Uploading Your Single Audit to Federal Audit Clearinghouse

Organizations that expense more than $750,000 of federal funding in a fiscal year are required to obtain a Single Audit, also known as a Uniform Guidance Audit. As the auditee, it is your responsibility to upload the results and supporting documentation to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse (FAC). This process ensures compliance with federal guidelines and supports transparency within the federal funding process.

Assembling and uploading your submission package is detailed and time-consuming. To do so successfully, you’ll need to honor deadlines and technical requirements while proactively addressing any issues uncovered by your auditor in a Corrective Action Plan. 

In this third article in our Single Audit series, we explore the process of assembling and uploading your audit package and what comes next. 

This article is the third in our five-part series on the single audit series. Learn more about the single audit process by reading our other articles:

• Single Audits: When Does an Organization Need One, And Can It Use Their Current Auditors?
• How to Prepare for a Single Audit

What Is the Federal Audit Clearinghouse (FAC)? 

The FAC is a U.S. federal government office that distributes audit information to the public. This process helps ensure transparency and accountability in managing taxpayer dollars. 

Overseen by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), it is a centralized repository for single audit reports and related data from nonprofit and government entities receiving federal grants, contracts, or financial assistance.

Submitting single audits to the FAC is a procedural requirement that demonstrates an entity’s commitment to compliance and accountability. These filings give the public valuable insights into how federal awards are managed and utilized, fostering trust in the government’s use of taxpayer dollars.

Preparing Your Single Audit Submission Package

Once you receive your finalized single audit from your audit firm, it is your responsibility as the auditee to submit this package to FAC.

Organizations must upload their submission package either 30 calendar days after receiving the final audit report or nine months after the close of their fiscal year, whichever comes first. 

Honoring this deadline is crucial if you want to continue receiving funding. If an organization misses the deadline, it will be considered “high risk” in the following year and will be subject to additional testing, which will incur additional expenses on next year’s audit. 

Before organizations upload their audit, there are five steps they must take. 

1. First, carefully review all materials in the audit to verify that they are accurate and complete. All findings, recommendations, and corrective action plans should be documented accurately and align with your understanding of the issues identified during the audit. 
2. If your organization is submitting a corrective action plan, it should be on official letterhead and signed by an individual in the organization’s management. If corrective actions have already been carried out, documentation should be provided to include context for and evidence of these actions.  
3. If last year’s audit also included findings, you must document ongoing corrective actions–for example, whether the finding has been satisfactorily corrected or improvements are ongoing. 
4. Next, prepare the audit reporting package by merging all components into a single PDF file. To meet uniform guidelines, your PDF should be:
   • Less than 30MB
   • Unlocked 
   • Text searchable
   • Printable
   • Unencrypted 
5. Finally, create an authenticated user account at Login.gov, using the same email address that is associated with your audit. These credentials are required to access the FAC’s secure site.

Uploading Your Single Audit Package to the FAC SFTP Site 

Single Audits must be submitted to the FAC via their secure website. 

In addition to uploading the prepared PDF, your organization must also submit general information about your entity, the auditors, the financial statements, and up to five XLSX workbooks detailing federal awards, audit findings and corrective actions.  

Finally, you must have the auditor certify the submission, and then certify it yourself before submitting the filing. 

Once submitted, the filing will go through an automatic check to verify that the information is complete and correct. For example, if your organization entered a different Unique Entity Identifier on two separate documents, this will be flagged for correction. 

Monitoring Submission Status 

Within several days, you should receive an email confirmation that the submission was accepted. If the submission included findings and a corrective action plan, the funding agency may follow-up on the status of these in the weeks and months following the submission of the single audit. 

Follow-ups are completed by the agency that oversees the impacted federal award, for example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development. If they take an interest and intend to follow up, they must do so within six months. 

If the agency does take an interest in your findings and has questions about them, they may come on-site and perform their own review. If the findings are severe enough, and corrective actions are not implemented, they may require that funds be returned. 

Regardless of whether the funding agency follows up in more detail, your organization must include documentation in next year’s audit showing what corrective actions were taken. 

Smith + Howard: Experienced Single Audit Professionals

Submitting your completed single audit report to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse (FAC) is a process that requires careful planning, attention to detail, and adherence to specific guidelines. Doing so demonstrates your commitment to transparency and accountability in managing federal funds and helps ensure you remain eligible to receive funding in the coming years.

While time-consuming, single audits also present a significant opportunity to strengthen internal controls and mitigate risk within your organization while staying compliant with federal regulations. 

However, it’s a complex process. Working with an audit firm experienced in the Single Audit space can help illuminate this process substantially. 

Smith + Howard is dedicated to serving the nonprofit sector. Our experience conducting single audits across a wide range of organizations and agencies makes us the ideal partner to guide you through this process. 

Contact an advisor at Smith + Howard today to learn how we can help you navigate your Single Audit.