SOC 2 Readiness Playbook: From Zero to Audit-Ready

Having guided dozens of companies through their first SOC 2 audit, we have distilled the readiness process into a repeatable playbook. Whether you are responding to an enterprise deal requirement or building proactive security credibility, this is the roadmap we walk our clients through — from day zero to auditor fieldwork.

Getting audit-ready for SOC 2 when you have no existing compliance program takes most companies eight to sixteen weeks of focused effort. The process follows a structured sequence: assess your current state, assign ownership, build your control framework, implement policies and technical controls, set up evidence collection, and conduct a readiness assessment before engaging your auditor. This playbook walks through every step, providing a practical roadmap you can adopt as your internal project plan.

This guide is designed for compliance leads, CTOs, and founders at companies that have decided to pursue SOC 2 but have not yet started building their control environment. Whether you are responding to an enterprise customer's compliance request or proactively building your security program, this playbook gives you the milestones, team responsibilities, and decision points you need to move from zero to audit-ready efficiently.

For an overview of the full SOC 2 audit lifecycle — including the audit itself — see the complete SOC 2 implementation guide.

Before You Start: Readiness Assessment

Before jumping into implementation, we recommend spending two to three days assessing your current security posture. This assessment determines how much work lies ahead and helps you build a realistic timeline.

Security Maturity Quick Assessment

Rate your organization on each of the following dimensions. If you can answer "yes" to a question, that area is likely close to SOC 2 ready. Each "no" represents a gap you will need to address during the readiness process.

Area	Assessment Question	SOC 2 Relevance
Identity and access	Do all employees use SSO and MFA for production systems?	Access Control (CC6)
Endpoint management	Are all employee devices managed with encryption, screen lock, and antivirus enforced?	Logical and Physical Access (CC6)
Code reviews	Does every code change require peer review and approval before deployment?	Change Management (CC8)
Cloud configuration	Are your cloud accounts configured with security best practices (least privilege, logging enabled)?	Control Activities (CC5)
Incident response	Do you have a documented incident response plan that your team has reviewed?	Risk Assessment and Monitoring (CC3, CC4)
Background checks	Do you conduct background checks on all new employees?	HR Security (CC1)
Security training	Have all employees completed security awareness training in the past year?	Control Environment (CC1)
Vendor tracking	Do you maintain an inventory of third-party vendors that handle customer data?	Vendor Management (CC9)
Data encryption	Is customer data encrypted at rest and in transit?	Encryption Controls (CC6)
Logging and monitoring	Do you have centralized logging with alerting for security-relevant events?	Monitoring (CC7)

In our experience, companies that answer "yes" to seven or more questions are typically six to ten weeks from audit readiness. Companies with fewer than four "yes" answers should plan for twelve to sixteen weeks or more.

Week 1-2: Foundation and Team Setup

Assign Ownership

SOC 2 readiness requires a designated owner — someone accountable for driving the project to completion. This person does not need to be a dedicated compliance hire, but they must have the authority to coordinate across engineering, HR, IT, and leadership.

Compliance lead responsibilities:

• Own the project plan, timeline, and milestone tracking
• Coordinate with all teams that contribute to SOC 2 controls
• Manage the relationship with your GRC platform vendor and auditor
• Ensure evidence collection is complete and continuous
• Serve as the primary contact during audit fieldwork

In startups, this role is typically filled by the CTO, VP of Engineering, or Head of Security. In our experience, companies with twenty-five or more employees often benefit from assigning a dedicated compliance manager, either internal or fractional.

Define Your RACI Matrix

SOC 2 touches multiple functions. We recommend establishing clear ownership for each control category before implementation begins.

Control Area	Responsible	Accountable	Consulted	Informed
Access controls and identity	Engineering / IT	Compliance Lead	Security	Leadership
Change management	Engineering	CTO / VP Eng	Compliance Lead	Product
Risk assessment	Compliance Lead	CEO / CTO	Security, Legal	Board
Incident response	Security / Engineering	Compliance Lead	Legal	Leadership
HR security	HR / People Ops	Compliance Lead	Legal	Leadership
Vendor management	Compliance Lead	CTO	Procurement, Legal	Leadership
Business continuity	Engineering / IT	CTO	Compliance Lead	Leadership
Employee training	HR / Compliance Lead	Compliance Lead	Security	All employees
Monitoring and logging	Engineering / DevOps	CTO	Compliance Lead	Security
Policy management	Compliance Lead	CEO / CTO	Legal	All employees

Select Your Scope

Decide on two scoping parameters that affect everything downstream:

Trust Service Criteria: We recommend starting with Security only for your first audit unless a customer explicitly requires additional criteria. You can expand scope in future audit cycles.

