SOC 2 is the audit standard that most SaaS companies encounter when they start selling into US enterprise or security-conscious European markets. A customer's security team asks for your SOC 2 report, and suddenly compliance becomes a sales blocker rather than a distant future task.
This guide explains what SOC 2 is, what the audit process looks like, and how to begin building toward it without over-engineering your first attempt.
What SOC 2 actually certifies
SOC 2 is a framework developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). It certifies that your systems and processes meet one or more of five Trust Service Criteria: Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy.
Almost every SOC 2 engagement starts with Security only. The other criteria are added when a customer contract specifically requires them.
There are two report types:
- Type I confirms that your controls were designed correctly at a single point in time.
- Type II confirms that those controls operated effectively over a defined observation period, typically 6 or 12 months.
Most enterprise buyers want a Type II report. Type I is useful as a stepping stone when you need to demonstrate progress quickly.
The five steps to your first SOC 2
- 1
Define your scope
Decide which systems and services are in scope for the audit. Smaller scope means faster audit and lower cost. Start with your core product infrastructure and the processes that touch customer data directly.
- 2
Choose your criteria
Nearly all first-time SOC 2 engagements cover the Security criterion only. Add Availability or Confidentiality only if a specific contract requires it.
- 3
Run a readiness assessment
A readiness assessment identifies the gap between where you are and where the audit criteria require you to be. Most companies find 20 to 40 gaps on their first assessment. This is normal.
- 4
Close the gaps
Work through the gaps systematically. Many are documentation tasks: writing a security policy, defining an access review cadence, or formalising your incident response procedure. Others require tooling: enabling audit logging, adding MFA enforcement, or implementing a vulnerability scanning workflow.
- 5
Engage an auditor and begin the observation window
Once your controls are in place, select a licensed CPA firm and start your observation period. Keep your evidence collection running throughout: access logs, change management records, security training completions.
The relationship to ISO 27001
SOC 2 and ISO 27001 cover overlapping ground: both require an Information Security Management System, access controls, incident management, and regular risk reviews.
If you are building toward ISO 27001 certification in parallel, the two programmes reinforce each other. The ISMS documentation you build for ISO 27001 provides most of the evidence a SOC 2 auditor needs; the SOC 2 observation period gives you operational proof that the ISMS is running rather than sitting in a drawer.
For European companies, the natural sequence is: SOC 2 Type I to unblock short-term deals, ISO 27001 to build the durable compliance foundation, SOC 2 Type II once the ISO 27001 programme is running and generating evidence naturally.
What auditors actually look for
SOC 2 auditors are not looking for perfection. They are looking for consistency.
A documented process that runs reliably scores better than a sophisticated process that runs inconsistently. Evidence of exceptions that were caught, escalated, and resolved is often viewed more favourably than a claim of zero exceptions, because it demonstrates the control is real rather than theoretical.
The three things that most frequently delay or qualify a SOC 2 report:
- Access reviews that were not completed on schedule
- Security awareness training with incomplete completion records
- Incident response procedures that exist on paper but were never tested
All three are fixable before the observation window starts.
Next steps
If you are starting from scratch, the most useful first action is a scope definition exercise: write down which systems touch customer data and which teams have privileged access to those systems. That list becomes the foundation of both your SOC 2 scope and your risk register.
Askara Solutions' agentic guidance walks you through this process systematically, producing the documentation an auditor expects while your team builds genuine understanding of the controls rather than copy-pasting from a template.