SOC 2 Type I & II Compliance Service – ComplyPlanet
System and Organization Controls — AICPA Trust Services Criteria

SOC 2 TYPE I
& TYPE II Service

SOC 2 is the gold standard for demonstrating data security to enterprise customers, investors, and partners. Developed by the AICPA, it evaluates your organization's controls across five Trust Services Criteria through an independent audit. At ComplyPlanet, we guide you from readiness assessment through audit completion and keep you compliant long after the report is issued.

Point-in-Time
Type I - Design of Controls at a Single Date
6–12 Months
Type II - Operating Effectiveness Over a Period
5 Criteria
Trust Services Criteria Evaluated in the Audit
+40%
Rise in SOC 2 Adoptions in 2024
The Framework

WHAT IS SOC 2?

SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls 2) is an auditing framework developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) that evaluates whether a service organization's controls adequately protect the security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of customer data. Unlike a certification, SOC 2 produces an independent auditor's report and the quality of that report directly affects how your customers, prospects, and partners assess your trustworthiness.

SOC 2 is not legally mandated, but it has become a de facto market requirement for any technology or service company handling customer data. Enterprise procurement teams, institutional investors, and regulated-industry clients routinely require a current SOC 2 report before signing contracts or completing due diligence. Failing to produce one can stall or kill deals entirely.

There are two report types. A Type I report addresses whether your controls are suitably designed as of a specific point in time. A Type II report the more rigorous and commercially valuable of the two evaluates whether those controls actually operated effectively over a defined review period, typically six to twelve months. Most enterprise buyers require Type II.

At ComplyPlanet, we manage the full lifecycle: scoping the audit, building the control environment, preparing your team for auditor testing, and maintaining the program so your next report requires far less effort than your first.

SOC 2 Type I
Design of Controls — Point in Time
An independent auditor evaluates whether your controls are suitably designed and implemented as of a specific date. Type I is the faster path to a report and a common starting point for organizations new to SOC 2.
Timeline: 4–8 Weeks
Scope: Design Only
SOC 2 Type II
Operating Effectiveness — Over a Period
An independent auditor evaluates whether your controls operated effectively throughout a defined observation period of 6 to 12 months. Type II is the standard required by most enterprise customers and institutional buyers.
Timeline: 6–12 Months
Scope: Design + Operation
Security — Required Criterion
The Common Criteria - Always in Scope
Security is the only Trust Services Criterion required in every SOC 2 engagement. The remaining four Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy are optional and included based on your business model and customer commitments.
Required: Security
Optional: 4 Additional Criteria
01
Security
Protection of systems and data against unauthorized access, use, or modification the only mandatory criterion in every SOC 2 engagement.
02
Availability
Systems are available for operation and use as committed. Critical for cloud providers, SaaS platforms, and any organization with uptime commitments in customer contracts.
03
Processing Integrity
System processing is complete, valid, accurate, timely, and authorized. Particularly relevant for transaction processors, financial platforms, and data pipelines.
04
Confidentiality
Information designated as confidential is protected as committed. Covers sensitive business data, trade secrets, and contractually protected information held on behalf of customers.
05
Privacy
Personal information is collected, used, retained, disclosed, and disposed of in conformity with the organization's privacy notice and applicable privacy frameworks.
Applicability

WHO NEEDS SOC 2?

SOC 2 is not legally required, but market forces have made it effectively mandatory for any service organization that handles customer data and sells to businesses. If you process, store, or transmit sensitive data and your prospects ask for a security report you need SOC 2.

SaaS Providers
Sales Enablement & Enterprise Access
Enterprise and mid-market buyers routinely require a current SOC 2 Type II report before contract execution. Without one, SaaS companies fail vendor security questionnaires, stall in procurement, and lose deals to compliant competitors often before the product is ever evaluated on its merits.
Cloud Infrastructure & Hosting
Downstream Compliance Dependency
Organizations hosting data or infrastructure on behalf of others sit at the center of their customers' own compliance programs. When those customers undergo SOC 2 audits, they are required to demonstrate that their infrastructure providers are themselves compliant creating a direct dependency on your report.
Healthcare Technology
HIPAA Plus SOC 2 - A Common Requirement
Healthcare systems, hospital networks, and covered entities increasingly require SOC 2 Type II from technology vendors in addition to HIPAA compliance. HIPAA covers healthcare-specific obligations; SOC 2 provides independent assurance on the broader security control environment.
Fintech & Financial Services
Regulatory Alignment & Investor Due Diligence
Fintech platforms processing payments, managing lending, or handling investment data face SOC 2 requirements from both enterprise clients and institutional investors. Venture capitalists and PE firms increasingly treat SOC 2 Type II as a prerequisite in due diligence, with 70% preferring investments in compliant companies.
Managed Service Providers
Third-Party Risk & Client Retention
MSPs with access to client systems, networks, and data carry elevated third-party risk exposure. Enterprise clients undergoing their own audits require assurance that their MSPs are operating with documented, tested controls making SOC 2 a direct requirement for contract retention and renewal.
HR, Legal & Analytics Platforms
Sensitive Data Processing at Scale
Platforms that process employee records, legal documents, or behavioral analytics handle some of the most sensitive categories of business data. Enterprise clients handling this data expect SOC 2 assurance before granting access, and will increasingly require Type II reports on an annual renewal basis.

