Description #

SOC compliance is a set of standards developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of an organization's internal control over financial reporting. By performing a SOC compliance readiness check, organizations can identify potential issues and gaps in their controls and policies and take the necessary steps to address them before undergoing an official SOC audit. This can help organizations reduce the risk of non-compliance and demonstrate their commitment to protecting customer data and maintaining strong internal controls.

IT Partner responsibilities #

1. Identify the services or systems within your organization that need to comply with the SOC standards.
2. Review your organization's current controls and policies that are in place to protect data, systems, and infrastructure. Evaluate whether they meet the requirements of SOC standards.
3. Define any gaps or risks in your organization's current controls and policies.
4. Develop a detailed remediation plan.

Client responsibilities #

1. Provide a dedicated point of contact responsible for working with IT Partner.
2. Provide temporary access to the existing environment/IT Infrastructure.

Additional cost items not provided by the project #

1. Recommendations implementation.

Plan #

1. Kickoff meeting.
2. Identify the systems and processes that are in scope for the SOC report.
3. Define the control objectives for each of the systems and processes in scope and document the controls that are in place, including policies, procedures, and other documentation.
4. Identify any gaps or weaknesses in the controls and develop a plan to address them.
5. Implement the action plan to improve the controls.
6. Test the effectiveness of the controls on an ongoing basis.
7. Generate the SOC report with the results of monitoring and testing.
8. Follow-up / closure conversations.

Success criteria #

1. The potential issues and gaps in their controls and policies are identified and the necessary steps are taken to address the issues before undergoing an official SOC audit.
2. The organization is well-prepared for a SOC compliance readiness check and can achieve and maintain SOC compliance.