Single Audit Preparation Checklist
Three documents and four sheets that build the schedule auditors ask for first, then run the major programme determination forward from its total.
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Federal Expenditure Tagging
One row per award, per activity trigger
Fiscal year [dates]. Built during the year. The schedule is a summary of this sheet, never of the general ledger.
| Activity trigger | Cash moves | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Expenditure transactions under grants and agreements | Yes | - |
| Disbursement of funds to subrecipients | Yes | - |
| Use of loan proceeds | Yes | - |
| Receipt of property, including surplus property | No | - |
| Receipt or use of program income | Sometimes | - |
| Distribution or use of food commodities | No | - |
| Disbursement of amounts entitling you to an interest subsidy | No | - |
| Period during which insurance is in force | No | - |
| Loan balances carried from previous years, a separate rule | No | - |
| Total federal awards expended | - |
What the total then decides
Whether an audit is required at all. The Type A threshold, read off a published table. The percentage of coverage the auditor has to reach. Three decisions, one input.
The rows a ledger does not surface
Loan balances still carrying compliance requirements, commodities and donated property at fair market value, program income, and any agreement a pass-through titled a service contract.
River's single audit pack is three documents and four sheets, built around the fact that the schedule of expenditures of federal awards is an activity measure rather than a revenue figure. Eight kinds of activity make an award expended. One is an expenditure transaction, and six of the other seven can happen with no cash moving at all. So the total is derived rather than read off, and the reporting calendar says when the package is owed.
That total then settles three things in order: whether an audit is required, the Type A threshold, and how much coverage the auditor has to reach. Which makes the schedule an input to a selection rather than a disclosure at the back of the statements. An error in it does not misstate a note. It changes which of your programmes get compliance-tested, and the largest dollar errors turn out not to be the ones that do the most damage.
Larkspur Community Services read $958,000 off its grant revenue accounts and concluded it was $42,000 under the threshold. On the activity basis the total is $1,973,500. Three subawards from one area agency, held in the ledger as three separate funds, group into a cluster worth $1,035,500 and become the only Type A programme in the audit. No single member of that cluster clears $402,800, so on its own each one is a Type B programme nobody has to test. Which reports each award owes at all comes from the award terms.
What is in the pack
Federal Expenditure Tagging
One row per award per activity trigger, built during the year, with the four items no ledger surfaces given rows of their own and a valuation basis each.
SEFA by Award and Assistance Listing
The schedule with the required columns, cluster subtotals, the notes and an item-by-item reconciliation from the total to federal revenue in the statements.
Federal Expenditure Methodology Note
How each figure was determined, then the determination run forward, then the whole arithmetic re-run with each judgement reversed and ranked by effect on scope.
Audit Preparation Plan
The order that avoids rework, dated backwards from a deadline that moves earlier rather than later when the auditor's report arrives early.
PBC Request Tracker
The auditor's requests and your own two reporting package deliverables on one list, split by whether an item exists, must be produced, or sits with somebody else.
Finding and Corrective Action Register
Each finding taken apart into the elements it was written with, and every questioned cost measured against both thresholds, one flat and one proportional.
Corrective Action Format
The four things a corrective action plan must carry, worded so completion is observable, plus the three conditions that let a prior finding be dropped.
How it works
- 1
Send the ledger and every agreement
Ledger detail rather than a category summary, all executed awards and subawards including anything titled a service contract, drawdown records, and any loan still outstanding.
- 2
Tag the activity, then group
One row per trigger, with the non-cash items valued and sourced. Then clusters, checked against the compliance supplement and settled before any total is struck.
- 3
Total, reconcile and run it forward
The schedule against federal revenue, every difference named. Then the threshold, the labels and the coverage floor, tested against each award's own terms.
- 4
Track the requests, then the findings
Dated backwards from the submission deadline, with the items held outside the organisation chased first. Findings become a plan with a name and a date on every row.
Frequently asked questions
Is this free, and what format are the files?
Yes. The download is three Word documents and four CSV spreadsheets, which open in Word, Pages, Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets with no conversion. Edit with AI opens the same pack as a working space instead, where the sheets recompute from your own ledger and award agreements.
Does this perform the audit?
No. Your auditor forms the opinion on the financial statements and the in-relation-to opinion on the schedule, documents their own risk analysis and determines major programmes. This pack builds the schedule, the tagging behind it, the request tracking and the corrective action plan. It does not test whether shared and indirect costs are allocated defensibly, which is separate preparation.
Do I need a single audit at all?
It depends on federal awards expended for the year, and the threshold is a million dollars. The catch is that the figure is not your federal revenue. Larkspur's revenue accounts said $958,000 and the activity basis said $1,973,500, and three of the four differences involved no cash.
Why does grouping awards into clusters matter so much?
Because a cluster counts as one programme, and the schedule has to show the cluster name, its programmes and its total. Several small subawards from one pass-through routinely aggregate past a threshold none of them approaches alone, and your ledger holds them as separate funds.
How do I treat a loan we took out years ago?
Read the loan agreement rather than the amortisation schedule. The balance outstanding at the start of the year counts as expended while the federal government imposes continuing compliance requirements beyond repayment. When repayment is the only obligation left, it does not count, and the difference is the whole balance.
When is the reporting package due?
The earlier of thirty calendar days after you receive the auditor's report and nine months after your year end. The thirty-day rule surprises people because it moves the deadline forward. Two of the four items in the package are yours to produce, not the auditor's.
How is this different from the 990 or a federal financial report?
Different unit of account each time. The 990 organiser is an annual return on the whole organisation. The SF-425 reports one award for one period. This schedule measures federal activity across every fund and programme. None of the three tests whether a fund balance is actually restricted in the first place.
Find out what your schedule total actually is
Send the ledger detail, every award agreement and any loan still outstanding. The first thing back is the tagged year and the reconciliation to federal revenue.
Edit with AI