Starting up with SOC 2: what buyers expect and how to get audit-ready

You’ve been asked for your SOC 2, and you’re just diving into figuring out how to get it done. In this post we’ll share an overview of what organizations are looking for when they request your SOC 2, outline the SOC 2 controls that make up the report, explain how CPAs are involved in the process, and show how automation can help your company earn its SOC 2.

This guide covers:

Why customers and prospects ask for a SOC 2 (and what they’re really trying to reduce)
What a SOC 2 report includes (Trust Services Criteria, controls, and evidence)
The role of CPAs and what to expect during fieldwork
How to choose Type 1 vs Type 2 and plan the timeline
A practical evidence checklist you can use to get organized fast

Related guides:

Key takeaways

A SOC 2 request is usually a buying signal. Most prospects aren’t asking for a “perfect” report; they want confidence you can protect their data with repeatable controls.
SOC 2 is about controls and evidence. You’ll need written policies, real operating processes (like access reviews and incident response), and a clean evidence trail.
CPAs issue the report. A SOC 2 isn’t self-attested; it’s examined by a licensed CPA firm under AICPA standards.
Type 1 vs Type 2 is a timeline decision. Type 1 is a point-in-time assessment; Type 2 adds an operating period (often 3–12 months).
Automation helps when it reduces manual evidence work. It doesn’t “do compliance for you,” but it can keep evidence current and reduce audit back-and-forth.

Why did my company get asked for a SOC 2?

If you’ve been asked for your SOC 2, you might be a B2B, Software as a Service (SaaS), or Platform as a Service (PaaS) provider, and your company likely processes or stores personal or confidential customer information. Your company may work with organizations in the retail or financial sectors, in healthcare, or in other industries that collect and manage customer data.

As organizations outsource various functions of their work (and come to you to utilize your company’s services), outsourcing means that customer data and information is shared among increasing numbers of service providers. With more companies accessing and storing an organization’s data to provide multifaceted services, the risk of data breaches increases.

Organizations (known as user entities) may engage the work of service organizations to streamline their business, but they maintain overall responsibility for the safety and security of their customers’ data. As orgs partner with vendors to deliver key services, they need a way to ensure that vendors are keeping data safe and secure, and service organizations need to demonstrate that they can maintain appropriate security practices. That’s where the SOC 2 comes in.

Put simply, buyers ask for SOC 2 because it helps them answer:

Can we trust this vendor with our data?
Do they have controls that work consistently, not just on a good day?
If something goes wrong, will they detect it, respond, and learn from it?

What is a SOC 2 report (and what it isn’t)?

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) has developed three different SOC for Service Organization assessment frameworks: these are the SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3.

A SOC 1 report documents controls relevant to an audit of a customer's financial statements.
A SOC 2 report focuses on security controls aligned to the Trust Services Criteria (TSC).
A SOC 3 summarizes a SOC 2 report for general consumption.

A SOC 2 report is often the primary document that security departments reference to assess a vendor’s security risk. SOC 2 reports assure customers and other business partners that you have security guidelines in place and that you follow through on them.

One important mental model: SOC 2 is not a certification and it’s not a guarantee you will never have an incident. It’s an independent examination of whether your controls are suitably designed (Type 1) and, for Type 2, whether they operated effectively over time.

What SOC 2 covers (Trust Services Criteria + controls)

SOC 2 is organized around the AICPA Trust Services Criteria:

Security (required for every SOC 2)
Availability (optional)
Confidentiality (optional)
Processing Integrity (optional)
Privacy (optional)

These are not “controls” by themselves. Instead, they’re criteria your organization addresses with a set of controls such as policies, processes, technical configurations, and recurring operating activities.

What controls look like in practice

In a first SOC 2, controls often land in a few buckets:

Access control: joiner/mover/leaver processes, least privilege, admin access, MFA enforcement, access reviews
Change management: code review, approvals, deployment controls, emergency change procedures
Logging + monitoring: audit logs, alerting, incident triage and response
Risk management: how you identify and treat risks (and when leadership reviews them)
Vendor management: how you evaluate key third parties that touch customer data
Business continuity: backups, restore tests, availability targets (if Availability is in-scope)
Security awareness: training, acknowledgements, and tracking completion

If you want a deeper “controls and criteria” walk-through, see your guide to SOC 2 audits.

What CPAs do in a SOC 2 audit

SOC 2 reports are issued by a licensed CPA firm. Their job isn’t to build your program; it’s to examine what exists and determine whether it meets the relevant SOC 2 standards.

In most SOC 2 engagements, you’ll see these phases:

Planning and scoping: agree on the system description boundaries, in-scope criteria, and timeline
PBC (Prepared By Client) evidence requests: a structured list of artifacts and exports the auditor needs
Walkthroughs and testing: meetings plus evidence review to validate how controls are designed and operating
Drafting and review: you review the draft report for factual accuracy (not to “negotiate away” failed tests)

Your speed (and stress level) usually depends on how quickly you can:

Assign the right owners
Produce evidence with the right time range, timestamps, and approvals
Explain exceptions without scrambling

SOC 2 Type 1 vs Type 2 (how to choose)

The choice between Type 1 and Type 2 typically comes down to what your buyer needs and how fast you need a third-party report.

