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Micro-Purchase Threshold for Federal Grants: Uniform Guidance Procurement Rules and Software Controls
Last updated: October 11, 2026 · Independent guide · We do not sell rankings or coverage.
The micro-purchase threshold for federal grants is the dollar amount at or below which a recipient may buy supplies or services without soliciting competitive quotes, provided it documents that the price is reasonable. Under the Uniform Guidance, that threshold defaults to the amount in the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which has been $15,000 since October 1, 2025, and a recipient may self-certify a higher threshold of up to $50,000 each year. Above that, purchases up to the simplified acquisition threshold ($350,000) need quotes from an adequate number of qualified sources, and larger ones need sealed bids or proposals.
The rule in brief
- Who it applies to: nonprofits, universities, local governments and other recipients and subrecipients buying with federal award funds. States and Indian Tribes follow their own policies (2 CFR 200.317).
- The thresholds: micro-purchase threshold of $15,000 and simplified acquisition threshold of $350,000, both set by reference to FAR 2.101. Your own thresholds can be lower. Only the micro-purchase threshold can be raised, to $50,000 by annual self-certification or higher with approval from your cognizant agency for indirect costs.
- Key dates: the current version of 2 CFR 200.320 took effect October 1, 2024. The FAR inflation adjustment that moved the thresholds from $10,000 and $250,000 took effect October 1, 2025.
- Official source: 2 CFR 200.320, Procurement methods, with definitions in 2 CFR 200.1.
What 2 CFR 200.320 requires
The 2024 revision renamed “small purchases” as simplified acquisitions and groups the methods as informal methods (micro-purchases and simplified acquisitions) in paragraph (a), formal methods (sealed bids and proposals) in paragraph (b), and noncompetitive procurement in paragraph (c). Whatever method you use, the section says you “must maintain and use documented procurement procedures” consistent with 200.317 through 200.319.
| Method | Dollar range (federal ceilings) | What you must do | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro-purchase | Up to $15,000, or your documented higher threshold | No quotes required if you consider the price reasonable and keep documents supporting that conclusion. Distribute purchases among qualified suppliers where practicable. | 200.320(a)(1) |
| Simplified acquisition | Above your micro-purchase threshold, up to $350,000 or your lower threshold | Obtain price or rate quotations from an adequate number of qualified sources. | 200.320(a)(2) |
| Sealed bids | Above your simplified acquisition threshold | Public solicitation, firm fixed price, award to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. Preferred for construction. | 200.320(b)(1) |
| Proposals | Above your simplified acquisition threshold | Public notice, stated evaluation factors, written evaluation procedures, award to the most advantageous offer. | 200.320(b)(2) |
| Noncompetitive | Any amount, if a listed circumstance applies | Only for micro-purchases, a single source, a public exigency or emergency, written approval from the agency or pass-through entity, or inadequate competition after soliciting several sources. | 200.320(c) |
Two related rules sit outside 200.320. Every procurement above the simplified acquisition threshold, including modifications, needs a cost or price analysis that starts with an independent estimate (2 CFR 200.324). And 200.318(i) requires records “sufficient to detail the history of each procurement transaction,” including the rationale for the method and the basis for the price (2 CFR 200.318).
Where the dollar amounts come from
The Uniform Guidance prints no dollar figure for either threshold. The 200.1 definitions say the micro-purchase threshold is generally “not to exceed the amount set by the FAR at 48 CFR part 2, subpart 2.1,” and that the FAR simplified acquisition threshold is used for procurement under federal awards. FAR 2.101 in the eCFR currently reads “Micro-purchase threshold means $15,000” and “Simplified acquisition threshold means $350,000.” Those values come from the FAR Council’s five-year inflation adjustment, published August 27, 2025 at 90 FR 41872 and effective October 1, 2025 (Federal Register). The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul text of Part 2 published on acquisition.gov shows the same $15,000 and $350,000 values (acquisition.gov, no date shown).
The FAR definition also carries agency exceptions: $2,000 for construction subject to Davis-Bacon wage rates, $2,500 for services subject to the Service Contract Labor Standards, and higher emergency figures. The Uniform Guidance does not say which of those exceptions carry over to grant recipients. MRSC, a nonprofit that advises Washington local governments, says the threshold for public works subject to Davis-Bacon remains $2,000 (MRSC, no date shown). If you buy construction with federal funds, confirm the applicable figure with your awarding agency or pass-through entity in writing.
