 2026-09-16
Bookkeeper, outsourced accountant or CPA firm: which does a nonprofit need?
A bookkeeper records transactions. An outsourced accounting service adds monthly close, reporting and often controller-level review. A CPA audit firm gives an opinion on your financial statements and, when federal spending is high enough, performs the single audit. The audit firm must be independent, so it cannot be the same firm that keeps your books.
Source: GAO Government Auditing Standards · Last verified: 2026-09-16
| Role | What it does | When a nonprofit needs it | Can it audit your organization? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeper | Records transactions, runs payroll entries, reconciles bank accounts | Continuously, from the first grant onward | No |
| Outsourced accounting service | Monthly close, management reporting, grant tracking, controller review | When the finance function outgrows one part-time person | No |
| CPA audit firm | Opinion on the financial statements; single audit when federal spending is high enough | When a funder, a lender, state law or the federal threshold requires it | Yes, and only if it is independent of your accounting |
Assurance and independence requirements follow AICPA professional standards and, for single audits, GAO Government Auditing Standards · Last verified: 2026-09-16
What does a nonprofit accountant do?
The recurring work is the same as in any organization plus the things grant funding adds: tracking restricted and unrestricted net assets, allocating costs across programs, keeping the records a federal award requires, and building the schedule of expenditures of federal awards when the organization has federal money. That schedule is the starting point of a single audit.
Source: 2 CFR 200.510 · 2 CFR 200.508 · Last verified: 2026-09-16
Nonprofit bookkeeping services vs a CPA firm
Bookkeeping services and audit firms are not competing purchases. Bookkeeping keeps the ledger correct during the year; the audit firm tests it afterwards and reports on it. Because the auditor must be independent, the cleanest arrangement is one provider for the books and a separate CPA firm for the audit. AuditRadar does not list bookkeeping providers: the public federal record does not identify them.
Source: GAO Government Auditing Standards · Last verified: 2026-09-16
Find firms that audit nonprofits by state
These directory pages are built from public Federal Audit Clearinghouse filings and show, for each state, the CPA firms observed as primary auditor on single audits of nonprofits. They are not client lists and do not describe any engagement that is in place today.
Alabama · Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · California · Colorado · Connecticut · Delaware · District of Columbia · Florida · Georgia · Hawaii · Idaho · Illinois · Indiana · Iowa · Kansas · Kentucky · Louisiana · Maine · Maryland · Massachusetts · Michigan · Minnesota · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Jersey · New Mexico · New York · North Carolina · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Vermont · Virginia · Washington · West Virginia · Wisconsin · Wyoming
Next steps
What a nonprofit audit is · When a nonprofit needs an audit · How to write an audit RFP · Post your RFP at no cost