We perform the compliance audits that grant-funded organizations are required to obtain — GATA audits for Illinois state grantees, Single Audits under the federal Uniform Guidance, and HUD audits for assisted multifamily housing — and we help you determine which one applies to you. Our firm performs more than 100 audits every year, most of them for organizations with government grants, so the requirements on this page are our daily work, not a sideline.
The audit you need depends on the type, volume, and source of your funding — not on the simple fact of having a grant. An organization with a single $50,000 federal award, for example, needs neither a Single Audit nor a Yellow Book audit. The thresholds below determine what Illinois requires.
| Grant expenditures for the fiscal year | What’s required | Where to learn more |
|---|---|---|
| Under $500,000 in State-issued awards | No audit required under GATA; the CYEFR is still filed | GATA audits |
| $500,000 – $749,999 in State-issued awards | Financial statement audit (GAAS) | GATA audits |
| $750,000 or more in State-issued awards | Financial statement audit performed under Government Auditing Standards (Yellow Book) | GATA audits |
| $1,000,000 or more in federal awards (direct and pass-through combined) | Single Audit under the Uniform Guidance | Single Audits |
The first three tiers count State-issued awards — state grant funds plus federal funds passed through Illinois state agencies. The Single Audit tier counts federal awards from all sources, direct and pass-through combined. These are the tiers in effect for fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024.
HUD-assisted multifamily housing follows its own audit and filing rules based on ownership type and federal assistance received — see HUD audits.
Not sure where you land? We’ll walk through your award list with you at no charge.
The Grant Accountability and Transparency Act governs organizations receiving Illinois state grant funds or federal funds passed through a state agency. Above $750,000 in State-issued award expenditures, GATA requires a Yellow Book audit — a meaningfully different engagement from a standard audit.
How GATA audits work →Organizations expending $1,000,000 or more in federal awards need a Single Audit: a financial statement audit plus detailed compliance testing of major federal programs under 2 CFR 200.
How Single Audits work →Owners of HUD-assisted multifamily housing — for-profit and nonprofit — and public housing authorities each face distinct audit and electronic filing requirements on unforgiving deadlines.
How HUD audits work →“Yellow Book” refers to Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS), issued by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. A Yellow Book audit is not a separate service you shop for — it’s a set of standards layered onto your financial statement audit once your grant expenditures require it. The practical difference: alongside the standard independent auditor’s report, we issue a second report on internal control over financial reporting and on compliance, we perform additional procedures over your internal controls, and we test compliance with provisions of laws, regulations, contracts, and grant agreements that could directly and materially affect the financial statements. Yellow Book standards also apply inside every Single Audit.
“It works like a regular audit — materiality is what matters.” Not in compliance work. An organization can have internal control over compliance findings without a single material adjustment to its financial statements. The compliance audit examines whether controls and processes operated and were documented — not just whether the numbers were right.
“The financial audit and the compliance audit are separate.” They’re one engagement, and they talk to each other. We evaluate detected misstatements and control deficiencies under the applicable reporting standards, and required findings are reported according to their nature and significance.
Timing and support. As a specialized firm, we’ve built procedures that make GAGAS and Single Audits efficient: we routinely complete audits within six to eight weeks, which means organizations meet their reporting requirements — and executive directors and CFOs get back the months they used to spend feeding documents to their auditor. Several recent new clients completed their audits three to four months faster with us than with their previous firm.
If you’re a small or mid-sized organization, you’ve likely lived one of two problems. Small CPA firms often aren’t equipped for compliance work — audits drag, unnecessary testing piles up, and mistakes turn into findings from grantors. Large national firms are equipped, but a small or mid-sized organization is too small to be a priority — the work happens when the firm has availability, not when you need it. We built our practice for exactly the organizations both of those models fail: specialized enough to be efficient, sized so that every engagement has direct partner oversight and a defined timeline.
Every engagement is quoted as a written fixed fee before it begins.
Send us your award list and we'll tell you at no charge — or schedule a free consultation with our compliance audit team.
