According to Jay Goltz in a New York Times blog post, the #4 reason why small businesses fail is Poor Accounting. You cannot be in control of a business if you don't know and control how the money is being spent. Makes sense, right? The government thinks so too. So if you're an SBIR/STTR awardee you need to get familiar with the particulars of a financial audit because your benefactor wants to know that your financial systems are on solid ground to ensure proper handling and reporting of their dollars.

The word "audit" can strike fear into the hearts many - upstanding or otherwise - but here are three reasons, SBIR/STTR awardees can actually appreciate audits:

1. Being compliant is an important factor in your ability to secure future government funding.
2. Having a tidy financial house paves the way for positive due diligence results when your company is evaluated by outside investors.
3. Going through the process of preparing for an audit provides valuable information needed to manage your business successfully.

Each federal agency determines when, how and who will be audited. For example, NIH requires an audit when an organization under federal grants, procurement contracts or operating agreements expends $500,000 and at least one of your awards is a HHS grant. By contrast, NSF grants are only audited at the request of the program officer. Most agencies will request a pre-award survey to confirm that the company accounting system will comply with the required standards. Read on
 

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The National Eye Institute (NEI) announced an Administrative Supplement opportunity available to eligible NEI awardees with active SBIR Phase I/II grants. These administrative supplements provide funds so that grantees can procure the services of consultants who are knowledgeable in the Federal regulatory process for approval of new drugs and/or devices. More

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) SBIR Phase IIB Bridge Award opportunity to accelerate the commercialization of technologies for heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders and diseases. The award is to facilitate the capital-intensive steps required to transition SBIR/STTR Phase II projects to the commercialization by promoting partnerships between awardees and third-party investors and/or strategic partners. More

This SBIR solicitation seeks optimization of existing and emerging technologies/approaches including 1) technologies and novel approaches for large scale recording and manipulation of neural activity and, 2) tools to facilitate the detailed analysis of complex circuits and provide insights into cellular interactions that underlie brain function. More

The Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the Foundational Science Research Unit (FSRU) of the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) solicits new proposals for its fiscal year 2015 program of basic research in behavioral science. The program supports research projects designed to expand fundamental knowledge and discover general principles in the behavioral and social sciences. More

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