SOC 2 Readiness Assessment [A Quick Guide]

Any company applying for a compliance audit like SOC 2 needs to have a certain degree of confidence. Getting the entire organization aligned with stringent requirements can take months. Moreover, an endeavor like SOC 2 can be expensive. So it’s important that companies know that their prep work is good enough to get them a favorable SOC 2 report and not appear ill-prepared for the SOC 2 audit.

Enter the SOC 2 Readiness Assessment. A SOC 2 readiness assessment is a thorough examination conducted by a service auditor to evaluate how prepared your organization is for a successful SOC 2 audit. This assessment reviews your documents, policies, and processes and identifies any vulnerabilities, giving you a final check before the formal audit.

 An examiner (external auditor) goes over all your SOC 2 requirements and controls and flags off non-compliances and control gaps for you to remediate before your SOC 2 audit. SOC 2 readiness assessments, therefore, are much-needed course corrections in your SOC 2 journey. 

This blog will act as a guide to your SOC 2 readiness assessment checklist – when should it be performed, what to expect from it, and what does it cost.

TL; DR

A SOC 2 readiness assessment acts as a preliminary evaluation to identify and address gaps in your organization’s security controls and processes before the official SOC 2 audit.

The readiness assessment involves a thorough review of your security policies, procedures, and controls. It includes gathering detailed documentation such as policies, network diagrams, user access logs, and audit reports.

While SOC 2 readiness assessments can cost between $10,000-$15,000. However, using compliance automation platforms like Sprinto can significantly reduce these costs.

What is a SOC 2 Readiness Assessment?

AA SOC 2 readiness assessment is a preliminary evaluation performed by an auditor to determine whether your organization is ready for an external SOC 2 audit. The assessment reviews your documents, policies, and processes, identifies vulnerabilities, and provides a once-over before the formal audit.

A readiness assessment exists as a roadmap to ensure that you implement the right security controls, risk management practices, and documentation to meet the Trust Services Criteria. 

The critical need for a SOC 2 readiness assessment

A SOC 2 readiness assessment acts as a crucial component in helping businesses identify weaknesses in their security and compliance. It involves implementing security measures and other necessary safeguards and assessing potential risks. A readiness assessment also enables businesses to sufficiently address vulnerabilities, protect their data, demonstrate their commitment to compliance, meet security objectives, and project a strong security posture to clients.

As we mentioned before, SOC 2 readiness assessment isn’t a mandatory step in your SOC 2 compliance process. But it comes highly recommended. And here’s why:

Inside the SOC 2 audit readiness assessment: What’s involved?

A SOC 2 readiness assessment is akin to a private screening of a movie before its release to test the audience’s reaction so that the director can make the necessary changes. Typically, your SOC 2 readiness assessment will involve 2 steps following steps:

1. Review audit scope and controls mapping

The consultant will review your audit scope in terms of the TSC chosen and then verify how you have mapped them to your internal controls. Each of the criteria has a set of individual criteria and requirements, and the assessment will take a detailed look at how well your SOC 2 controls are mapped to each individual criterion.

The detailed spreadsheet (where you maintain the controls mapping), requisite documentation (such as management assertion letter, system description, and policies, to name a few), and evidence of compliance are reviewed too. In short, this initial readiness assessment will bring to light missing controls or key processes, if any, that you can correct before your SOC 2 compliance audit.

Ensure you have enough time to remediate and plug the gaps before you slot your SOC 2 audit.

Running short on time? What’s the easier solution?

Ace your SOC Readiness Assessment with Sprinto : Sprinto, the smart compliance automation solution, facilitates your SOC 2 readiness assessment by evaluating your control environment and automates your security controls, performs gap analysis, and audit documentation all in a single dashboard and helps you achieve your SOC 2 compliance within weeks.

2. Gather documentation

To prepare for a SOC 2 readiness assessment, you’ll need to gather and organize a variety of documentation. Here’s a list of the types of documents you should gather:

Policies and Procedures

• Information Security Policy
• Data Privacy Policy
• Access Control Policy
• Incident Response Plan
• Disaster Recovery Plan
• Change Management Policy
• Vendor Management Policy

System Documentation

• Network Diagrams
• System Configurations
• Data Flow Diagrams
• Backup and Recovery Procedures

Security Controls

• User Access Logs
• Security Training Records
• Penetration Test Reports
• Vulnerability Scanning Reports

Monitoring and Response

• Audit Logs
• Incident Reports
• Monitoring Reports

Compliance and Governance

• Risk Assessment Reports
• Compliance Reports

Third-Party Documentation

• Vendor Contracts
• Third-Party Security Assessments

To make this easier, Sprinto is here to help you. 

With Sprinto, you can schedule regular communications and immediate notifications whenever policies are updated. The policies can be uploaded to Sprinto’s employee portal, where all in-scope employees, contractors, and interns can easily access, read, and acknowledge them. 

Sprinto’s acknowledgment feature ensures everyone has reviewed the policies, with automated reminders for those who haven’t. This process makes maintaining and distributing documentation straightforward and efficient in your readiness assessment process.

Interested?

3. On-Site Evaluation and Process Review

 In this phase, our service auditor will spend time in your unique environment, conducting detailed walkthroughs. They will review the evidence from Phase 2 and compare it to the SOC 2 criteria. Any gaps found will be clearly communicated and discussed with you. 

