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Clauses · FAR · Administration and definitions

FAR 52.215-2 Audit and Records—Negotiation

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

Yes

Subs > SAT that are cost-type/T&M/LH, require certified cost or pricing data, or involve reports under (e)

Form
verbatim (all the terms of this clause)
Reaches
cascades in the cases listed in paragraph (g)

Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-09 · edition Jun 2020 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

One item for your checklist.

  1. Nothing to send now

    It does not hold the order. It decides what money moves later — what you can claim, what can be claimed from you, and what can be held back — and none of that changes after signature.

    • The accounting records and supporting material behind your costs, kept available for examination until 3 years after final payment

      FAR 52.215-2(f)

When it is used

15.209(b)(1): insert the clause in solicitations and contracts EXCEPT those for (i) acquisitions not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold, (ii) utility services at rates not exceeding those established to apply uniformly to the general public plus reasonable connection charges, and (iii) commercial products or commercial services exempted from certified cost or pricing data requirements under 15.403-1. Alternate I for ARRA-funded acquisitions (where the exceptions do not apply), Alternate II for cost-reimbursement contracts with State or local governments, educational institutions or nonprofits, Alternate III where the head of the agency waives Comptroller General examination of records under 25.1001. (Trigger corrected 2026-08-05, backlog item 12: the entry gated on `contractType in (cost-reimbursement, incentive, tm-lh)`, which is not the prescription — 15.209(b) is not contract-type gated at all — and `incentive` is not a value the profile's contractType can hold, so the test could never change its answer. Leg removed. Prescription verified against acquisition.gov, FAR 15.209(b).)

Read closely

Nothing is sent here and nothing about retention stops a shipment — what the records decide is what survives a later examination. An accounting system that stands up to an incurred-cost audit is a different obligation and a different clause; it is not in this one. (g) puts all the terms of this clause into your own orders above the simplified acquisition threshold that are cost-reimbursement, incentive, time-and-materials, labor-hour or price-redeterminable, that carry certified cost or pricing data, or that carry reporting under (e). The prescription at 15.209(b)(1) excepts acquisitions at or below the simplified acquisition threshold and commercial products and services exempted from certified cost or pricing data under 15.403-1.

Alternates

  • Alt I · MAR 2009

    FAR 15.209(b)(2).

    Alt I substitutes (d)(1) and (g) to add the agency's Inspector General to the Comptroller General's examination and interview rights; it widens who may look at the same records, and by its own terms that extra reach is not passed to subcontracts.

  • Alt II · AUG 2016

    FAR 15.209(b)(3).

    Alt II adds a paragraph (h) incorporating the OMB Uniform Guidance audit requirements at 2 CFR part 200 subpart F, which is an audit an outside firm performs and issues — a different kind of thing from the records the basic clause keeps available.

  • Alt III · JUN 1999

    FAR 15.209(b)(4).

    Alt III deletes paragraph (d) and substitutes a revised (e), removing the Comptroller General's access while the record-retention duty stands; it narrows who may examine rather than what is kept.

The 12 templates that name it, with the line
143CORPDOC 3A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Fixed Price Non-Commercial Items under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 118155CORPDOC 4A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Cost-Reimbursement/T&M Subcontracts under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 120233RTX Flowdown of U.S. Government Contract Clauses Under U.S. Government ContractsRTXline 1078105Raytheon TC-002 — Supplement 1: Government Contract Provisions from the FARRTXline 191166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-001 — U.S. Government Firm Fixed Price Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2200166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-003 — U.S. Government T&M Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2146168Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-004 — U.S. Government Cost Reimbursement Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2235255GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-005 — General Provisions, Firm Fixed Price PO under U.S. Government Contract (Non-Commercial)General Dynamicsline 939243GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-048 — T&M Purchase Orders for Non-Commercial Items in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 832240L3Harris LGL-50.F1 — General T&C and Flowdown Clauses for Other Than Commercial Products/Services under a U.S. Government ContractL3Harrisline 1583273BAE Systems Inc. USGOVA — FAR/DFARS Flow Down Provisions for Subcontracts/Purchase Orders under a U.S. Government (DoD) Prime ContractBAE Systemsline 713178AAR Component Services NY — U.S. Government Contract FAR and DFARS Clauses Incorporated by ReferenceAAR Corpline 370

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.215-2, codified text read at FAC 2026-01 (effective 2026-03-13), prescribed at 15.209(b) with designation (Jun 2020); the RFO Part 52 disposition table prescribes it at 15.110(b) and prints (Deviation Date), so the model text is rewritten rather than carried over (verified 2026-08-09)

This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.