With twelve team members, a working SaaS product, and a growing customer base, your startup is moving in the right direction. No one on the team holds “compliance manager” in their job title, although security matters. One day, a potential enterprise customer wants to see a SOC 2 report.
What exactly do you do first?
If you’re a founder researching how to get SOC 2 certification, resist the urge to grab dozens of policies immediately. A handful of choices determines what your company needs to document, put in place, and prove, and that is where to start.
Decide What Your First Audit Should Cover
The AICPA Trust Services Criteria serve as the standard that SOC 2 assesses controls against. These cover Security, Availability, Confidentiality, Processing Integrity, and Privacy. Security is mandatory. Whether the other categories are included depends on whether they’re relevant to the organization’s services and commitments. A startup running a straightforward business application may start with Security alone, so long as that scope meets customer expectations.
List the applications, infrastructure, employees, and service providers involved before collecting evidence. A needlessly broad scope adds extra work without necessarily increasing the report’s value.
Choose the Report That Matches Your Deadline
People searching for how to get SOC 2 certified often discover two reporting options. Type 1 examines the design of controls at a specified date. Type 2 goes further, evaluating design and operating effectiveness throughout a defined period. Type 1 may be a useful first step when an enterprise customer needs evidence fast, provided the customer accepts it.
For businesses exploring how to get SOC 2 type 2 certification, the process includes an observation period, commonly three to twelve months, followed by an independent examination. Type 1 is not a mandatory prerequisite for Type 2. Before paying for either examination, check your customer’s requirements.
Start With Day-to-Day Security Gaps
Linking security controls to everyday business activities helps make SOC 2 preparation more manageable. A sensible place to start is enforcing multi-factor authentication for important accounts, creating a documented employee offboarding process, and reviewing access permissions regularly.
Retain evidence of production changes and approvals within the engineering team. Risk assessments and relevant supplier reviews should be documented by management. Write policies so they describe what employees actually do. There is limited value in a polished procedure that nobody follows.
Gather Evidence as You Go
SOC 2 for saas companies comes down to demonstrating that relevant controls exist and, for Type 2, operate consistently. You might be asked for records showing when a former employee’s access was removed or whether a production deployment received appropriate approval.
Reconstructing these records months later is far harder than collecting them as activities occur. With built-in controls, editable policy templates, evidence checklists, and document storage, CertAssist supports small teams manage this work.
The platform doesn’t require direct integrations with company systems. Auditors can be provided with read-only access, while teams upload evidence themselves.
Know Exactly What the Independent Audit Requires
Strictly speaking, SOC 2 is an attestation rather than a certification. The examination is performed by a licensed CPA firm, which then issues the SOC 2 report. Compliance software can help prepare and organize evidence, but it cannot replace the independent auditor.
A monthly promotional subscription of US$225 that covers SOC 2, ISO 27001, and its other supported frameworks is advertised by CertAssist. Fees for the independent audit are separate. Get an auditor’s quote that reflects your business size, selected criteria, and intended reporting period before you set a budget.
What Comes After the First SOC 2 Report
Finishing a SOC 2 examination shouldn’t be the end of your security work. Things keep changing: people join and leave, applications change, and new suppliers arrive. It matters that your controls remain relevant.
Make sure responsibilities are clearly assigned, evidence is retained throughout the year, and documented procedures are reviewed periodically against reality. As your startup grows, that discipline makes future examinations easier and supports the security expectations of customers who depend on your software.