SOC Requirements: A Complete Guide

Quick Answer: SOC compliance requirements are defined by the AICPA's Trust Services Criteria and cover five core areas: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. Security is the only mandatory criterion. You choose the remaining ones based on what your business does and what customers need to see.

SOC 2 compliance is built around five Trust Services Criteria, with security as the non-negotiable baseline for every audit. The other four criteria are optional and selected based on your specific services, customer commitments, and risk profile. Meeting these SOC requirements takes policy development, technical controls, evidence collection, and continuous monitoring. This guide covers the requirements, where companies get stuck, and your options for getting compliant.

Key Takeaways

• SOC 2 compliance is governed by the AICPA's Trust Services Criteria, which require security for every audit and provide four additional criteria based on your business context.
• The biggest challenge most companies face is not the requirements themselves but collecting and organizing audit evidence across systems, teams, and tools.
• Getting from zero to a SOC 2 Type 2 report realistically takes 8 months or more, including implementation and the observation period.
• Building compliance in-house means hiring staff at $84K to $132K or more per person, plus months of ramp time before any real progress begins.
• A managed compliance partner handles the full process for you, from gap assessment through auditor coordination, at a fraction of the cost of a single internal hire.

What Are SOC Compliance Requirements?

SOC 2 compliance requirements are defined by the AICPA and organized into five Trust Services Criteria. Every SOC 2 audit must include the Security criterion. The other four are optional and selected based on your organization's work and the commitments you make to customers.

Here is a breakdown of each criterion:

The Security criterion alone covers dozens of controls across access management, change management, risk assessment, monitoring, and incident response. When you add other criteria, the scope and evidence requirements grow accordingly.

Most B2B SaaS companies start with Security only. If your business handles financial transactions, you may need Processing Integrity. If you store sensitive customer data long-term, Confidentiality is worth adding. The SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria page has a deeper breakdown of how to choose the right ones for your audit.

One more distinction worth understanding before you start: SOC 2 Type 1 reports on whether your controls are designed correctly at a single point in time. SOC 2 Type 2 covers whether those controls actually operated effectively over a period of time, typically six to twelve months. Enterprise buyers almost always require Type 2.

Challenges Companies Face When Getting SOC Compliant

Most organizations underestimate what SOC certification requirements actually demand until they are already in the middle of the process. Here are the most common places things slow down.

• Underestimating scope: SOC audit requirements touch IT, HR, legal, and operations simultaneously, and most companies are not prepared for how many teams need to be involved.
• Evidence collection volume: Type 2 audits require continuous evidence over months, not a one-time snapshot. Gathering screenshots, logs, and records across every control is time-consuming.
• Choosing the wrong TSC scope: Adding criteria that are not necessary inflates the audit scope and cost. Leaving out criteria your customers expect creates problems after the report is issued.
• No internal expertise: SOC 2 spans security engineering, policy writing, vendor management, and auditor communication. Few small or mid-sized teams have all of that in-house.
• Ongoing burden: SOC type 2 requirements do not end at certification. Continuous monitoring, annual audits, and policy updates are a permanent part of maintaining your report.
• Auditor back-and-forth: Remediation cycles during the audit observation period can stretch your timeline by weeks or months if gaps are found late.

What Does It Take to Meet SOC Compliance Requirements?

Meeting SOC compliance requirements is not a one-time project. It involves building systems, maintaining them, and proving they work over time. The sections below cover the four main areas of effort involved.

Documentation and Policy Development

You need written policies covering access control, incident response, change management, vendor management, and more before an auditor can evaluate your controls. BEMO creates 18 or more IT policies during implementation, which gives your audit a solid foundation. Without documented policies, you cannot demonstrate that your controls are operating as intended.

Technical Controls and Tooling

SOC audit requirements depend on having the right technical controls in place and configured correctly. This includes multi-factor authentication, encryption at rest and in transit, endpoint protection, logging, and vulnerability management. Choosing the right tools and integrating them with a GRC platform like Drata is a significant technical effort on its own.

Ongoing Monitoring and Maintenance

A SOC 2 Type 2 report covers how your controls performed over time, which means you need continuous monitoring throughout the observation period. That includes reviewing access logs, tracking security incidents, managing vendor compliance, and keeping policies current. This is where many companies fall behind after their initial implementation.

Auditor Coordination and Evidence Collection

Working with a third-party auditor requires organizing evidence across every control in scope, responding to findings, and managing remediation timelines. If you are working with auditors like Sensiba, A-LIGN, or Johanson Group, the coordination process is detailed and iterative. Having someone who knows what auditors look for makes a measurable difference in how smoothly the audit runs.

In-House vs Managed: Approaches to SOC Compliance

There is no single right way to approach SOC compliance requirements. The best path depends on your team's capacity, your timeline, and your budget. Here is an honest look at the three most common approaches.

DIY gives you full control but requires significant internal resources. GRC platforms like Drata or Vanta automate evidence collection and surface gaps, but you still own the work. A managed compliance partner takes on the implementation and ongoing management for you, which is why many growing companies choose that path when they are under deadline pressure or short on internal bandwidth.