System boundaries: Define which systems, infrastructure, applications, and processes are in scope. Include all production systems that store, process, or transmit customer data. Document your boundaries clearly — the auditor will reference this throughout the engagement.

Week 2-4: Tool Selection and Platform Setup

Select Your GRC Platform

A GRC platform is the operational foundation of your SOC 2 program. It automates evidence collection, provides policy templates, monitors control effectiveness, and organizes your audit package. The major platforms include Vanta, Drata, Secureframe, Sprinto, and Thoropass — each with different strengths depending on your company size, tech stack, and budget.

GRC platform setup checklist:

1. Connect your cloud provider accounts (AWS, Azure, GCP)
2. Connect your identity provider (Okta, Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra ID)
3. Connect your code repositories (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)
4. Connect your HR system for employee roster synchronization
5. Connect endpoint management (Jamf, Kandji, Fleet) for device compliance
6. Import your employee roster and verify all personnel are tracked
7. Review the platform's control framework and map it to your environment
8. Run the initial compliance scan and review the resulting gap report

Select Your Auditor Early

We strongly recommend engaging auditor conversations early. Do not wait until you are audit-ready. Begin conversations with two to three audit firms during week two so you can:

• Confirm availability for your target audit dates
• Align on scope and expectations
• Get their input on common readiness gaps for companies like yours
• Lock in engagement terms before your preferred firm's calendar fills up

Week 3-6: Policy Development

Write Your Core Policies

SOC 2 requires documented policies that describe how your organization addresses each control area. These policies are not aspirational documents — they must accurately reflect your actual practices as they exist (or will exist by the time your audit begins).

Required policies and their purpose:

1. Information Security Policy — Overarching security principles, roles, and governance structure
2. Access Control Policy — Rules for granting, reviewing, and revoking system access
3. Change Management Policy — Procedures for deploying code changes, infrastructure modifications, and configuration updates
4. Incident Response Plan — Steps for detecting, responding to, escalating, and recovering from security incidents
5. Risk Assessment Policy — Methodology for identifying, evaluating, and treating organizational risks
6. Data Classification Policy — Criteria for categorizing data by sensitivity level and handling requirements
7. Acceptable Use Policy — Employee guidelines for using company systems and data responsibly
8. Vendor Management Policy — Process for evaluating, onboarding, and monitoring third-party vendors
9. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan — Procedures for maintaining operations and recovering from disruptions
10. Human Resources Security Policy — Controls around hiring, onboarding, training, and offboarding

Most GRC platforms provide policy templates for each of these. We recommend customizing every template to reflect your actual practices — auditors will test whether your policies match reality. Generic, unmodified templates are a common source of audit findings.

For guidance on writing effective policies, see the SOC 2 policy writing guide.

Policy Review and Approval

Once drafted, policies must be formally reviewed and approved by appropriate stakeholders (typically the CTO, CEO, or department heads), then acknowledged by all employees. Your GRC platform should track both approval and acknowledgment with timestamps as auditable evidence.

Week 4-8: Technical Control Implementation

This is the most labor-intensive phase. We recommend working through each control category systematically, addressing the gaps identified in your initial readiness assessment and GRC platform compliance scan.

Access Control Implementation

• Enable SSO and MFA across all production systems, cloud accounts, and SaaS tools. MFA must be enforced — not optional — for all users.
• Implement role-based access control (RBAC) with the principle of least privilege. Every user should have only the permissions necessary for their job function.
• Set up quarterly access reviews as a recurring process. Document each review, including who was reviewed, what changes were made, and who approved the review.
• Configure automated deprovisioning so that terminated employees lose access immediately upon offboarding.

