Home / Resources / Uniform Guidance explained
Updated August 2026
The rulebook for every federal grant you will ever receive, mapped out so you can find the section you actually need.
2 CFR Part 200 is one regulation that governs how federal money is awarded, spent, documented and audited. Most of it will never apply to you. Roughly a dozen sections will apply constantly. This page tells you which is which.
The Uniform Guidance replaced a scatter of separate circulars, including A-122 and A-133, with a single rulebook covering federal awards to states, local governments, tribes, universities and nonprofits. If you receive federal money, directly or passed through a state agency, a city or a larger nonprofit, this is the rulebook you agreed to.
Two things people get wrong at the start. Pass-through money still counts. A state contract funded federally is a federal award, and most small organizations that believe they have no federal funding are subrecipients who have not made the connection. And the rules apply from the first dollar. The $1,000,000 figure decides whether you need a single audit, not whether the rules apply to you.
| Subpart | What it covers |
|---|---|
| A, Definitions | §200.1 defines every term the rest of the regulation uses. When a section seems ambiguous, the answer is usually a definition here. |
| B, General | Scope, applicability, and which agencies and award types are covered. |
| C, Pre-award | How agencies announce funding, review applications and make awards. Mostly the funder's obligations, not yours. |
| D, Post-award | The day-to-day rules: financial management, internal controls, procurement, property, subrecipient monitoring, reporting, record retention. This is where most of your obligations live. |
| E, Cost principles | What you may charge and how. Allowability, direct vs indirect, compensation, travel, equipment. |
| F, Audit | Who needs a single audit, how it is conducted, and what happens to findings. |
Ordered roughly by how often they come up.
How salaries charged to a grant must be supported. If you pay anyone from federal money, this is the section that decides whether your records hold up. The documentation standards are at (g).
The de minimis rate, now 15% of modified total direct costs, that lets you recover overhead without negotiating a rate.
The $1,000,000 threshold that decides whether you need a single audit, and the fact that it is measured on what you expend, not what you were awarded.
The companion to 200.501. Defines what counts toward the threshold, including non-cash items, commodities and program income.
The general test every cost has to pass: necessary, reasonable, allocable, consistently treated, adequately documented.
Your accounting system must identify every award and produce accurate, current reports. 200.303 asks for internal controls in vaguer language than anything else in Part 200, which is exactly why it is cited in so many findings.
Whether the money you passed on created a subrecipient or bought a service, decided by the substance of the relationship rather than the title on the agreement. If it is a subaward, you owe monitoring.
Title, use, management and disposition of equipment bought with federal money, including what happens when the grant ends.
Written procurement procedures, conflict of interest rules, and the thresholds that decide how much competition a purchase needs.
Three years from submission of the final expenditure report, with exceptions that extend it.
The deadline for submitting to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse once a single audit is required.
A substantial revision took effect for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 October 2024. If a guide, template or funder form predates it, assume the numbers are stale. The changes that matter most to small organizations:
It tells you which agency, which program, and which additional terms apply on top of the Uniform Guidance. Agency-specific rules can be stricter.
Procurement, allowability, time and effort, record retention. “What is your written policy?” is an early audit question and the answer should be a document.
By program, monthly, using the §200.502 definition. You do not want to discover in month eleven that you crossed $1,000,000.
Half the nonprofit guidance on the internet still uses the pre-October-2024 numbers.
Summaries, this one included, are a map. The regulation is the territory.
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.
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2 CFR Part 200, the single federal regulation governing how federal awards to states, local governments, tribes, universities and nonprofits are made, spent, documented and audited. It replaced earlier circulars including A-122 and A-133.
Yes. Federal money received through a state agency, a city or a larger nonprofit is still a federal award, and the recipient is a subrecipient subject to the same rules.
For small nonprofits the main changes were the single audit threshold rising from $750,000 to $1,000,000, the de minimis indirect cost rate rising from 10 percent to 15 percent, the MTDC subaward inclusion rising from the first $25,000 to the first $50,000, and the compensation documentation standards moving from 200.430(i) to 200.430(g).
No. The $1,000,000 figure in 200.501 decides whether a single audit is required. The cost principles, documentation and procurement rules apply from the first federal dollar.
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Sources: 2 CFR Part 200 (eCFR). Verified August 2026. Section numbers and thresholds change; read the sections themselves before relying on any summary.