# Single Audit **Status: stub — expand.** The **Single Audit** is the compromise that keeps grant oversight from collapsing under its own weight. Rather than auditing each federal award separately — which would mean a large state agency or research university undergoing dozens of overlapping audits a year — an entity that spends above a set threshold of federal funds in a fiscal year gets **one** organization-wide audit covering its financial statements and its compliance with the requirements attached to its major federal programs. The regime originates in the Single Audit Act of 1984 and its 1996 amendments, and its operating rules live in Subpart F of 2 CFR Part 200. Findings do not stay with the auditor. They are reported to a government-wide clearinghouse, they follow the entity into every future award decision as part of its risk profile, and unresolved findings can support special conditions, high-risk designation, or disallowance of costs already spent. Because the government's ability to disallow a cost outlives closeout by years, the audit tail is where a grant that appeared finished can still turn into a debt. ## See also - [[Federal Grant Lifecycle]] — the ASCII map: the audit is stage 10 - [[Uniform Guidance]] · [[Government Accountability Office]]