SOC 2 for US Payments and E-commerce Companies

• Done for you, end to end

  We write the policies, set up the controls and evidence, run the internal audit and coordinate the independent audit. You deal with one team from first call to final report.

• Simple and quick

  A free gap assessment, then one plan with dates from day one. Effivity, our GRC automation platform, is included to keep the evidence moving.

• 8,100+ client engagements

  In 60+ countries over 20+ years, with experts who bring 30+ years of experience.

• Under US$10,000, all-inclusive

  For most start-ups and SMEs: SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 42001, HIPAA or ISO 9001, including the independent audit. A fixed quote follows a free gap assessment.

Every Sterling consulting engagement comes with the following, so you are not buying extras to get to the finish line:

• Effivity, Sterling's GRC automation platform, with a full-year subscription, to run your controls, evidence, tasks and audits in one place.
• Sterling Academy: preferential course access, with complimentary awareness training for your people.
• Internal auditor training for your audit team, as applicable to your standard.
• For information-security engagements, a vulnerability assessment.

These are part of the engagement, not a separate purchase. The details depend on the standard you are working toward, which we confirm during the free gap assessment.

Consulting and auditing are always separated: the people who consult never audit you. That keeps your internal audit objective and protects the independence of the CPA firm, Qualified Security Assessor or certification body that performs the final step.

Behind this are 8,100+ client engagements in 60+ countries over 20+ years, led by experts with 30+ years of experience.

What the fee covers, and what it doesn't:

• It is the fee for your first SOC 2 report or your first certification only.
• Annual work is always additional and billed the following year: later SOC 2 report periods, and ISO surveillance and recertification audits.
• It assumes a typical start-up or SME scope: one product or service and one main location.
• Larger or multi-site scopes get a fixed quote after the gap assessment.
• PCI DSS is quoted separately: a fixed quote follows a free gap assessment.

^[1] Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: 15-1212 Information Security Analysts, national annual median wage. US Bureau of Labor Statistics. accessed October 23, 2026.

The outcome: an independent report that gets your gateway, billing engine or checkout tool through US retailer and enterprise vendor reviews without a fresh questionnaire each time. We prepare you and coordinate the whole examination; the SOC 2 report is issued by a US-licensed CPA firm, as AICPA standards require.

Payments and commerce software sits inside other companies' revenue. When your system fails, a merchant's checkout stops or a marketplace's payouts stall, so the businesses relying on you want independent evidence. The AICPA describes the SOC suite as the way CPAs give users assurance about a service organization's controls^[1], and a SOC 2 examination addresses security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy^[2]. For a product built to move orders and money reliably, that vocabulary fits closely.

In Sterling's experience, the request comes from:

• US retailers and brands adding your checkout, tax, fraud or subscription tool to a storefront, whose security teams want a report before go-live;
• Marketplaces and platforms that list you as a vendor and review you every year;
• Enterprise procurement teams whose questionnaires shrink once a report is on file;
• US investors who see revenue concentrated in a few integrations.

No US law requires a SOC 2 report. It is a commercial requirement, and the case is strongest when the same questions keep arriving from different buyers.

The outcome: each audience gets the evidence it needs, from one shared body of work. Two different parties are involved.

• SOC 2. A voluntary CPA examination of controls. You choose the categories; your US enterprise buyers decide whether to require it.
• PCI DSS. A payment industry standard. Payment brands and acquirers decide how merchants and service providers evidence compliance, through a Report on Compliance or a Self-Assessment Questionnaire^[3].

A SOC 2 report cannot stand in for PCI DSS validation, and PCI DSS validation does not answer the availability or processing-integrity questions a SOC 2 reviewer raises. If card data is in your environment, we run PCI DSS as its own track, quoted separately, and reuse access reviews and change records where they genuinely apply. Sterling's recommendation: let the acquirer's fixed timetable set the PCI DSS dates and your sales pipeline set the SOC 2 dates.

The outcome: a scope that matches what your US customers rely on, without categories nobody required. For a multi-tenant platform the scope normally names the production application, the data stores and cloud accounts behind it, the people who run them and the third-party services in the transaction path.

Sterling's recommendation for most payments and e-commerce companies: start with Security, add Availability and Processing integrity when your contracts depend on uptime and accurate charges, and leave Privacy until a buyer requires it. Each category adds evidence and examination time.

The outcome: evidence that exists every week of the period, not only the week before the examiner arrives.

