Financial Audit Manual: Volume 3, August 2025

Government Accountability Office
08/18/2025

Fast Facts

The Financial Audit Manual (FAM) presents a methodology for performing financial statement audits of federal entities in accordance with professional standards. It is a tool for enhancing accountability over taxpayer-provided resources.

This August 2025 revision replaces Financial Audit Manual, Volume 3 (July 2024 version) and contains the Federal Financial Reporting Checklist.

The FAM’s other volumes are:

Volume 1: the audit methodology

Volume 2: detailed implementation guidance

You can download all volumes of the FAM in Word and certain Excel templates, and see prior versions of the manual on the main FAM page.

Highlights

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) maintain the GAO/CIGIE Financial Audit Manual (FAM).

For more information, please visit the main FAM page, or contact Dawn B. Simpson at SimpsonDB@gao.gov.

GAO Contacts

Dawn B. Simpson Director Financial Management and Assurance simpsondb@gao.gov

Media Inquiries

Sarah Kaczmarek Managing Director Office of Public Affairs media@gao.gov

Public Inquiries

Topics

Auditing and Financial ManagementFinancial statementsFinancial reportingFinancial audit manualAccounting standardsBudgetary resourcesContract performanceLegal liabilityFinancial managementCompliance oversightFinancial management systems