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SEFA Prep Worksheet

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TLDR

SEFA errors that appear at the start of a single audit - missing awards, misclassified cluster programs, period-of-performance mismatches - are almost always preventable. They happen because organizations reconstruct the SEFA during fieldwork instead of maintaining the data throughout the year. This worksheet gives you the award-level data collection structure to build an accurate SEFA before your auditors ask for it.

What the SEFA Must Include - 2 CFR 200.510(b)

The Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards must list, for each federal program:

  1. The federal agency name
  2. The applicable major program cluster (where applicable per the OMB Compliance Supplement)
  3. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number, now called the Assistance Listing number
  4. The award identification number (FAIN or contract number)
  5. Total federal expenditures for the fiscal year
  6. Whether the organization provided federal awards to subrecipients and the aggregate amount passed through

The SEFA covers federal expenditures in the organization’s fiscal year - not the federal government’s fiscal year, and not the grant period. An award that spans three fiscal years will appear on three SEFAs.


Part 1: Award-Level Data Collection

Complete one row per award (not per program - a single program may have multiple awards active during the year).

Award Entry Template

FieldYour Data
Federal agency name
Program name
CFDA / Assistance Listing number
FAIN (Federal Award Identification Number)
Award period start date
Award period end date
Fiscal year expenditures (this SEFA period)
Cumulative expenditures to date
Subawards passed through to subrecipients (yes/no)
Amount passed through to subrecipients
R&D program (yes/no)
Loan / loan guarantee (yes/no)
Cluster program (yes/no)
Cluster name (if applicable)

Work through this for every federal award that was active during the fiscal year - including awards where expenditures were minimal, where the period of performance ended during the year, and where a no-cost extension pushed the end date into the next year.


SEFA Prep Worksheet

A structured worksheet for preparing the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA) - award-by-award data collection, common error checks, and a pre-audit reconciliation checklist. Delivered by email.

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