The higher threshold does not apply itself
Paragraph (a)(1)(iii) makes you “responsible for determining and documenting an appropriate micro-purchase threshold based on internal controls, an evaluation of risk, and its documented procurement procedures.” If your written policy still says $10,000, your documented threshold is $10,000 until you revise it. Feldesman LLP, a law firm that advises grantees, describes the new amounts as applying automatically (Feldesman, October 1, 2025), while MRSC says agencies must update their policies to use the increase. Adopting the threshold you want in a dated policy revision satisfies both readings.
Raising the micro-purchase threshold under 200.320(a)(1)(iv) and (v)
Paragraph (a)(1)(iv) lets you “self-certify a threshold up to $50,000 on an annual basis.” The self-certification must include a justification, clear identification of the threshold, and supporting documentation of any one of three bases:
- Low-risk auditee status under the 200.520 criteria for your most recent audit. These include annual single audits and unmodified opinions with no material weaknesses for the two preceding audit periods (2 CFR 200.520).
- An annual internal institutional risk assessment that identifies, mitigates and manages financial risks.
- For public institutions, a higher threshold that is consistent with State law.
The rule does not require you to submit the self-certification. You keep it available for the federal agency, the pass-through entity and auditors under 200.334. Above $50,000, paragraph (a)(1)(v) requires approval from your cognizant agency for indirect costs, and that approval stays valid until a factor you relied on changes. Whatever threshold you choose must also be “authorized or not prohibited under State, local, or tribal laws.” As an illustration, a city whose code caps informal purchases at $5,000 would use $5,000 on federal awards.
The simplified acquisition threshold works in one direction only. Paragraph (a)(2)(ii) says yours “may be lower than, but must not exceed, the threshold established in the FAR.” There is no self-certification route above $350,000.
Who is exempt or treated differently
States and Indian Tribes use the policies they apply to non-federal purchases and must also comply with 200.321 through 200.323 and 200.327. Only if they have no such policies must they follow 200.318 through 200.327, so 200.320 does not otherwise bind them directly. Their subrecipients follow 200.318 through 200.327 like any other recipient.
Deadlines and penalties
The self-certification is annual, so set a fixed renewal date, ideally tied to the issuance of your single audit report if you rely on low-risk auditee status. Noncompliance is handled under 2 CFR 200.339. The awarding agency or pass-through entity can impose specific conditions and, if that is not enough, withhold payments, disallow costs, suspend or terminate the award, start suspension or debarment proceedings, or withhold future funding.
Records you must keep
Keep procurement records for three years from submission of the final financial report, longer if litigation, claims or audit findings are open, and three years after final disposition for equipment (2 CFR 200.334). Records that document each method include:
- Micro-purchases: the note or document supporting price reasonableness.
- Simplified acquisitions: the quotes obtained, the number of sources contacted and the selection rationale.
- Formal procurements: the public notice, independent estimate, bid tabulation or evaluation scoring, cost or price analysis and justifications for rejected bids.
What to set up in your systems
Enforcing the thresholds depends on two facts a requisition form does not always capture: whether federal funds are charged, and whether the order is part of a larger requirement. Your system needs the funding source at the line level so it can route on it. If you are comparing platforms for this, our guide to grant management software covers the award tracking side.
Sage Intacct
Purchasing approval policies are set at Purchasing > Setup > More > Approval policies and apply to requisitions, purchase orders and vendor invoices. Sage documents permission-based value approval rules with up to six contiguous dollar levels, department-based rule sets, and routing to the manager of the department, location or project on the transaction (Sage Intacct, October 8, 2026; Sage Intacct, October 1, 2026). The approval documentation describes no rule criterion for a grant, fund or user-defined dimension, so native routing by funding source depends on how you use projects or departments. Sage also documents Smart Rules, which return an error or a warning when a condition on a record, including a purchasing transaction, evaluates false (Sage Intacct Developer, no date shown). Smart Rules belong to Customization Services, so confirm licensing before relying on them. See our Sage Intacct for nonprofits profile for modules and pricing.
Procurify
Procurify routes requests through approval groups configured at Settings > Manage Approval Routing. Each approver in a group can be given an approval threshold (Procurify, February 26, 2024). Procurify says routing groups can be filtered by department or account code, and names account code, department, requisitioner and location as fields that restart routing when edited during an approval (Procurify, May 8, 2026). If your federal awards map to distinct account codes or departments, you can give them a routing group whose first approver limit equals your micro-purchase threshold. We found no documented quote-attachment requirement tied to amount.
Workday
Workday charges spend to grants through a Grant worktag, and administrators can create condition rules that route spend business processes based on award details (Workday, January 9, 2026). Its worked example adds a condition through Business Process > Maintain Step Conditions (Workday, October 31, 2025), and the Requisition Event can be edited through Edit Definition to add approval, questionnaire and budget steps (Workday, June 23, 2023). Rochester Institute of Technology’s published Requisition Event definition shows the result: a questionnaire step for requisitions over $15,000, a Principal Investigator approval for grant worktags, and cost center approval for grant, gift or project requisitions over $10,000 (RIT, effective August 18, 2026).