Change Management Implementation

• Require pull request reviews for all code changes, with at least one peer approval before merging
• Configure branch protection rules in your code repositories to prevent direct commits to production branches
• Document your deployment process including environments (dev, staging, production), approval gates, and rollback procedures
• Implement automated testing in your CI/CD pipeline to catch issues before production deployment

Monitoring and Logging Implementation

• Enable cloud audit logging (AWS CloudTrail, Azure Activity Log, GCP Cloud Audit Logs)
• Configure centralized log aggregation using a SIEM or log management tool (Datadog, Splunk, Elastic, Sumo Logic)
• Set up security alerts for critical events: failed login attempts, privilege escalations, configuration changes, suspicious activity
• Define log retention periods — most SOC 2 programs retain logs for at least one year

Endpoint Security Implementation

• Deploy endpoint management (MDM) to all employee devices — laptops and mobile devices
• Enforce disk encryption (FileVault for Mac, BitLocker for Windows) on all endpoints
• Enable automatic screen lock after a defined period of inactivity (typically five to fifteen minutes)
• Deploy endpoint detection and response (EDR) or antivirus software on all managed devices

Vulnerability Management Implementation

• Configure automated vulnerability scanning for your infrastructure and applications
• Define a patching schedule with documented SLAs for critical, high, medium, and low severity vulnerabilities
• Schedule annual penetration testing with an independent testing firm
• Implement a vulnerability remediation tracking process that documents when each vulnerability was identified, assigned, and resolved

Week 6-8: Evidence Collection Setup

With controls implemented, we recommend verifying that your GRC platform is collecting evidence automatically for each control. This step is critical — gaps in evidence collection discovered during the audit cannot be retroactively filled.

Automated Evidence Verification

Review each control in your GRC platform and confirm:

• The integration is connected and actively pulling data
• Evidence is being collected at the expected frequency
• The evidence format matches what your auditor expects to see
• Historical evidence is retained for the full observation period (Type II)

Manual Evidence Calendar

Some evidence requires manual action on a recurring schedule. Set up calendar reminders and assign owners for each:

Task	Frequency	Owner	Evidence Produced
Access reviews	Quarterly	Compliance Lead	Review records with approval signatures
Risk assessment	Annually	Compliance Lead	Risk register, treatment plans
Tabletop exercise	Annually	Security / Engineering	Exercise report, findings, action items
Vendor security reviews	Annually per vendor	Compliance Lead	Vendor assessment records
Security training	Annually per employee	HR / Compliance Lead	Completion certificates, training records
Board / leadership reporting	Quarterly	Compliance Lead	Meeting minutes, security updates
Penetration test	Annually	Security / Engineering	Pen test report, remediation tracking
Backup recovery test	Annually	Engineering / DevOps	Test results, recovery time documentation

Week 8-10: Readiness Assessment

Before engaging your auditor for fieldwork, we recommend conducting an internal readiness assessment to identify and resolve any remaining gaps.

Internal Readiness Checklist

• All ten required policies are written, approved, and acknowledged by employees
• SSO and MFA are enforced on all production systems and SaaS tools
• All employee devices are enrolled in endpoint management with encryption verified
• Code review and approval workflows are configured and being followed consistently
• Cloud audit logging is enabled and logs are retained for the required period
• Security alerts are configured and triggering for defined events
• Access reviews have been conducted and documented at least once
• Risk assessment is completed and documented within the past twelve months
• All employees have completed security awareness training
• Vendor inventory is complete with security assessments for critical vendors
• Incident response plan has been reviewed and tested (tabletop exercise)
• Business continuity and disaster recovery procedures are documented and tested
• Background checks are on file for all current employees
• GRC platform compliance scan shows green status across all control categories
• Your system description is drafted and ready for auditor review

Address Remaining Gaps

Any gap identified during the readiness assessment should be resolved before scheduling audit fieldwork. Common last-minute gaps we see include:

• Employees who have not acknowledged policies or completed training
• Endpoint devices not enrolled in MDM
• Missing vendor security assessments for third-party tools
• Incomplete documentation for incident response or disaster recovery testing

Week 10+: Engage Your Auditor

Once your readiness assessment is clean, notify your auditor that you are ready to begin. For Type I, fieldwork can start immediately. For Type II, this is when your observation period officially begins — the clock starts on the sustained evidence collection window that your auditor will evaluate.

