SOC 2 for SaaS Companies
Enterprise security reviews stall deals until a report exists. What the examination covers in a multi-tenant product, and which categories belong in the report.
Tailored Report to Fit Your Needs
A well written and designed SOC 2 helps answer most key areas that security and vendor procurement questionnaires are asking about.
The purpose of having a quality SOC Report from a boutique firm helps show that an independent CPA, who is qualified to understand the security and compliance processes associated with the framework, has examined the controls you designed and tested them using appropriately designed procedures that match your business processes.
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What the Examination Covers in a SaaS Stack
What does your tech stack look like? Most companies use dozens of SaaS platforms, so which ones are important to be in scope? "Which ones do you think would matter to your customers?" is the typical auditor response.
But in practice, what does it mean, how should you define this? Typical environments for small business are single tenant with multi-regions, maybe on-prem or colocation.
You may have questions over what a subservice provider is or carve-out methods, we can help explain and navigate you on a path to scope your system correctly to meet the rigor of enterprise customers.
Book a Free ConsultationCustomer Data Isolation
How one customer's data is kept from another's: the authorization model, row- or schema-level separation, and who on your team can reach production data at all. Customer managed keys available? Do you get questions over segregation? How deep do you want to explain these requirements to your vendors? A SOC 2 Report can be tailored to suit your needs.
Change Management and SDLC Processes
Using a CI/CD pipeline? Cool! Let's talk about how we can describe the process to fit the questions your customers have been asking. Peer review, protected branches, automated checks, and deploy approvals are the controls we test as they actually run.
Cloud Shared Responsibility
Using AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud? Nice. But you can't say you are SOC 2 compliant because your cloud hosting provider has one. If you wish to obtain compliance, these key hosted 'cloud' infrastructure platforms are referred to as subservice organizations. These cover some aspects of your environment, but your configuration and adherence to their requirements need to be understood.
The Subprocessor Chain
Do you have customers asking about your third-party risk? How about fourth party? Nth party? Email delivery, analytics, data warehouses, support tooling: each vendor that touches customer data gets disclosed, and your selection, contracts, and periodic reviews of them get tested.
Availability Commitments
If your commitments to your customers include uptime requirements, like an SLA, or if timeliness of your product matters to your customers, this is a category to consider and include in a SOC 2 Report.
Report Scope
Which Categories Belong in a SaaS Report
Five Trust Services Categories exist. You don't need all five and it is uncommon to see. Everything is risk based. Security category is considered standard as it makes up the base of the report. We can talk through what works and what isn't needed. The focus should be on demonstrating how your company operates and reviewing what your customers and potential customers are asking for based on your risks.
Security, in Every Examination
The one category every SOC 2 includes, and sufficient for most first reports. Buyers reviewing a Security-only report see a normal, credible scope.
Availability, When You Sell an SLA
An uptime commitment in your contracts is a common sign, or maybe you are looking to have a future SLA setup. Customer concerns about uptime or quick turnarounds for a business process output they need from your product? We can talk about what is commonly done here to show this category.
Confidentiality, When Contracts Define It
Add it when agreements specify how confidential data is identified, handled, and destroyed, which is common in enterprise paper.
Processing Integrity and Privacy
Worth including only when a customer commitment names them, such as billing accuracy guarantees or direct personal-data promises beyond your DPA.
If you use AI within your product, it's increasingly common to see it mapped against the Processing Integrity category. Those criteria ask whether processing is complete, accurate, timely, and authorized, which for an AI feature means controls like validating the data going in, monitoring what the model puts out, and restricting who can change models and prompts.
The People Behind the Report
We specialize in systems, infrastructure, and technology. We are a firm built intentionally small so that standard never slips.
Jordan Novak
Managing Partner
Tasya Novak
Managing Director
Intentionally Small, By Design
We don't scale by adding junior staff to your engagement. We stay involved because that's the only way to consistently deliver work worth standing behind. Meet the team.
Auditing Technology with Technology
We use modern tools to streamline evidence collection and reduce back-and-forth. Faster timelines, fewer disruptions. See how we avoid audit pain points.
A Process Built Around Your Engagement
No two audits run the same way because no two environments are the same. Learn about our process.
Security is included in every SOC 2 examination and is enough for most first reports. Add Availability when your contracts carry an SLA or uptime commitment, because buyers will look for it. Add Confidentiality when contracts define how confidential data must be handled and disposed of.
Processing Integrity and Privacy are rarer in SaaS reports and worth adding only when a specific customer commitment names them.
Often yes, once, as a bridge. A Type I shows your controls were suitably designed at a point in time, and many buyers will close on it with the expectation that a Type II follows at renewal.
Mature procurement teams increasingly ask for a Type II outright, so the durable position is an annual Type II cycle with the Type I as the entry point.
Usually through the carve-out method: your report describes the subprocessor's role and the controls you rely on it for, excludes its internal controls from your scope, and discloses it so your customers can review that vendor's own report.
Your side of the relationship stays in scope, meaning vendor selection, contract terms, and the periodic reviews you perform.
A Type I runs 1 to 2 months from kickoff to issued report. A Type II covers an observation window of typically 6 to 12 months, with a draft report within 2 weeks of fieldwork completion and the final report within 5 to 7 weeks of period end.
A weekly or daily release cadence does not slow the audit down; it usually helps, because pipeline evidence is generated automatically. The step-by-step timeline is on our SOC 2 reporting page.
We quote one fixed fee before work begins. Adding categories like Availability, choosing a Type II over a Type I, and a more complex environment move the number.
Our pricing calculator gives you an estimate in a few minutes.
Frankly, no. Some SaaS companies win deals for years on security questionnaires alone. The report has an ROI to weigh: your team's time, your industry, the classification of the data you hold, and where your growth plan points.
Once mid-market and enterprise prospects are in the pipeline, the calculus usually tips toward the report.
Get Your
Custom Quote
Our pricing is structured and fixed-fee. What drives it is the complexity of your environment, the key vendors that support your system, and the commitments you have made to customers, along with how you want those aligned to the Trust Services Categories you put in scope. Share a few details about your situation and we will follow up personally, usually with a quick call, to walk through scope and get you a clear fixed quote you can plan around.
Real numbers, a real conversation with a qualified CPA. No obligation.
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Send us the security review that is stalling a deal and we will map it to a report scope, a timeline, and a fixed fee.
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