Controls that apply in any system
- Require a price reasonableness note or attachment on federally funded lines at any amount, and quotes on lines above the micro-purchase threshold.
- Report federally funded purchases by vendor and requester monthly to spot split orders. The rule measures the “aggregate amount of the procurement transaction,” not the invoice.
- Set purchase card limits at or below the micro-purchase threshold. GSA notes that federal agencies are not required to set card limits at the maximum (GSA SmartPay, September 5, 2025).
Our comparison of nonprofit accounting software covers which systems track funding source at the transaction line.
How we researched this
We read the text of 2 CFR 200.1, 200.317, 200.318, 200.320, 200.324, 200.334, 200.339 and 200.520 and FAR 2.101 in the eCFR on October 11, 2026, confirmed the 200.320 paragraph numbering, and checked the threshold change in the Federal Register. For software, we used only each vendor’s public documentation and one university’s published configuration, leaving out capabilities we could not find documented.
Related guides
- Single Audit Requirements: $1M Threshold and Major Programs
- Subrecipient Monitoring: Requirements and Risk Assessment
- Nonprofit Audit Checklist: PBC List and Schedules
Frequently asked questions
What is the micro-purchase threshold for federal grants in 2026?
The federal ceiling is $15,000, the amount in FAR 2.101 since October 1, 2025, which the Uniform Guidance adopts by reference. Your own threshold is whatever your documented procedures say, which can be lower. You can self-certify up to $50,000 annually if you meet one of the three bases in 200.320(a)(1)(iv).
Is the simplified acquisition threshold for grants $250,000 or $350,000?
FAR 2.101 sets it at $350,000, up from $250,000, as of October 1, 2025. Under 200.320(a)(2)(ii), your threshold can be lower but cannot exceed the FAR figure. If your policy still says $250,000, that remains your threshold until you revise it.
Do we need agency approval to raise our micro-purchase threshold to $50,000?
No. Up to $50,000 you self-certify annually and keep the documentation on file for your agency, pass-through entity and auditors. Anything above $50,000 needs approval from your cognizant agency for indirect costs. State or local law can still cap you lower.
Does the micro-purchase threshold apply per invoice or per purchase?
It applies to the aggregate amount of the procurement transaction. Breaking one requirement into several orders below the threshold does not change the method you were required to use.
Sources
- eCFR, 2 CFR 200.320 Procurement methods, last amended October 1, 2024, up to date as of October 8, 2026. ecfr.gov
- eCFR, 2 CFR 200.1 Definitions, up to date as of October 8, 2026. ecfr.gov
- eCFR, 2 CFR 200.317, 200.318, 200.324, 200.334, 200.339 and 200.520, up to date as of October 8, 2026. ecfr.gov
- eCFR, 48 CFR 2.101 Definitions (FAR), up to date as of October 8, 2026. ecfr.gov
- Federal Register, FAR: Inflation Adjustment of Acquisition-Related Thresholds, 90 FR 41872, August 27, 2025, effective October 1, 2025. federalregister.gov
- Acquisition.gov, Revolutionary FAR Overhaul Part 2, no date shown. acquisition.gov
- GSA SmartPay, Smart Bulletin 002, micro-purchase threshold increase, September 5, 2025. smartpay.gsa.gov
- MRSC, federal procurement threshold changes, no date shown. mrsc.org
- Feldesman LLP (law firm that sells legal services to grantees), Procurement Rules Just Got Easier for Grantees, October 1, 2025. feldesman.com
- Sage Intacct (vendor), Purchasing approval policies, October 8, 2026. intacct.com
- Sage Intacct (vendor), Value approval rules, October 1, 2026. intacct.com
- Sage Intacct Developer (vendor), Smart Rule examples, no date shown. developer.intacct.com
- Procurify (vendor), How to set an approval routing limit, February 26, 2024. procurify.com
- Procurify (vendor), How can I optimize approval workflows in Procurify, May 8, 2026. procurify.com
- Workday (vendor), Concept: Spending on Grants, January 9, 2026. doc.workday.com
- Workday (vendor), Example: Set Up Expense Report Business Process Condition Rules, October 31, 2025. doc.workday.com
- Workday (vendor), Set Up the Requisition Business Process, June 23, 2023. doc.workday.com
- Rochester Institute of Technology, Requisition Event (Default Definition), effective August 18, 2026. rit.edu
Sherman Hsieh
Independent analysis of enterprise software — ERP, CRM and more
