The Single Audit Threshold Nobody Reads Until It’s Too Late

Every year, a handful of nonprofits discover — usually around the time their fiscal year has already closed — that they’ve crossed the $750,000 federal expenditure threshold that triggers a mandatory Single Audit under the Uniform Guidance, and nobody flagged it during the year.

The threshold counts total federal awards expended during the fiscal year, not just direct grants — it includes federal funds passed through a state agency, a university, or another nonprofit acting as a pass-through entity. A one-time capital grant, a COVID-era relief award, or simply a multi-year grant renewal landing in the same fiscal year as an existing award can push an organization over the line without a single new grant application being filed.

Our practice: every nonprofit client gets a mid-year federal expenditure projection specifically to catch this before year-end, not after. A Single Audit engagement takes months to properly staff and scope — finding out in month eleven of a twelve-month fiscal year is the worst possible time to find out.