Preparing Your Team for Fieldwork

Brief everyone who may interact with the auditor:

• Engineering leads: Be prepared to demonstrate technical controls (CI/CD pipeline, cloud configuration, monitoring dashboards) and explain your architecture
• HR: Have employee records, background check documentation, and training records accessible
• Compliance lead: Coordinate all auditor communications and ensure evidence requests are fulfilled promptly
• Leadership: Be available for governance-related interviews about risk oversight and security commitment

Milestone Tracking Template

Use this template to track your progress from zero to audit-ready:

Milestone	Target Week	Status	Owner
Readiness assessment complete	Week 1		Compliance Lead
Team roles assigned (RACI)	Week 1		Compliance Lead
Scope defined (TSC + boundaries)	Week 2		Compliance Lead + CTO
GRC platform selected and purchased	Week 2-3		Compliance Lead
GRC platform integrations connected	Week 3-4		Engineering
Auditor engaged	Week 3-4		Compliance Lead
All policies drafted	Week 5-6		Compliance Lead
Policies approved and acknowledged	Week 6-7		Compliance Lead + HR
Technical controls implemented	Week 6-8		Engineering
Evidence collection verified	Week 8-9		Compliance Lead
Security training completed	Week 8-9		HR
Internal readiness assessment	Week 9-10		Compliance Lead
Gaps resolved	Week 10-11		Various
Auditor fieldwork begins	Week 11-12+		Compliance Lead

Key Takeaways

• We consistently see that a structured readiness process takes eight to sixteen weeks depending on your starting security maturity — plan accordingly and resist the urge to shortcut foundational steps
• What we recommend first is assigning a single compliance lead who owns the project plan, timeline, and cross-functional coordination — without clear ownership, readiness stalls
• For your first audit, we advise starting with the Security criterion only and expanding scope in subsequent years
• What we tell every client: select your GRC platform and auditor early (weeks two through four) to avoid timeline delays
• Write policies that reflect your actual practices, not aspirational goals or unmodified templates — this is the single most common audit finding we encounter
• Implement technical controls systematically: access management, change management, monitoring, endpoints, and vulnerability management
• We cannot stress this enough — verify automated evidence collection before your observation period begins, because gaps discovered during the audit cannot be retroactively filled
• Conduct an internal readiness assessment before engaging your auditor to catch and resolve remaining gaps on your own timeline
• SOC 2 readiness is a team effort — engineering, HR, IT, and leadership all have defined roles, and we recommend using the RACI matrix above to formalize that from day one

Frequently Asked Questions

Can we get audit-ready in less than eight weeks?

Based on what we see, yes — if your organization already has strong security fundamentals in place. What we tell clients is that companies already using SSO and MFA, enforcing endpoint management, conducting code reviews, and maintaining documented security policies may only need four to six weeks of focused readiness effort. That time is primarily spent formalizing existing practices, connecting a GRC platform, and filling documentation gaps. The eight-to-sixteen-week range applies to organizations building significant parts of their security program from scratch.

Do we need to hire a compliance manager for SOC 2?

What we tell clients is: not necessarily for your first audit. Many startups we work with manage SOC 2 readiness with a CTO or engineering lead serving as the compliance owner, supported by a GRC platform and optionally a compliance consultant. However, as your compliance program matures and you add frameworks or expand scope, a dedicated compliance role becomes increasingly valuable. Based on what we see, organizations with more than one hundred employees generally benefit from having at least a part-time compliance focus.

What is the biggest mistake companies make during readiness?

In our experience, it is writing policies that do not match actual practices. Auditors test whether your documented policies align with what your team actually does. If your Access Control Policy says quarterly access reviews are conducted but your team has never done one, the auditor will flag this as an exception. What we recommend is writing policies that reflect your current, achievable practices and improving them over time rather than writing aspirational policies you cannot consistently follow.

Should we do a readiness assessment with our auditor before the formal audit?

Many auditors offer formal readiness assessments as a separate, paid engagement. Based on what we see, these assessments can be valuable because they give you the auditor's perspective on your control environment before the stakes of a formal audit. However, they are not required — your GRC platform's compliance scan and the internal readiness checklist in this playbook serve a similar purpose. What we tell clients is: if budget allows and you want additional assurance, an auditor-led readiness assessment is a worthwhile investment.

What happens if we start the audit and discover we are not ready?

If significant gaps surface during audit fieldwork, your auditor may document them as exceptions in the final report, or in severe cases, may recommend pausing the audit until the gaps are resolved. What we tell clients is that pausing is disruptive and costly because it extends your timeline and may require additional auditor fees to resume. This is exactly why we emphasize the internal readiness assessment (week eight through ten) — it catches issues while there is still time to fix them without impacting the formal audit.