Common single audit findings

Costs the grant allows

Charges to a grant that don't meet the cost rules. A common problem here is undocumented payroll allocation, salary charged as a budget percentage, with no record of the real effort behind it.

Prevention: log each person's total work. Have them certify it. Match it to payroll. Fix it when real effort differs from the budget.

What the grant covers

Spending grant money on something the award doesn't cover. It often happens by accident, when a program shifts but the budget doesn't.

Prevention: keep the award terms where the staff who spend money can see them. Require a check against those terms before anything odd is charged.

The grant's time window

Costs incurred outside the approved window. Easy to do at the boundaries, especially with invoices arriving after a grant ends.

Prevention: put start and end dates on the grant record and check invoice dates against them, not just the payment date.

Reports and numbers

Reports filed late, or figures that don't reconcile to the accounting records.

Prevention: a deadline calendar with reminders weeks ahead. Tie every reported number back to the books before it goes out.

Buying and vendor checks

Buying without the required bids. Or paying a vendor the government has barred, without checking first.

Prevention: a written buying policy with dollar limits. Check each vendor above a set amount against the barred list.

Money you pass on

If you pass federal money to another group, you must oversee how they use it. Small pass-through groups often have no check-in process at all.

Prevention: a written subaward deal, a risk check, and regular documented check-ins.

Drawing down cash

Drawing funds earlier than needed, or holding balances longer than allowed.

Prevention: draw against actual need and keep the calculation.

The pattern underneath

Almost none of these are about doing the wrong thing. They're about doing the right thing without a record that proves it. In a federal audit, an undocumented control is treated as an absent one, which is good news for a small organization, because writing procedures down is free.

This is general information, not legal or accounting advice. Federal grant rules change and are applied differently by different agencies and auditors. Check with your auditor, your grant officer, or an attorney before relying on any of it.

The Ember tool for this

Ember Time

Ember Time lets your team log time by program, and you approve the week. Approved hours for hourly staff become each program's staff cost at the rate you set. Unlimited users on every tier.

Sources: GRF CPAs, Common Findings in Single Audits · The Charity CFO, Top 7 Findings · 2 CFR Part 200 (eCFR). Verified August 2026.