Everything a 401(k) plan audit asks for, written down.

For the sponsor who just found out they need one, the third party administrator who gets asked every January, and the auditor who needs to know where this recordkeeper keeps its certification.

Maintained by the audit team at Ledgerline. Vendor neutral by policy: we never rank or recommend ourselves here.

Your plan’s recordkeeper, and what it gives an auditor

Last reviewed September 2026
Certification
Yes, when Fidelity Management Trust Company is trustee (or custodian for 403(b) plans) and Fidelity Workplace Services is the recordkeeper
Auditor's Guide (2025 plan year), pp. 22, 24 · read 2026-10-01
Package window
Not published. We have asked.
Not published. We have asked.
SOC 1 report
Included in the standard PYES Reports package: "SOC 1 Report (See Section 3.)"
Auditor's Guide (2025 plan year), p. 24 · read 2026-10-01
Auditor access
"For an auditor to receive access to PSW®, a plan sponsor's authorized user must assign access." The manual route is the "PSW® Auditor Access Form" in the "General Audit Documents" tab, attached to a PSW® General Service Request "submitted by the plan sponsor." "Fidelity's Audit Support Team cannot update PSW® access requests and is unable to answer questions regarding access."
Auditor's Guide (2025 plan year), p. 7 · read 2026-10-01
Audit firms named
Not published. We have asked.
Not published. We have asked.
3 of 5 rows come from Fidelity’s own published material. The rest are open questions we have put to them. All ten rows for FidelitySuggest a correction

Calculators

Free, no signup, nothing stored. Each one shows its method.

Lost earnings calculatorPaste a whole schedule of late deposits and get the correction for every pay period at once. The Department of Labor calculator does one at a time.DOL VFCP methodFidelity bond calculatorTen per cent of what was handled last year, not this year, with the floor, both ceilings and the no-deductible term. Comes with the email to send your broker, drafted from the plan's own filing.ERISA section 412Does this plan need an audit?The 100 threshold on the participants-with-a-balance count, and the 80 to 120 election, read off the plan's own filing. Large plans and small.DOL Form 5500 dataSelf correction checkWhether a late deposit clears the 2025 self correction route or has to go through the full programme, and what to do either way.Effective Mar 17, 2025

Reference tables

The parts of an audit that are pure lookup, kept in one place instead of in an auditor’s head. Every row carries where the fact came from and when it was last checked.

Each one says how much of it is confirmed. Most rows are still open questions we have put to the recordkeepers, and they are shown as open rather than filled in with a plausible guess, because a wrong report name costs somebody an afternoon.

What a 401(k) audit costs8,166 filingsMedian and quartile audit fees by plan size, assets, scope and state, read off what plans actually paid their auditors in their Form 5500 filings.Who audits 401(k) plans784 firmsEvery firm that signed ten or more 401(k) plan audits, with plans audited, first-time audits and audit scope. Ranked by the filings and nothing else.Certification directory7 of 72 confirmedWhich entity actually certifies, what the certified statement covers, and whether it arrives automatically or has to be asked for.What an auditor asks for17 requestsEvery document a 401(k) audit requests, what it is really testing, and which of the four organisations involved actually holds it.SOC 1 request paths1 of 54 confirmedWhere to ask, who answers, what period the report covers and whether a bridge letter is issued. We never host the reports themselves.Granting auditor access3 of 36 confirmedHow to give an auditor read access without handing over an administrator login, and how the documents should actually move.

Why you can trust a page run by an audit firm

This site is paid for by Ledgerline, which audits 401(k) plans for a living. That is a conflict, so here is how we hold it at arm’s length.

We are never listed as a recommended auditor here, on any page. Where we name audit firms working on a recordkeeper, we name the ones the recordkeeper itself names, competitors included, and we are not added to that list.

Every factual row says whether it came from the recordkeeper’s own published material or from our reading, and when it was last checked. Recordkeepers can correct any row, and the correction goes in.

If you want to hire an auditor, that conversation belongs on ledgerlineaudit.com, not here.