SEFA Prep Worksheet
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:
- The federal agency name
- The applicable major program cluster (where applicable per the OMB Compliance Supplement)
- The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number, now called the Assistance Listing number
- The award identification number (FAIN or contract number)
- Total federal expenditures for the fiscal year
- 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
| Field | Your 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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