Article
Single audit considerations for not-for-profits that receive federal awards
Dec. 12, 2021 · Updated April 13, 2022 · Authored by Hilary Tanneberg, Matthew Dinsdale
Annual federal awards to state and local governments, Tribes, and not-for-profit organizations grew from a few billion dollars in the 1960s to hundreds of billions of dollars today. These funds bring certain restrictions and requirements that the recipient organization must follow.
To ensure compliance with these requirements, the federal government relies on financial and compliance audits of the federal awards, known as Single Audits.
Learn more about these audits and specifics within the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards below.
When is a single audit performed?
The Uniform Guidance — Title two CFR Part 200 — streamlines and consolidates government requirements for receiving and using federal awards to reduce administrative burden and improve outcomes.
Uniform Guidance requires an independent auditor to conduct a Single Audit if the nonfederal entity expends $750,000 or more in federal awards during the fiscal year.
The Single Audit includes an audit of the nonfederal entity’s financial statements. As part of the Single Audit, auditees must prepare a supplementary schedule to their financial statements, known as a Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA).
Once the Single Audit ends and the auditor releases the auditor’s reports, the nonfederal entity must submit the data collection form — Form SF-SAC — to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse within the earlier of:
- 30 calendar days after the receipt of the auditor’s reports
- Nine months after the end of the audit period
COVID-19 extensions
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government offers an automatic six-month extension for auditees that had yet to file their Single Audits with the Federal Audit Clearinghouse as of March 19, 2021 through June 30, 2021 when the fiscal year ends.
No approval for the extension by the cognizant or oversight agency is necessary, however, federal award recipients should document why they exercised an extension.
The extension has no impact on the recipient’s qualification as a low-risk auditee under the criteria of Title two CFR section 500.520(a). A nonfederal entity with a fiscal year end of June 30, 2021 — with a normal due date of March 30, 2022 — can file until Sept. 30, 2022.
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