Kanon Vault — The Audit Boundary for Federal Grants
Give auditors proof, not passwords.
Kanon Vault is a secure evidence boundary between your internal financial systems and your auditors — built for federal grant audit-readiness, reporting integrity, and complete documentation traceability.
Request a DemoSee How It WorksWorks with exports from your existing systems (CSV). No direct ERP sync or system access required.
The Problem
Audits don't fail because of bad accounting.
They fail because of fragmented evidence flow.
Most organizations already have accounting software that works and reports that reconcile.
But when audit season hits, teams are forced into a defensive crouch:
It's time to stop auditing your live system — and start auditing a controlled evidence boundary.
- Granting broad system access to sensitive internal financial data
- Chasing documentation across disparate drives, emails, and physical folders
- Explaining transactions repeatedly while managing scope creep and version drift
- Scrambling to assemble binders while the clock is ticking
The Shift — Control the Boundary
Kanon Vault creates a deliberate separation between:
This shift reduces risk, limits scope, and makes audits predictable instead of chaotic.
- your high-permission internal world (ERP, spreadsheets, shared drives), and
- the auditor's need for stable, scoped, and verifiable proof
The Audit Shift
Comparison: Traditional Audits vs Kanon Vault
| Feature | The Old Way | The Kanon Vault Way |
|---|---|---|
| System Access | Broad "keys to the castle" system seats | Scoped, read-only evidence portal |
| Evidence | Scattered, subjective, fragmented | Centralized, linked, hashed (SHA-256) |
| Scope | Expands due to live system exposure | Locked to award + reporting period |
| Integrity | Based on "trust me" narratives | Immutable audit logs & deterministic manifests |
| Delivery | Manual exports and fire-drill explanations | Repeatable, drill-down audit binders |
What Kanon Vault Is (and Is Not)
What It Is
Kanon Vault is an audit-readiness workspace.
It exists to produce:
Every reported number is traceable to immutable source documentation.
Captures how data was derived and why changes were made.
Uses SHA-256 hashing to prove that documentation has not been altered.
- Audit-Ready Evidence Packages
- Traceable Transaction Narratives
- Verifiable Integrity
What It Is Not
Kanon Vault is not:
Kanon Vault does not provide:
We provide the mechanical integrity required for you to defend your own compliance.
- an ERP
- a grant application platform
- a replacement for your accounting system
- compliance opinions
- legal advice
- allowability determinations
How It Works
From Messy Data to Sealed Evidence Binders
1. Import & Stage
Upload CSV exports from your accounting system into a secure staging zone.
Clean and validate data before it ever touches your permanent audit record.
Staging Zone
Editable / Validation Zone
Clean, validate, exclude before promotion
Stewardship
Buffer
Air Gap
Canonical Record
Canonical / Append-Only Record
Immutable once promoted — changes via overrides only
2. Map & Promote
Align transactions to grant categories (e.g., SF-425).
Once promoted, records become immutable and append-only, establishing a reliable chain of custody.
3. Hash & Link Evidence
Attach receipts, invoices, payroll registers, and support files.
Every file is SHA-256 hashed at upload, ensuring the auditor sees exactly what you intended.
4. Resolve Gaps
Use the Gaps Queue to identify missing documentation, unmapped transactions, or out-of-period activity before the audit begins.
5. Generate & Scope Access
Generate a sealed evidence binder or invite auditors to a read-only portal scoped strictly to the award and reporting period.
Structural Integrity
Built for the Future of Audit
Kanon Vault is designed for human auditors today and AI-assisted audits tomorrow.
Future-Ready
Structured Integrity
Every Kanon Vault export includes a deterministic manifest — a machine-readable record of exactly what was included, how it was derived, and what hashes anchor its integrity.
- Deterministic Manifests— Canonically serialized, independently verifiable JSON anchoring every export.
- Structured Integrity Payloads— Machine-readable artifacts alongside human-legible PDFs for every binder.
- Machine-Verifiable Evidence Artifacts— SHA-256 hashes on every file, every manifest, and every certificate.
- Future Audit Automation Readiness— Built so evidence can be verified by automated workflows without system access.
Machine-Readable Integrity
Beyond human-legible PDFs, Kanon Vault generates deterministic manifests and data-ready formats so evidence can be verified instantly by automated workflows.
WORM-Ready Foundations
Built to support Write Once, Read Many (WORM) storage, preserving immutable evidence for required 7-year retention periods.
Audit Trail Transparency
Every override, adjustment, and split requires mandatory stewardship notes, providing the why behind every financial change.
The Closer
Better Proof. Less Exposure.
Auditors don't need more access to your systems.
They need better proof of your activity.
Kanon Vault gives you the control to provide that proof without system exposure.
Audit-ready. Integrity-checked. Fully traceable.
Request a DemoSee a sample SHA-256-verified Evidence Binder