• Reconciliation. Your ledger compared with processor and bank reports daily or per batch, with breaks logged, owned and cleared. This is the clearest proof of processing integrity.
• Release discipline. Peer review, automated tests and recorded approvals, with extra care before peak trading.
• Resilience. Load planning, alerting and a restore test that has actually run.
• Access to money and data. Tight, reviewed permissions for refunds, payout changes, merchant bank details and exports.
• Fraud handling. Documented rules, review queues and escalation.
• Vendor oversight. Gateways, fraud tools, tax engines and hosting, each assessed in proportion to what it can reach.
• Customer communication. A defined path for telling affected merchants quickly.

The outcome: we design these out before your observation period opens.

• A period that spans peak season. Outages and emergency releases land in the report; we plan the window around your calendar.
• An over-generous system description. A control claimed for every merchant but run only for new accounts becomes an exception.
• Forgotten integrations. Plugins, apps and APIs merchants install need clear boundaries.
• Unexplained sub-service providers. Your cloud host and processor run controls your customers care about.
• Manual evidence. Screenshots gathered at the last minute do not scale; we automate collection from the start.

The outcome: your SOC 2 report on schedule, with the work done for you. Sterling's record is 100% success and on-time completion across 8,100+ client engagements in 60+ countries over 20+ years, led by experts with 30+ years of experience. The SOC 2 report is issued by a US-licensed CPA firm, as AICPA standards require; we coordinate the examination, and the people who consult never audit you.

1. Free gap assessment. Platform, transaction flows, policies and evidence against the Trust Services Criteria, with a recommended scope and report type. 2. Controls. Procedures written around how your engineering and operations teams work, and help closing gaps such as missing reconciliation records. 3. Evidence. Effivity, our GRC automation platform, schedules and stores recurring evidence. 4. Internal audit. Someone who did not advise you tests the controls first. 5. Examination. We coordinate the CPA firm's requests, timing and follow-up.

Want a plan and a fixed quote? Use Get a proposal and a Sterling expert will respond.

A SOC 2 engagement has one deliverable that no consultant can hand you: the report. The SOC 2 report is issued by a US-licensed CPA firm, as AICPA standards require^[1]. What Sterling does is make sure you get there ready, and that nothing between today and the report lands on your desk.

With Sterling, you deal with one team from start to finish. We coordinate:

• a readiness review and a gap assessment against the Trust Services Criteria;
• the policies, procedures and controls you need, written for how your company actually works;
• evidence collection, so the examination does not become a scramble;
• an internal audit before the examiner arrives, carried out by people who did not advise you on the controls;
• the Type 1 or Type 2 path that fits your deal timeline, and the examination itself, including scheduling, requests and follow-ups.

Our experts bring 30+ years of experience, and the firm has completed 8,100+ client engagements in 60+ countries over 20+ years. You get a single plan, a single point of contact and a clear view of what happens next.

^[1] SOC (System and Organization Controls) Suite of Services. AICPA & CIMA. accessed October 23, 2026.

• SOC 2: standard overviewStandard overview
• PCI DSS: standard overviewStandard overview
• Clear US Enterprise Security Reviews and Questionnaires FastUnited States
• SOC 2 Type 1 vs Type 2: Which Report US Buyers ExpectUnited States
• SOC 2 Timeline for US Start-ups: How Long Each Stage TakesUnited States
• PCI DSS for US Online Sellers and Payment BusinessesUnited States
• SOC 2 for US Fintech Companies: What Banks and Buyers RequireUnited States
• Sterling in the United StatesUnited States

1. SOC (System and Organization Controls) Suite of Services. AICPA & CIMA. accessed October 23, 2026.

2. SOC 2 Reporting on an Examination of Controls at a Service Organization Relevant to Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, or Privacy. AICPA & CIMA. accessed October 23, 2026.

3. FAQ 1473: What is the role of compliance-accepting entities and assessors in determining the applicability of PCI DSS requirements for merchant and service provider PCI DSS assessments?. PCI Security Standards Council. accessed October 23, 2026.

The information on this page is provided for general informational purposes only. It is not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for advice from a qualified attorney about your own situation.

Requirements depend on your scope, your customers' contracts, your industry and the regulations that apply to you. Two companies asking for the same standard can have very different obligations. We confirm yours during a gap assessment, and we update our content as standards change, but you should check the current text of any standard or rule that matters to you.

Sterling consults and prepares. It does not decide whether you meet a standard. That decision belongs to the independent party that performs the final step: the US-licensed CPA firm for a SOC 2 report, the Qualified Security Assessor or acquirer for PCI DSS, and the accredited certification body for ISO certificates. Timelines and outcomes depend on your readiness and on those parties.

Standards and marks named on this site belong to their respective owners.