SOC 2 for US SaaS Companies: What Enterprise Buyers Require

• 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: one independent report your US prospects' security teams already know how to read, so the questionnaire stops being the thing that holds up signature. We get you ready; the SOC 2 report is issued by a US-licensed CPA firm, as AICPA standards require^[1].

No federal law tells a SaaS company to hold a SOC 2 report. The pressure comes through the sales cycle. In Sterling's experience it shows up in four US situations:

• Mid-market and enterprise prospects. A vendor-risk policy that says no report, no production data.
• Cloud marketplaces and resellers. A listing or channel agreement that wants current evidence before your product is offered.
• US investors and acquirers. A diligence list with a customer-data controls section.
• Renewals. A long-standing customer tightens its own policy and now wants what it never requested before.

In each case the report replaces a long run of bespoke answers with a document written by an independent CPA firm.

The outcome: you understand why a regulated US customer presses so hard, and your evidence answers the duty they carry.

• Financial institutions under the FTC. The Safeguards Rule requires covered institutions to oversee service providers: select ones capable of appropriate safeguards, require those safeguards by contract and periodically assess them^[3]. If you sell to lenders, brokers or other non-bank financial firms, that duty lands on your desk.
• US public companies. SEC Regulation S-K Item 106 requires registrants to describe their processes for assessing and managing material cybersecurity risks, including whether they have processes to oversee and identify such risks associated with third-party service providers^[4]. Your SaaS product is one of those providers.
• New York financial services. 23 NYCRR Part 500 sets cybersecurity requirements for organizations operating under New York banking, insurance or financial services authorizations^[5]. Customers in scope look closely at their vendors.

None of these rules names SOC 2. A SOC 2 report is simply the evidence most US reviewers accept for the vendor controls they must oversee.

The outcome: a system boundary that matches the product your US customers are buying, so the report answers their questions on the first read.

• The production service. Application, databases and the APIs customers call.
• The cloud accounts. Hosting, plus the pipelines that deploy into them.
• The people. Engineering, support, customer success and contractors with access to production or customer data.
• The tooling. Identity provider, source control, ticketing, endpoint management, logging.
• Sub-processors. Every vendor that touches customer content.

A SOC 2 examination is relevant to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality or privacy^[2]. Sterling's recommendation for a first report is security, with other categories chosen from what your contracts already promise.

The outcome: the sections of your report that buyers' reviewers turn to are the strongest ones. We build these with your engineers, around the tools they already use.

• Production access. Single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, role-based access and a quarterly review of privileged roles, with a ticket behind every change.
• Change management. Peer-reviewed pull requests, automated tests and a release approval you can trace.
• Monitoring and incidents. Central logs, alerts that someone answers, a written response plan and one documented exercise.
• Vendor oversight. A register of the services that touch customer data, reviewed at onboarding and yearly.
• Data protection. Encryption in transit and at rest, restore-tested backups, deletion that matches your contracts.
• People. Awareness training, signed policies and same-day offboarding.
• Governance. An annual risk assessment, a named owner and leadership review on record.

The outcome: we clear these before the CPA firm arrives.

• Categories picked from a dashboard. Choose them from contracts and questionnaires, not because a tool lists them.
• A Type 2 clock started too early. If controls were not yet running, the exceptions follow you into the report.
• "Our cloud provider covers that." The provider covers its side. Your account settings, keys and changes stay yours.
• A stale sub-processor list. US customers read it, and examiners compare it with what is connected.
• HR left out. Hiring, onboarding and offboarding are tested too.
• Racing for speed. The AICPA's own SOC resource page flags that promises of "fast and easy" threaten SOC credibility^[1]. A report your buyer questions costs more than a few extra weeks.

The outcome: done for you, on schedule. 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 people who consult never audit you.

1. Free gap assessment. Your product, cloud setup, policies and recent questionnaires, returned as a plain report with a proposed boundary and categories. 2. Control design. Policies and procedures written around how your team ships software. 3. Evidence. Effivity, our GRC automation platform, captures records as work happens. 4. Readiness review. An internal audit that tests you the way the examiner will; findings fixed first. 5. The examination. We coordinate scheduling, requests and walkthroughs with the US-licensed CPA firm, so your team answers each question once, through to the delivered report.

Want the questionnaire off your desk? Get a proposal and a Sterling expert will reply.

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
• Clear US Enterprise Security Reviews and Questionnaires FastUnited States
• SOC 2 Type 1 vs Type 2: Which Report US Buyers ExpectUnited States
• How US Start-ups Answer Security Questionnaires FastUnited States
• ISO/IEC 27001 for US SaaS Companies: Win Global and Regulated DealsUnited States
• Sterling in the United StatesUnited States

1. System and Organization Controls: SOC Suite of Services (incl. notice that the AICPA promulgates the professional standards for SOC engagements; "Promises of 'fast and easy' threaten SOC credibility"). AICPA & CIMA. accessed October 26, 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. 16 CFR 314.4 Elements, paragraph (f) Oversee service providers (FTC Safeguards Rule). Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. accessed October 26, 2026.

4. 17 CFR 229.106 (Item 106 of Regulation S-K) Cybersecurity, paragraph (b)(1)(iii). Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (SEC). accessed October 26, 2026.

5. Cybersecurity Resource Center (23 NYCRR Part 500: who must comply). New York State Department of Financial Services. accessed October 26, 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.