When Your County Starts Requiring FDOT Prequalification for Non-FDOT Work

A financial statement review or audit isn’t priced like a tax return, and contractors expecting a similar number are usually comparing two different products. A tax return summarizes what already happened. A review or audit tests whether the numbers behind it hold up, which is a different service with a different cost structure entirely. The gap comes down to scope, not markup.

What Drives the Price

A financial statement review or audit isn’t a formality your CPA fills out from memory. FDOT prequalification requires a full set of annual financial statements prepared under Florida Statutes as part of the application, and a CPA-prepared compilation doesn’t satisfy that requirement, only a review or an audit does. That distinction alone explains most of the price gap contractors run into. A review requires a CPA to test and corroborate your numbers rather than simply assemble them, and an audit goes further, testing internal controls and verifying balances through independent confirmation. The work behind each step is what you’re paying for, and the fee scales with how much verification the engagement requires.

Why a Generalist CPA Often Struggles Here

Construction accounting runs on percentage-of-completion recognition, job costing and work-in-progress schedules, none of which come up in a typical small business tax practice. A CPA who prepares individual and small business returns all year may not have touched a WIP schedule since their last construction client, if they’ve ever had one. That unfamiliarity slows the engagement down and can push the quote higher, not lower, because the CPA has to relearn the framework before they can test anything against it. Contractors who already keep clean, job-costed books tend to move through a review or audit faster and at a more predictable cost, regardless of which firm performs it.

Review or Audit, and What Each Costs to Produce

The threshold that decides which one you need is the size of the contract you’re bidding on, not your comfort level. Contractors bidding on FDOT road or bridge projects under $2 million can submit reviewed financial statements as part of their prequalification application, while projects at or above that amount require a full audit. A review costs less because the scope is narrower. It confirms your numbers look reasonable without testing the controls behind them. An audit costs more because it’s a deeper form of assurance, and pricing should track the size of the contract you’re trying to win rather than a flat industry rate.

Contractors bidding as prime on the largest jobs face an added wrinkle. Both the annual and interim financial statements must be audited to qualify at the $2 million tier, and if one set is reviewed while the other is audited, FDOT caps the bid limit at the review threshold instead. That detail catches contractors off guard when they assume one audited statement covers the whole application.

Weigh Whether It’s Worth Pursuing

For a smaller subcontractor bidding occasional local work, the calculation isn’t only about the audit fee. It’s about whether the contracts on the table justify the ongoing cost of maintaining review-ready or audit-ready books year over year. Firms already carrying bonding capacity for other public work often find the incremental cost of staying prequalification-ready is small next to what a rejected or delayed application costs in lost bidding time. That comparison, not the invoice by itself, is what should guide the decision. 

Get the Number Right the First Time

A generalist CPA’s lower quote can end up costing more once delays, rework or a rejected application enter the picture. James Moore’s construction team prepares the financial statement reviews and audits contractors need to prequalify with FDOT, done right the first time. Contact us when you’re ready to get an accurate quote for your next bid.

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