If you are weighing your options, the article on how to choose a compliance provider covers what to look for before you commit.

Getting Started With SOC Compliance

Getting your SOC certification requirements met follows a predictable sequence when you have the right structure in place.

1. Book a GAP Assessment: Start by evaluating your current security posture against SOC requirements. This identifies what you already have, what is missing, and where the highest-priority gaps are.

1. Get Your Implementation Roadmap: Once gaps are identified, you get a prioritized plan covering the controls to build, tools to deploy, policies to write, and a realistic timeline for reaching your audit-ready state.

1. Deploy Controls: This phase covers security control implementation, environment configuration, GRC automation setup, and documentation development. It is the most hands-on part of the process.

1. Achieve and Maintain Compliance: After your controls are in place and the observation period is complete, your auditor issues your SOC 2 report. From there, ongoing maintenance keeps your controls current and your annual audit on track.

Why Choose BEMO for SOC Compliance

The challenges covered above, scope creep, evidence collection, auditor coordination, and ongoing maintenance, are exactly what BEMO is built to handle. BEMO is a SOC 2 Type 2 certified company itself, which means the team has gone through the same process they manage for clients. That firsthand experience shapes how BEMO approaches every engagement.

Here is what you get when you work with BEMO on SOC compliance:

• Dedicated team assigned to your account: Customer Success Manager, Project Manager, Delivery Engineer, Security Engineer, SOC Analyst, IT Manager, Support Engineer, and virtual CISO.
• Microsoft-native security stack: Built on M365, Entra ID, Purview, Sentinel, Intune, and Defender, with GRC automation through Drata.
• Full auditor coordination: BEMO works directly with auditors including Sensiba, A-LIGN, and Johanson Group on your behalf.
• 8-month implementation timeline: With bi-weekly status meetings and a 72-hour SLA for remediation.
• 24/7 SOC monitoring: AI reviews 100,000 or more monthly logs, with approximately 100 per month human-verified by BEMO's SOC analysts.
• Cost advantage: Starting at approximately $4,800 per month compared to $84K to $132K or more for a single in-house compliance hire, not counting hiring time or onboarding.
• Proven track record: 2023 Microsoft US Partner of the Year, Inc. 5000 four consecutive years, and featured by Satya Nadella at Microsoft Secure 2024 Summit.

BEMO also supports multi-framework compliance, so if you need ISO 27001 alongside your SOC 2, your team does not have to start from scratch.

Start Your SOC 2 Compliance Journey

BEMO handles SOC compliance from gap assessment to audit coordination, with a dedicated team that owns the outcome. You do not need to hire internally or figure out the process on your own.

Book a meeting with BEMO to get started with a GAP assessment and a clear path to your SOC 2 report.

Frequently Asked Questions About SOC Compliance Requirements

What are the core SOC compliance requirements?

SOC 2 compliance requirements are organized around the AICPA's five Trust Services Criteria: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. Security is mandatory for every SOC 2 audit. The remaining four are selected based on your services and what your customers expect to see in your report.

What is the difference between SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2 requirements?

SOC Type 2 requirements go beyond Type 1 by requiring you to demonstrate that your controls operated effectively over a defined observation period, typically six to twelve months. Type 1 only confirms that controls are designed correctly at a single point in time. Most enterprise buyers and procurement teams require a Type 2 report before signing contracts. You can read more about the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 before deciding which to pursue first.

How long does it take to get SOC 2 certified?

A realistic timeline for initial SOC 2 implementation and certification is around eight months when working with a managed compliance partner. Going the DIY route typically takes twelve to eighteen months or longer, depending on your team's capacity and how quickly gaps can be remediated.

What does a SOC GAP assessment include?

A GAP assessment evaluates your current security controls against SOC audit requirements and identifies what is missing or misconfigured. It covers your IT infrastructure, access controls, data management practices, and existing policies. The output is a prioritized remediation plan that gives you a clear starting point.

Do small businesses need SOC 2 certification?

If you sell software or services to enterprise customers, the answer is almost always yes. Enterprise procurement teams increasingly require SOC 2 reports before signing contracts, and the absence of one can stall or kill deals entirely. SOC 2 is not just a security exercise; it is a business requirement for many B2B companies at the growth stage.

What team is assigned when working with BEMO on SOC compliance?

Every BEMO client gets a dedicated team that includes a Customer Success Manager, Project Manager, Delivery Engineer, Security Engineer, SOC Analyst, IT Manager, Support Engineer, and virtual CISO. This multi-role structure means you are not dependent on a single point of contact and have the right expertise available at every stage of your SOC compliance journey.

Can BEMO handle more than one compliance framework at a time?

Yes. BEMO manages compliance across SOC 2, ISO 27001, CMMC, HIPAA, GDPR, and NIST 800-171. If your business needs multiple certifications, BEMO can run them in parallel using a shared control set where frameworks overlap, which reduces the total effort and cost compared to treating each framework as a separate project.