GATA Audit Services for Illinois Grantees

The Grant Accountability and Transparency Act (GATA) sets audit and reporting requirements for organizations receiving Illinois state grant funds or federal funds passed through a state agency. We handle GATA requirements end to end: the Yellow Book financial statement audit, guidance and review of your CYEFR with the required in-relation-to opinion, and support through the Grantee Portal submission. GATA audits are a core specialty of our practice — most of the 100+ audits we perform each year are for organizations with government grants.

Who needs a GATA audit?

Requirements scale with your State-issued award expenditures — state grant funds plus federal funds passed through Illinois state agencies — for the fiscal year, under the tiers in effect for fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024: below $500,000, no audit is required (the CYEFR is still filed); from $500,000 to $749,999, a financial statement audit; at $750,000 or more, a financial statement audit performed under Government Auditing Standards (Yellow Book); and at $1,000,000 or more in federal awards, a full Single Audit. Unsure which tier you’re in? Start with the decision guide, or send us your award list and we’ll tell you at no charge.

What changes at $750,000

A GATA engagement above the $750,000 threshold looks meaningfully different from a regular audit. Government Auditing Standards add a second report to the package: alongside the standard independent auditor’s report, we issue a Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting and on Compliance and Other Matters. That report must disclose any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses we identify — publicly, as part of the audit report package itself.

This is the adjustment first-time Yellow Book clients struggle with most. In a standard audit, findings typically surface through adjusting entries and the governance letter, which the general public never sees. Under Government Auditing Standards, findings travel with the report. The audit work itself changes too: we perform additional procedures over internal control over financial reporting — including walkthroughs of your processes — and we test compliance with provisions of laws, regulations, contracts, and grant agreements where noncompliance could have a direct and material effect on the financial statements.

Where GATA audits slow down — and where findings come from

Two documentation gaps drive most GATA trouble, and they’re different problems. The first is that what should happen isn’t written down: for organizations above the Yellow Book threshold, the most common source of delay is the absence of written internal control policies and procedures. The standards require us to understand and document your control environment — and when nothing exists in writing, that understanding gets built from scratch through interviews and walkthroughs, while management formalizes on paper what the organization has been doing informally all along.

The second is that what did happen isn’t documented — and this is the single most common source of findings in both GAGAS and Single Audits. Most grantees have a review-and-approval process; what they often can’t produce is the evidence: a signature, an initial, a dated approval in the accounting system. A typical example: a grantee submits monthly vouchers to its granting agency. The accountant prepares the voucher, and the executive director or CFO reviews it before it goes out — the control exists and operates. But the review is never documented with a signoff. When we test that control, there’s no retained evidence that the review occurred — and without evidence, auditors may be unable to verify the control operated. Depending on the facts and applicable requirements, that can become an internal control finding — over a review that was, in fact, being performed. It’s also one of the easiest findings to prevent once you know it’s coming.

The CYEFR

The Consolidated Year-End Financial Report is a GATA-required schedule reporting your state and federal grant expenditures by agency and program, prepopulated in the Grantee Portal from the Catalog of State Financial Assistance. Your auditor issues an “in relation to” opinion on it as part of the audit, and it’s submitted with your audit package. Most grantees prepare the CYEFR themselves with guidance from us along the way — an arrangement that works well. Problems start when it’s prepared with no auditor involvement at all. The two errors we see most: a CYEFR built on the cash basis when the financial statements are on another basis, so the two never tie; and a CYEFR that was never fully reconciled to the books. Both surface late — during the audit, when the in-relation-to opinion work exposes them — delaying the audit and, depending on their nature and significance, potentially resulting in findings.

Grantees below the $500,000 audit threshold still file the CYEFR — on its own, unaudited — through the Grantee Portal, due six months after fiscal year end. And every grantee, whatever its tier, starts the annual cycle by filing an Audit Certification Form in the Grantee Portal within 60 days of year end, certifying which requirement applies — we help clients complete both.

If there are findings, you’re not on your own

Findings never go to the State alone. Before the package is submitted through the Grantee Portal, we guide your team as management develops and approves the corrective action plan, so reviewers see every finding arrive with its remediation already attached. Every submitted package then goes through the State’s centralized audit report review (a system called ARRMS), where your awarding agencies collectively review and approve corrective action plans. If the State’s review requests anything further, we help you prepare the response.

Our peer review — see for yourself

GATA audit packages include the audit firm’s own peer review results, so the State already checks our work. You can too: our most recent peer review — which examined an engagement performed under Government Auditing Standards, including a compliance audit under the Single Audit Act — resulted in a rating of pass, the highest of the three possible peer review ratings. Read the full peer review report (PDF) and the acceptance letter (PDF) from the Peer Review Alliance Committee.

Our process

Before fieldwork begins you receive a complete request list, a timeline, and a responsibility map, followed by weekly status updates. Audits are routinely completed within six to eight weeks of kickoff.

Deadlines are part of the plan from day one: GATA financial statement audit packages are due through the Grantee Portal within the earlier of 30 calendar days after you receive the auditor’s reports or six months after fiscal year end — Single Audit packages get nine months — so we build the engagement timeline backward from your filing date.