Short answer. Measured from closed books to a signed report, a church audit typically runs two to three months, a review runs a few weeks, and a compilation is delivered in business days once the trial balance is final. The clock does not start at year end; it starts when the books are closed and the request list is complete. Engage the CPA before year end, close the books within six to eight weeks after it, and the report date takes care of itself. Engage in March for a December year end and the fee and the calendar both get harder.
An audit has five stages, and the church controls the length of the first two.
Engagement and planning, before year end. The engagement letter fixes the fee, the scope, and the report date. Planning happens before the books close: reading the bylaws, minutes, loan agreements, and prior statements, assessing risk, and sending the bank confirmations. None of this waits on your year end numbers, which is why the best time to engage is the fall.
Closing the books. The audit cannot start until the trial balance is final: all bank accounts reconciled, contributions posted through December 31, payroll tied to the W-2s, designated fund balances rolled forward, and accruals booked if the statements are on the accrual basis. For most churches this is six to eight weeks. A church whose bookkeeper closes by mid February is ready for fieldwork by the end of February.
The request list. One list, sent before fieldwork, covering bank and investment statements, the general ledger, contribution records, payroll reports, debt agreements, leases, board minutes, and the prior year statements. Churches that gather everything in a week or two keep the timeline. Churches that send items one at a time over a month add that month.
Fieldwork. Two to three weeks of testing, confirmation, and questions. At Credex Assurance fieldwork is performed remotely from exports of your accounting and giving software and your bank statements, and questions go to one contact in batches. No week of auditors in your office.
Draft, board presentation, and issuance. A draft for your review, a presentation to the board or finance committee, and the final report with the management letter and governance communications. Two to four weeks, most of it waiting on the church's review and the board's meeting date.
Add those up for a December year end: books closed mid February, fieldwork through mid March, draft late March, board presentation and issuance in April. That is the schedule we set with a first year audit client this year, and it fits inside most lender covenants, which typically give 120 to 180 days after year end, and inside the Episcopal Church's September 1 deadline and ECFA's July 31 renewal for churches with a December year end.
A first year audit. The first year builds the permanent file: the organizing documents, the fund structure, the fixed asset ledger, and opening balances that have never been audited. Plan on the longer end of the range the first time and the shorter end every year after.
Cash basis books that need converting. Many churches keep cash or modified cash books. GAAP statements need accruals. The conversion is straightforward but it has to happen before fieldwork, and it is best done by the bookkeeper with the CPA's guidance before the books close, not discovered in March.
Designated funds that do not reconcile. Building funds, missions funds, and benevolence funds that were tracked in a spreadsheet or not at all are the single most common source of audit delay in a church. If the balances by fund do not roll forward from last year through this year's gifts and spending, the audit stops until they do.
A volunteer treasurer with a day job. Not a criticism; most churches run this way. It is a reason to engage early, agree who the one contact will be, and let the CPA send the request list directly to the bookkeeper.
Engage in the fall for a December year end, so planning and confirmations are done before the books close. If you have a lender deadline, work backward from it: the report date in the engagement letter, then the board meeting, then the draft, then fieldwork, then the close date the bookkeeper must hit. If you are reading this in April with an audit due in June, call anyway; a fixed fee engagement with a clear request list can still be done, but it will cost more of your staff's attention in a shorter window.
Every engagement letter names a fixed fee and a report date. The report date is set around your close, not our calendar, and it moves only if the request list does. Schedule a call.
Episcopal Church Canon I.7.1(g) (reports due September 1), episcopalchurch.org. ECFA renewal timing (July 31 or January 31 depending on fiscal year end), ecfa.org/JoinECFA.aspx. AICPA AU-C section 200, aicpa-cima.com. Credex Assurance engagement experience, 2025 and 2026.