Before the Audit

Audit Readiness Assessment

The worst time to learn your records are not audit-ready is during the audit. We walk your federal programs the way an auditor would, flag what would become a finding, and help you close it before fieldwork begins.

Book a readiness review

Done before fieldwork

Separate from the audit itself

Pre-Audit Check

Find the gaps an auditor would flag — before the auditor finds them.

Independence rules mean a firm cannot fix your books and then audit them. We are clear up front about which role we are playing.

At a Glance

An audit readiness assessment is a check you do before the audit, not the audit itself. We look for the gaps an auditor would flag and help you close them first.
It is most useful before a first Single Audit, after a jump in federal funding, or after a year that ended with findings.
The goal is fewer findings, a faster audit, and no surprises. It is a separate engagement from the audit, since an independent firm cannot both prepare your records and audit them.

The worst time to learn your records are not audit-ready is during the audit. An audit readiness assessment moves that discovery earlier, when there is still time to fix things and no clock running on a submission deadline.

We walk your federal programs the way an auditor would, flag what would become a finding, and help you correct it before fieldwork begins. The same compliance requirements an auditor will test under the OMB Compliance Supplement are what we look at, so what we review maps to what the audit will examine.

What We Look At

A readiness review covers the areas that produce most findings:

SEFA Accuracy & Reconciliation

Your Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards — is it complete, accurate, and reconciled to your general ledger? Most findings start here. Every review includes a dry run of your SEFA.

Internal Controls Over Compliance

How you make sure federal requirements are followed, not just whether they were on the day we tested. The auditor will look here; we look first.

Allowable Costs & Procurement

Allowable costs and cost principles under 2 CFR 200.403, plus procurement and suspension-and-debarment checks under 2 CFR 200.318. Two of the highest-finding areas in any Single Audit.

Subrecipient Monitoring & Reporting

If you pass funding through to subrecipients, the monitoring scope grows. We check the monitoring file, plus reporting and documentation behind your federal spending.

How a Readiness Review Runs

Match it to your programs

We size the review to your federal programs and funding. A small two-program nonprofit and a multi-program state subrecipient don't need the same depth.

Work the requirements

We go through the same compliance requirements an auditor would — allowable costs, eligibility, reporting, matching — for each major program, against the OMB Compliance Supplement.

Hand you a plan

You get a gap report, a prioritized corrective action plan (highest-risk items first), and a dry run of your SEFA — all in time to actually work through before fieldwork.

Why Organizations Trust Dimov Tax

CPA-led work. Independence rules respected. Nothing leaves the room.

$1.5B+

in tax savings identified for clients

63%

of clients return year after year

70+

tax and financial services under one roof

15+ yrs

of senior experience per engagement

What a Readiness Assessment Costs

There is no flat price. A readiness review scales with the size of your federal program and how much there is to check. The main drivers are how many federal programs and funding sources you run, whether this is your first Single Audit or a tune-up before a repeat one, how much funding you pass through to subrecipients (which adds monitoring scope), and how current your controls and documentation are going in.

Every review includes a dry run of your SEFA and a corrective action plan you can work through before fieldwork. Tell us where you are in your funding year and we will give you a fixed quote before you commit.

Tell us where you are in your funding year. We will size a readiness review to fit, with a fixed quote before you commit.

9 mo

Single Audit submission deadline after fiscal year end

When to Start

Earlier is better. The Single Audit has a firm submission deadline of nine months after fiscal year end, so the room to fix things shrinks fast once the year closes. A readiness review a few months before year end leaves time to actually act on what it finds.

Going into an audit blind is a choice, and an avoidable one. A readiness assessment trades a few weeks of preparation now for a faster, calmer audit later, with far less chance of a finding catching you off guard.

Months before YE

Best time to start a readiness review — enough runway to act on findings

Separate engagement

Independence rules mean a firm cannot fix your records AND audit them

Source: 2 CFR Part 200 Subpart F; OMB Compliance Supplement

When You Should Do an Audit Readiness Assessment

A good fit if you:

Are heading into your first Single Audit
Saw federal funding jump and push you over the threshold
Ended last year's audit with findings you do not want to repeat
Took on a new grant or program with rules you have not worked under before
Have had finance or leadership turnover — the people who ran compliance are gone

The audit itself is described on our A-133 audit requirements page. Need year-round help? That is federal grant compliance.

Book a Readiness Review

Tell us where you are in your funding year and whether you have been through a Single Audit before, and we will size a readiness review to fit. A CPA firm does the work, and nothing leaves the room.

Confidential, no obligation. A few weeks of preparation now buys a calmer audit later.

Reviewed by George Dimov, CPA

Founder of Dimov Tax

15+ years on Single Audits and federal grant compliance.