SOC 2 has become the most widely adopted compliance framework in the technology sector, with 76% of organizations using it as of 2024 ahead of penetration testing, SOC 1, and ISO 27001. Among companies that achieved SOC 2, 60% reported that enterprise prospects were more likely to work with them, and organizations frequently cite it as directly accelerating sales cycles and removing procurement blockers that had previously stalled or killed deals.

Our Services & Why Us

WHY COMPLYPLANET?

SOC 2 is not a checkbox it is a continuous program. We build control environments that pass audits, sustain ongoing testing, and actually improve your security posture, not just your documentation.

01
Readiness Assessment & Scope Definition
Evaluate your current control environment against all five Trust Services Criteria, define which criteria to include, and produce a gap analysis with a prioritized remediation roadmap before the audit clock starts.
02
Control Design & Implementation
Build and document the policies, procedures, and technical controls your auditor will test — aligned to the AICPA's Trust Services Criteria and designed to hold up under rigorous examination, not just surface review.
03
Type I Report Preparation
Prepare your system description, control assertions, and evidence packages for a Type I audit the fastest path to a reportable SOC 2 outcome and a common requirement for early-stage enterprise sales.
04
Type II Observation Period Management
Manage the 6-to-12-month observation period with ongoing evidence collection, control monitoring, and exception management so your Type II report reflects a well-run program, not a last-minute scramble.
05
Auditor Liaison & Evidence Support
Coordinate directly with your chosen auditing CPA firm, manage evidence requests, respond to auditor inquiries, and reduce the internal burden on your engineering and operations teams throughout the audit process.
06
Annual Renewal & Continuous Compliance
Maintain your SOC 2 program between annual audit cycles with continuous control monitoring, policy update management, and readiness tracking so each successive audit takes less time and produces a cleaner report than the last.
Audit-First Mindset

We design controls with the auditor's testing procedures in mind from day one not as an afterthought. Our engagements consistently produce clean reports because we build programs that can withstand examination, not just documentation that looks complete on paper.

Sales-Cycle Integration

We understand that SOC 2 is a commercial asset as much as a security program. We help you sequence Type I and Type II reports to match your sales pipeline needs so compliance accelerates revenue rather than delaying it.

Multi-Framework Efficiency

If your organization also needs HIPAA, ISO 27001, or GDPR compliance, we map controls across frameworks to eliminate redundant work. A single well-designed control environment can satisfy multiple audit requirements simultaneously reducing cost and overhead significantly.

Business Risk & Market Reality

THE COST OF NOT HAVING SOC 2

SOC 2 carries no direct regulatory fine structure — but the business consequences of not having it are measurable and severe. Lost enterprise deals, failed procurement reviews, and breach costs consistently exceed the investment in a well-run compliance program. The data below reflects current market conditions.

$4.88M
Average Cost of a Data Breach in 2024 IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report
76%
Of Organizations Use SOC 2 The Most Adopted Framework in Tech (A-LIGN 2024)
60%
Of Companies More Likely to Work with a SOC 2-Certified Startup (Ispartners)
70%
Of VCs Prefer Investing in SOC 2-Compliant Companies (Ispartners)
Business Consequences — No SOC 2 Report
Failing vendor security questionnaires during enterprise procurement deal stalls or is lost to a compliant competitor
Lost Revenue
Inability to complete institutional investor due diligence financing timelines delayed or blocked
Funding Risk
Losing existing clients who require SOC 2 from all vendors during their own audit cycles
Churn Risk
Exclusion from regulated-industry supply chains healthcare, finance, and government procurement often require SOC 2 by contract
Market Access
Inability to demonstrate security posture following a breach compounding reputational damage in the absence of a third-party verified report
Reputational

In a documented case, a SaaS founder lost a $2.3M annual contract because the enterprise buyer required SOC 2 and signed with a compliant competitor during the eight months it took to get certified.

Security Risk — No Verified Control Environment
Data breach costs average $4.88M in 2024 a 10% year-over-year increase and the highest on record, per IBM
Breach Cost
Average time to detect and contain a breach without structured controls: 292 days for credential-based incidents
Detection Gap
Incident response without documented procedures leads to chaotic handling increasing regulatory scrutiny and litigation exposure
Legal Risk
Breach notification obligations under GDPR, HIPAA, and state privacy laws are triggered regardless of whether SOC 2 was in place but the absence of controls is an aggravating factor
Regulatory
MSP and cloud provider breaches have downstream impact on every client one uncontrolled vendor can compromise an entire enterprise customer base
Supply Chain

Companies with AI and automation-enabled security programs saved an average of $2.2M in breach costs in 2024. SOC 2 compliance creates the structured control environment that makes those tools effective. Source: IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024.

SOC 2 carries no statutory penalty but the commercial cost of not having it is compounding. Failed enterprise deals, stalled funding rounds, lost clients during their own audit cycles, and a single uncontrolled breach can each individually exceed the full cost of a multi-year compliance program. The question is not whether you can afford SOC 2 it is whether you can afford to compete without it.

READY TO CLOSE DEALS WITH A SOC 2 REPORT?

Start with a readiness assessment and scope definition. Understand exactly what your control environment needs, how long your audit timeline will be, and what Type I or Type II means for your sales cycle.

Contact Us Now