What Is the Difference Between a Single Audit and a Regular Audit
In a regular audit, your auditor examines your financial statements. In a Single Audit, your auditor examines those statements and tests compliance for your major federal programs, so your team prepares more and hands over more.
500+
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50
states served
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16+
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Firm figures as of September 2026, from the Dimov Audit homepage.
What Is a Regular Audit
In a regular audit, which your funders may call a GAAS audit or a financial statement audit, your auditor reports whether your statements are fairly presented under your accounting framework. Your auditor reviews your records, tests samples of transactions and evaluates the internal control behind your reporting.
You commission one when your state, your board, a lender or a funder requires it. Under the Yellow Book, your auditor follows government auditing standards with stricter independence and reporting rules, and reports on internal control and on compliance that affects your statements. Even then, your auditor does not audit compliance for your major federal programs. See Yellow Book vs Single Audit for that comparison.
What Is a Single Audit
In a Single Audit, your auditor performs the financial statement work and also audits the federal awards you spent. Your auditor selects your major programs by dollar amount and by risk, then tests whether you followed the rules attached to each one. If a funder asks you about single audit vs financial audit, or single audit vs financial statement audit, that financial audit is the half the two share.
Your auditor reports on both halves, and also on whether your schedule of expenditures of federal awards is presented fairly in relation to your financial statements as a whole.
Do you need a Single Audit or a regular audit
If you spend $1,000,000 or more in federal awards in your fiscal year, you have two routes under 2 CFR 200.501: a Single Audit or, where you qualify, a program-specific audit.
Spend less and you owe no federal audit that year. A funder, a lender or your state can still ask for a regular audit, and federal officials can still review your records.
Count the federal money you spent, not the money you received, and include federal awards passed to you through a state or another organization.
Key Differences Between a Single Audit and a Regular Audit
| Aspect | Regular audit | Single Audit |
|---|---|---|
| What the auditor reports on | Your financial statements and, under the Yellow Book, internal control and compliance, with no opinion on either | Your financial statements, your federal awards schedule, internal control over compliance, and your compliance with each major program, with an opinion on compliance |
| Standards | GAAS, or the Yellow Book where a funder requires it | GAAS, the Yellow Book and the Uniform Guidance |
| Who asks for it | A state, a lender, your bylaws or a funding agreement | OMB, through the Uniform Guidance, at the threshold, unless you elect a program-specific audit |
| Compliance testing | Under the Yellow Book, compliance that affects your financial statements; no major program audit | Applicable areas such as eligibility, allowable costs, procurement, reporting and subrecipient monitoring |
| What your team prepares | Financial statements and the records behind them | The same, plus a federal awards schedule and, when applicable, prior finding summaries and a corrective action plan |
| Where the report goes | Your board, your lender or your funder | The Federal Audit Clearinghouse, subject to limited public disclosure exceptions |
What we do in a Single Audit
Scope the audit from your award list.
We confirm whether you reach the threshold, identify your major programs by size and risk, and tell you whether you qualify for a program-specific audit.
Audit your financial statements.
We audit them under GAAS and the Yellow Book and report on internal control over financial reporting.
Test compliance for each major program.
We test the requirements OMB marks in its compliance supplement for your programs, from allowable costs to subrecipient monitoring.
Report and file.
We issue the four reports, prepare the schedule of findings and questioned costs, and complete the auditor's part of the data collection form for the Federal Audit Clearinghouse.
Single Audit vs program-specific audit
If you reach the threshold, you may still qualify for a program-specific audit. Under 2 CFR 200.501, you can elect one if you spent federal awards under only one program, excluding research and development. Neither that program's statutes or regulations nor your award terms may require an audit of your financial statements.
For research and development awards, you can elect one if you expended federal awards only from the same agency, or from that agency and the same pass-through entity. The agency, or that pass-through entity, must also approve the election in advance.
In a program-specific audit your auditor works to 2 CFR 200.507, following any audit guide published for that program. Where no guide exists, you and your auditor carry the responsibilities you would for a major program in a Single Audit. You also prepare financial statements for that program, with its own awards schedule.
Tell your auditor how many federal programs you spent under before you agree the scope.
What is a compliance audit in a Single Audit
The Office of Management and Budget publishes a compliance supplement each year, and your auditor tests the requirements it marks for your major programs. Depending on the program, your auditor may test areas such as these:
Allowable costs.
Your auditor traces charges to the cost principles and your award terms, including salary charges you support with records of the work performed.
