The four numbers that changed in 2024
Did the single audit threshold change?
Yes. It rose from $750,000 to $1,000,000 in federal awards expended in a fiscal year, and it applies to fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024 (2 CFR 200.501). Three other figures moved in the same revision: the de minimis indirect cost rate went from 10% to 15% of modified total direct costs, the portion of each subaward included in that base went from $25,000 to $50,000, and the equipment and supplies threshold went from $5,000 to $10,000. If your budget template or your accountant's checklist predates October 2024, it is quoting superseded numbers, and two of the four cost you money rather than just being wrong.
Last reviewed August 20, 2026.
The four figures, old and new
All effective for fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024.
- Single audit trigger: $750,000 to $1,000,000
- You need a single audit when you expend $1,000,000 or more in federal awards in a fiscal year (2 CFR 200.501). It is about expenditure, not about your total budget and not about what you were awarded. For audit periods beginning before October 1, 2024, the old $750,000 figure still governs, so the year you are auditing decides which rule applies.
- De minimis indirect rate: 10% to 15%
- If you have no negotiated rate, you may charge 15% of modified total direct costs and federal agencies must accept it. This is the change worth acting on today: an organization still using 10% is leaving a third of its available indirect recovery on the table, on every federal award, for no reason.
- Subaward in the MTDC base: $25,000 to $50,000
- Modified total direct costs now include the first $50,000 of each subaward rather than the first $25,000, which widens the base your rate applies to. If you hold a negotiated rate, the higher figure takes effect when your agreement is renegotiated rather than automatically, so check your own agreement before budgeting on it.
- Equipment and supplies: $5,000 to $10,000
- The capitalization threshold doubled. Items under $10,000 can be treated as supplies rather than tracked as equipment with its inventory and disposition requirements. Like the subaward change, implementation can depend on your negotiated agreement.
Why so much guidance is still wrong
A revision that changes four numbers leaves a long tail of documents that were correct when they were written. Budget templates, internal checklists, grant policy manuals and a great deal of published advice all quote the earlier figures, and none of them show any symptom of being out of date. They read exactly as they always did.
That is worth knowing when you check a number against a source you trust. The question to ask is not whether the source is reputable but when it was last revised, because on this subject reputable and current are different properties.
The one to act on this week
If you take nothing else from this page: if you have no negotiated indirect rate and your budgets say 10%, change them to 15%. That is a straight increase in cost recovery on every federal application you submit from now on, it requires no negotiation and no application, and federal agencies are obliged to accept it.
Quillify builds budgets against the rate you tell it you use, so correcting it once carries into everything drafted afterwards.
Who asks this most
The answer above is the same whoever you are. What Quillify does about it is not.
Related
- Indirect cost rates, and the money most organizations leave behindWhat is an indirect cost rate and do I need one?
- Audited financials, a review, or neitherDo I need audited financial statements to apply for grants?
- The work that starts when the money arrivesWhat are my obligations after winning a grant?
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