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The Single Audit threshold moved to $1 million

The federal Single Audit threshold rose from $750,000 to $1,000,000. Many guides and firm websites still show the old figure.

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If you run a nonprofit with federal funding, this is worth ten minutes of your time.

The 2024 revisions to the Uniform Guidance raised the Single Audit threshold from $750,000 to $1,000,000 of federal awards expended, effective for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 October 2024. For a 30 June year end, that means the year ended 30 June 2026 was the first one under the new figure.

What else moved in the same revision

  • The Type A programme threshold rose to $1 million for entities with $34 million or less in total federal expenditures
  • The subaward exclusion from Modified Total Direct Cost rose from $25,000 to $50,000
  • The equipment capitalisation threshold rose from $5,000 to $10,000

Expended, not awarded

The test is on federal awards expended in the fiscal year. An organisation holding a $3 million multi-year grant that spends $600,000 this year has not triggered a Single Audit this year.

It aggregates across all federal sources, including money passed through a state or county agency. That last point is where organisations most often go wrong: pass-through funds are federal funds, and the cheque arriving from Sacramento does not change that.

Do not stand down without checking your award terms

If you expend between $750,000 and $1 million, the federal requirement no longer applies to you, but individual grantors sometimes impose audit requirements contractually that exceed the Uniform Guidance floor, and state pass-through agencies may have their own rules.

Read the award terms before cancelling anything.

What to do about it

Work out your actual federal expenditure for the fiscal year, on a proper SEFA basis including pass-through funds. If you are below $1 million and your award terms are silent, you may have a materially cheaper year than you budgeted for.

Full detail on our Single Audit page.

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Audit Preparation

Single Audits

 Audit Preparation

Nonprofit audits

 Who we serve

Nonprofits

Common questions

Not answered here? Ask us directly: we would rather explain it than have you guess.

Which fiscal year does the new threshold first apply to?

Fiscal years beginning on or after 1 October 2024. Check your fiscal year start date, not your year end: that is what governs. For a 30 June year end, the first affected year is the one that began 1 July 2025 and ended 30 June 2026. For a calendar-year organisation, it is the year beginning 1 January 2025.

Does state funding count?

Only if it originates federally. Money passed through a state or local agency from a federal source is federal money for these purposes and belongs on your SEFA. If an award letter carries an Assistance Listing number, that is federal money whoever wrote the cheque.

How do we start?

Book a scoping call using the form on this page, or call us. We will ask about your federal awards, your fiscal year, and what condition your records are in, then tell you what preparing the SEFA and supporting your auditor involves and what it will cost before anything begins.

Book a scoping call

Twenty minutes, no charge. Tell us what you need and we will tell you what it involves, what it will take, and whether we are the right fit for it.

  • A short call with the person who would actually do the work.
  • A clear scope and a fixed quote before anything begins.
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Work out whether your nonprofit actually needs an audit

California's audit trigger is not the number on Form 990 line 12, and the federal Single Audit trigger is a different number again. The worksheet walks both, with the citation beside each step.

  • The California Nonprofit Integrity Act test, and what counts as gross revenue for it
  • The Single Audit test at $1,000,000 of federal awards expended
  • Where a grant agreement can require an audit no statute requires
  • What to do if you cross the line part way through a year

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We email you this one document and nothing else unless you ask. We do not share your details, we do not add you to a sequence, and one reply saying stop ends it.