If needed, the auditor may request additional time and evidence to understand your processes fully. This collaborative effort ensures we meet the highest security and compliance standards, supporting your organization’s success.

4. Get a detailed remediation plan 

Your SOC 2 readiness assessment will highlight the missing links, controls design, and operational oversights of your controls vis-a-vis the SOC 2 compliance requirements. It enables you to perform vulnerability scanning, risk assessments, and penetration tests. And allows you to create remediation plans for the identified risk.

 The external consultant typically would make recommendations on improvement areas and offer remediation plans to fix the deficiencies and oversights.

Following their assessment, your consultant might recommend redesigning processes, implementing security awareness training programs, and improving evidence collection. Typically, the consultant would write to management detailing their observations, recommendations, and opinions on your SOC 2 readiness. 

Once the issues are resolved, most organizations go for a SOC 2 Type 1 report. For example, if you start the gap assessment in February, you’d correct the issues from February through June and then get your SOC 2 Type 1 in July.

Also, find out how you can automate SOC 2 compliance

Want a complete SOC 2 checklist? Refer to this video and also we have a free risk assessment checklist available for you:

How a SOC 2 Readiness Assessment Enhances Your Business 

A SOC 2 readiness assessment assesses your control activities and helps you align them with compliance requirements, facilitating a smoother audit process. Here are the benefits of SOC 2 readiness assessment:

Reduce scope for errors & oversight

The readiness assessment comprehensively reviews all the aspects of your security compliance. It’s perhaps the most effective way to ensure you have ticked all the boxes in terms of your SOC 2 compliance requirements. And since the assessments detail the lapses and gaps, and make recommendations to fix them as well, it reduces the scope for errors and oversights when you eventually go through your SOC 2 audit.

The assessment gives feedback on every aspect of your business and recommends how to fix every gap. The recommendations may range from simple to complex – from making organizational charts to having your vendor assessments reviewed and approved by the leadership team periodically. 

Better prepare for SOC 2 audit

Since readiness assessment is like a trial run of your SOC 2 audit, you know what to expect in your SOC 2 audit in terms of the questions/observations that can be raised. It also preps you in terms of collating evidence, documentation, policies and procedures, and detailing your control objectives matrix, to name a few.

For the most part, it will prepare you to prove compliance to your auditor. In short, it helps you get better prepared for your SOC 2 audit.

Improve your chance of a successful SOC 2 audit

At the end of the day, you want a successful SOC 2 audit and a SOC 2 report that assures your customers that you take data security seriously.

A SOC 2 readiness assessment improves your chances of getting an unqualified auditor’s opinion in your SOC 2 report. ​​An unqualified opinion in your SOC 2 report means that your auditor did not find any issues during the audit; every control test was designed appropriately (Type 1 report) and operated effectively (Type 2 report).

What You’ll Pay for a SOC 2 Readiness Assessment

SOC 2 readiness assessment, in general, will cost $10,000-$15,000.  This assessment helps prepare your company for the SOC 2 audit by identifying gaps in your current controls and providing a plan for remediation.

Big 4 firms, as expected, would cost you more, while a smaller CPA firm, in comparison, would charge less. While it is difficult to tag a specific number, investing in readiness assessment is a distinct and essential part of your audit; costs and the cost of not conducting your assessment can cause severe consequences.

The optimal moment for a readiness assessment: Take the first step 

It’s best done when you have ample time before the observation window of your SOC 2 audit begins; time enough to rectify and fix the observations from your readiness assessment. So, plan your readiness assessment ahead and leave room to incorporate all the suggestions made in time for a successful SOC 2 audit.

Also check out: SOC 2 compliance for startups.

Cut readiness assessment costs without feeling the pinch

Compliance automation platforms such as Sprinto offer a smarter, scalable, and less expensive way to secure your processing integrity and assess your SOC 2 readiness. 

Sprinto offers you a dashboard view of your SOC 2 audit readiness in terms of percentage readiness. It gives a granular view of passing, failing, and critical checks as well as due tests.  It also gives you an entity-level overview of who needs to do what.

With Sprinto, you enter your SOC 2 audit with complete preparedness. Thanks to its intuitive and easy-to-use user auditor-friendly interface, evidence collection, controls mapping, policies, and other documentation are all aligned and made available at the click of a button. The best part is that the SOC readiness assessment feature is built into the application, which means you don’t shell out extra greenbacks to get yourself assessed.

You only pay for the automation platform; readiness assessment is complimentary. Continuous monitoring and integrated SOC 2 risk assessments are added perks too.

Clearly, compliance automation is the way forward. Schedule a free demo with Sprinto to see how you can future-proof your compliance journey and take control of your security posture.

FAQs

Is SOC 2 certification mandatory for SaaS companies?

No, SOC 2 certification isn’t mandatory for SaaS companies in a legal sense. However, SaaS companies should get SOC 2 certification because it is generally a requirement in vendor contracts and demonstrates your commitment to securing clients’ data.

Who Performs a SOC 2 Audit?

SOC 2 audits are usually performed by certified public accounting (CPA) firms. These firms specialize in conducting audits and have professionals trained to audit an organization’s controls and compliance with SOC 2 requirements.

What is SOC 2 compliance?

SOC 2 is a voluntary information security standard developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) for cloud-hosted organizations. The compliance framework operates on the Trust Services Criteria – security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.