Eligibility.
Your auditor checks that the people or entities you served met the program's eligibility rules.
Procurement.
Your auditor reviews how you bought goods and services, and whether your competition and documentation met federal standards.
Subrecipient monitoring.
If you passed federal money to another organization, your auditor tests how you monitored it.
Your auditor reports the findings in a schedule of findings and questioned costs. Under 2 CFR 200.516, your auditor uses that schedule to report significant deficiencies, material weaknesses, material noncompliance and reportable questioned costs.
What happens if your Single Audit has findings
When your auditor reports a finding in the schedule of findings and questioned costs, you and your federal agency take these steps:
- Step 01
You write a corrective action plan.
Under 2 CFR 200.511 you name the person responsible, the action you will take and the date you expect to finish, and you start the work when you receive the auditor's report.
- Step 02
The agency issues a management decision.
Under 2 CFR 200.521 your federal agency or pass-through entity states whether it sustains the finding and what you must do, within six months of the Federal Audit Clearinghouse accepting your report.
- Step 03
The agency can apply remedies.
Under 2 CFR 200.339 it can temporarily withhold payments, disallow costs, suspend or terminate the award, start suspension or debarment, withhold further awards, or take any other remedy the law allows it.
- Step 04
You lose low-risk status.
Under 2 CFR 200.520, you lose low-risk auditee status for your next two audits after a material weakness or a modified opinion on a major program. Your next auditor checks whether you fixed the finding, and you report its status in a summary schedule of prior audit findings.
Does a for-profit company need a Single Audit
No. Under 2 CFR 200.501(i), Subpart F of the Uniform Guidance does not apply to for-profit organizations. Your federal agency or pass-through entity sets any audit requirement in your award or subaward instead:
- Subrecipients.
- The pass-through entity describes your compliance requirements in the subaward and decides how it checks them.
- Direct recipients.
- Some agencies set their own rules. DOE applies a $1,000,000 threshold for for-profit compliance audits, for fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024. DOE has not yet updated the $750,000 figure in 2 CFR 910.501; it raised the threshold by class deviation until it completes a rulemaking.
- Other requirements.
- Your agency can still apply other parts of 2 CFR 200 through your award terms, so read them before you assume you owe no audit.
Send us the award and we will tell you what audit, if any, your agency requires.
What affects the cost of a Single Audit
You pay more for a Single Audit than for a regular audit of the same organization, because your auditor tests compliance in addition to auditing the statements. We price the work on eight factors:
Number of major programs. Your auditor tests each one separately.
Low-risk auditee status. If your last two audits qualify you as a low-risk auditee under 2 CFR 200.520, your auditor covers at least 20 percent of your federal spending through major programs. Otherwise the floor is 40 percent.
First-year or recurring audit. In year one your auditor builds its understanding of your programs and controls from scratch.
Federal awards schedule readiness. If you hand over a reconciled schedule with the assistance listing number for every award, your auditor spends less time rebuilding it.
Subrecipients. If you pass federal money on, your auditor tests how you monitored each one.
Entities and locations. Your auditor does separate fieldwork for each component unit and site.
Prior findings. Your auditor follows up each open finding and tests your corrective action.
Deadline. If you close your books late, your auditor compresses the fieldwork to meet the nine-month filing deadline.
A single-program nonprofit with a clean prior audit and a reconciled schedule is at the light end. These are the factors, not a quote.
Federal spending in your fiscal year
Send us your federal award list, what you spent under each one and the audit your funder asked for. We will tell you which audit your funder requires and price the work from your programs, entities, records and deadline.
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Audit services for federal award recipients
Single Audits. For organizations that spend $1,000,000 or more in federal awards in a fiscal year.
Yellow Book audits. When your funder requires GAGAS without a Single Audit.
Government audits. For state and local governments and their component units.
Nonprofit audits. Financial statement audits for nonprofits, with or without federal awards.
Financial statement audits. The regular audit for companies and organizations without federal awards.
Treat the information as general, and ask a CPA to read your award terms before you plan an audit.
Plan the audit your funder requires
Under 2 CFR 200.512, you must submit your Single Audit reporting package within 30 calendar days after receiving the auditor's reports, or nine months after the audit period ends, whichever comes first. Talk to us before year end so your team has time to meet the deadline.
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Reviewed by George Dimov, CPA. Dimov Audit performs financial statement audits and Single Audits for organizations that spend federal awards across all 50 states.