SOC 2 Type 1 evaluates the design of your controls at a point in time (a specific audit date).
SOC 2 Type 2 evaluates the design and operating effectiveness of your controls over a period (the observation window).

Which one should you start with?

Common patterns:

Start with Type 1 if you need a faster “first report” and you’re still stabilizing processes.
Start with Type 2 if your buyers explicitly require it and your controls are already operating on a consistent cadence.

Either way, the timeline planning is critical. If you’re trying to map out the calendar, start with how long a SOC 2 audit really takes.

How to get started with SOC 2 (a practical plan)

Here’s a practical way to turn “we need SOC 2” into an executable project.

1) Confirm what’s driving the request

Before you do anything else, ask the requester (or your sales team) what they mean by “SOC 2”:

Type 1 or Type 2?
Which Trust Services Criteria do they expect (Security only, or more)?
What’s the deadline tied to the deal cycle?

2) Define scope (system + boundaries)

SOC 2 scope is where first-timers lose weeks. Write down:

In-scope products/services
In-scope environments (production, staging, etc.)
In-scope data types (PII, PHI, financial, etc.)
In-scope people/processes (support, infra, security ops, vendor management)

3) Run a readiness assessment (even a lightweight one)

A readiness assessment helps you identify:

What controls you already have (but haven’t documented)
What’s missing (especially recurring operating activities)
What evidence will be hard to produce later

If you want a structured approach, see SOC 2 readiness assessment: what it is and when you need one.

4) Assign owners and operating cadence

SOC 2 succeeds when controls have:

A single owner
A defined cadence (daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly)
A repeatable artifact (evidence) generated each time

5) Document policies and procedures (only what you can follow)

Avoid writing a “perfect policy library” you can’t operate. Start with the minimum set your auditor will expect, and ensure the policy aligns to real practice.

6) Choose an auditor and align on the plan

Audit firms vary in approach and capacity. When you evaluate a CPA firm, ask:

How they prefer evidence delivered (portal, exports, continuous tooling access)
Their expected observation window for Type 2
Turnaround time for draft and final reports

SOC 2 evidence checklist (what you’ll be asked for)

This isn’t exhaustive (auditors differ), but it’s a reliable starting checklist to organize owners and exports.

Area	Examples of evidence	Typical owner
Access control	MFA enforcement proof, admin access list, quarterly access reviews, offboarding tickets	IT / Security
Change management	PR review settings, deployment approvals, change tickets, emergency change records	Engineering
Logging + monitoring	Logging configuration, alert policies, incident tickets, postmortems	Security / SRE
Incident response	IR policy, tabletop exercise, incident timeline and comms template	Security
Risk management	Risk register, scoring methodology, treatment plans, management review	Security / GRC
Vendor management	Vendor inventory, risk assessments, key vendor SOC reports/DPAs, review cadence	Security / Procurement
Policies + training	Policy versions + approvals, security training completion logs, acknowledgements	Security / HR
Backups + continuity	Backup config, restore test results, RTO/RPO targets (if Availability)	SRE / IT

If you’re using automation, the goal is that these artifacts are generated and stored with timestamps continuously, not assembled at the last minute.

Common SOC 2 pitfalls for first-timers

Starting without a deadline or buyer requirement. You can waste cycles on the wrong report type or criteria.
Scope creep. Too many systems in-scope makes evidence explode and slows everything down.
Policies that don’t match reality. Auditors will test what you wrote, and what you actually do.
No control ownership. “Everyone owns it” becomes “nobody produces evidence on time.”
Treating SOC 2 as a one-time sprint. Type 2 especially rewards programs that run on cadence.

Automate SOC 2 prep with SecureSlate

SOC 2 prep gets painful when evidence is scattered across tools and people, especially when you’re trying to prove that controls operated consistently over time.

SecureSlate helps teams reduce manual work and audit back-and-forth by:

Centralizing controls, owners, and evidence in one workspace
Connecting systems of record to collect evidence signals and reduce screenshot workflows
Keeping recurring tasks on cadence (access reviews, policy acknowledgements, training, vendor reviews)
Packaging auditor-friendly artifacts so your team spends time fixing gaps, not chasing exports

If you’re starting your first SOC 2, the fastest win is usually: scope clearly, assign owners, then automate the evidence that’s hardest to gather manually.

Frequently asked questions

Is SOC 2 required?

No, but in many B2B markets, SOC 2 becomes a de facto requirement to pass security reviews and close enterprise deals.

What’s the fastest way to get a SOC 2 report?

Typically, teams move fastest when they start with clear scope, run a readiness assessment, assign owners, and choose Type 1 vs Type 2 based on buyer requirements (not guesswork). For timeline planning, see how long a SOC 2 audit really takes.

What do customers actually look for in a SOC 2?

Most buyers focus on whether controls exist in the places that matter (access, change management, monitoring, incident response), whether exceptions are handled responsibly, and whether your program is repeatable.

Can software “get us SOC 2”?

Software can’t replace an auditor or do the work for you, but it can reduce manual evidence collection, keep workflows on cadence, and make it easier to show auditors (and buyers) how controls operate.

Disclaimer (legal note)

This article is for general informational purposes and is not legal or audit advice. SOC 2 engagements require a licensed CPA firm; software does not replace professional judgment, scoping decisions, or your auditor’s requirements.