The SOC 2 Compliance Checklist for 2026

Is 2026 the year you finally make your SOC 2 goals a reality? Experts say that information security standards, such as SOC 2, are becoming much more central to businesses. That’s no surprise. Customers are much more discerning about information security and reliability. Competitive pressure means startups and established companies need a competitive edge. And SaaS companies recognize that they can no longer afford the risk of mediocre InfoSec practices. SOC 2 solves these challenges, and more so if implemented correctly. 

So, how can you be sure you’ve implemented a SOC 2 protocol that ticks all the boxes? Here’s a handy SOC 2 compliance checklist to help you prepare for your SOC 2 audit and realize your business’ security goals.

What is the SOC 2 Compliance Checklist?

The SOC 2 compliance checklist is a practical guide that ensures your company is meeting the necessary standards for securing customer data. It helps you assess how your business collects, processes, stores, and manages sensitive information. Essentially, it’s your roadmap for achieving SOC 2 compliance.

The checklist covers a wide range of areas, from securing your systems to ensuring your processes meet the highest standards of integrity. It provides a structured approach to help you navigate the SOC 2 compliance journey with confidence.

Here are the key areas to focus on:

• Security: Is your system secure from unauthorized access? It’s critical to ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive data.
• Availability: How reliable is your service? If your customers rely on your system around the clock, you need to ensure uptime and availability are maintained.
• Processing Integrity: Are your processes accurate? This ensures that the data is processed correctly, without errors or discrepancies.
• Confidentiality: Are sensitive data and intellectual property protected? Confidentiality measures are essential for safeguarding your business and customer information.
• Privacy: Are you safeguarding personal information in full compliance with data privacy standards? This is crucial not only for maintaining customer trust but also for ensuring you meet key regulatory requirements.

The SOC 2 checklist is a valuable tool to ensure your company is aligned with these important security and privacy standards. By following it, you can ensure your SaaS business not only meets the requirements for SOC 2 compliance but also strengthens its overall security posture.

What are the Benefits of Being SOC 2 Compliant?

Before diving into our SOC 2 compliance checklist, let’s take a moment to highlight why understanding what SOC 2 is and prioritizing this security framework are so valuable for your business.

Businesses — from startups to enterprises — that are SOC 2 compliant:

• Demonstrate reliability and top-tier data security: SOC 2 compliance proves you’re serious about data protection, showing customers and key stakeholders that you meet the highest security standards and safeguard sensitive information.
• Meet demanding procurement requirements: Many large companies require SOC 2 compliance to vet their vendors. Being compliant allows you to meet these demands, making your business more attractive to potential clients and partners.
• Gain a significant competitive edge: In a crowded market, being SOC 2 certified sets you apart, showing that you prioritize data security and reliability — critical factors for gaining trust and securing new customers, especially when entering into new markets.
• Offer flexibility to scope in more controls: SOC 2’s flexible framework lets you go beyond the basics, enabling you to implement stricter controls that can demonstrate to customers that you’re going the extra mile to protect their data while strengthening your overall security posture.

In short, SOC 2 compliance isn’t just about meeting governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) requirements; it’s about positioning your business as a trustworthy, secure, and forward-thinking leader in your industry.

5-Step Checklist for Achieving SOC 2 Compliance in 2026

Here’s your quick-reference 5-step roadmap to SOC 2 compliance:

Step	Action
1. Define the Scope	Identify the relevant Trust Services Criteria and determine which SOC 2 controls apply to your organization’s SOC 2 audit.
2. Elect a Dedicated Project Manager	Assign a dedicated project manager to lead the SOC 2 compliance process and ensure deadlines are met.
3. Perform a Risk Assessment	Evaluate your information system-related risks and document your risk responses.
4. Implement a Proper SOC 2 Compliance Automation Platform	Leverage a SOC 2 compliance automation platform like Scytale to streamline the process from start to finish and improve overall efficiency.
5. Work with a SOC 2 Expert Advisory Service	Work with dedicated SOC 2 compliance experts to optimize your strategy and ensure successful implementation.

Now, let’s dive into these points in more detail:

1. Identify core Trust Services Criteria and outline the relevant controls for your SOC 2 audit

A SOC 2 audit checklist should ensure you’ve covered all the bases, confirming you have met all the SOC 2 compliance requirements your auditors will be looking for. 

But remember, before preparing for your SOC 2 audit, you want to be clear about the specific scope of your organization’s SOC 2 report. Only once you have this strategic clarity is it time to consider the finer details of your SOC 2 compliance goals. When evaluating the SOC 2 scope, remember that SOC 2 is evaluated according to the five Trust Services Criteria – also known as the Trust Service Principles – covering the following categories:

• Security
• Availability
• Processing Integrity
• Confidentiality
• Privacy

Managers need to decide upfront which of the criteria and relevant controls will fall under the ambit of the company’s SOC 2 audit report. Security is a fundamental criterion, and is central to all SOC 2 compliance processes. However, the other criteria do not necessarily apply in all cases. For example, demonstrating Availability is extremely important for data centers, whereas Privacy can be more of a priority for companies that manage sensitive user data. 

2. Elect a dedicated SOC 2 project manager who will ensure the process runs smoothly and successfully

Before implementing any SOC 2 controls, you need systems, processes and personnel in place to plan, analyze and implement your SOC 2 strategy, from start to finish. A dedicated project manager should be in charge of ensuring your SOC 2 compliance project runs smoothly. In this role, they should have the authority and resources to implement decisions and track deadlines across the organization in order to meet the SOC 2 compliance requirements. If you don’t have an effective manager driving the entire SOC 2 process, you need to go back to the drawing board.

3. Perform a risk assessment

A SOC 2 risk assessment is the process where organizations identify and evaluate their information system-related risks. In short, it involves conducting a risk analysis and then documenting your risk responses.

4. Implement a proper SOC 2 compliance automation platform

SOC 2 is complex and extremely demanding. Fortunately, technology transforms SOC 2 compliance from a tedious, complicated and time-consuming process into a relatively simple, efficient and cost-effective strategy. 

Preparing for the audit with the proper SOC 2 compliance automation platform in place removes barriers and sets your company up for success.

5. Work with a SOC 2 expert advisory service that can help you devise the right strategy and optimize implementation

You’ve got industry-leading SOC 2 compliance automation software, you’ve worked out a high level SOC 2 strategy and you’ve made sure all stakeholders are invested in the compliance process. Everything is running optimally, without any gaps? Well, maybe. 

But it’s impossible to know what you don’t know. That’s why an expert advisory service makes all the difference. Find a SOC 2 compliance expert with the technical knowledge and hands-on experience to help you devise the right strategy and optimize implementation. Ultimately, expert assistance is likely to save you time and money by ensuring you get SOC 2 right the first time, and continue to deliver impeccable services to your clients on an ongoing basis.

How to Prepare for Your SOC 2 Audit

As should be clear by now, preparing for a SOC 2 audit is a strategic journey that starts with a rigorous process of analysis and evaluation. Some managers may be tempted to look for shortcuts, but experience shows there is no substitute for a careful, deliberate strategy, supported by GRC experts.  

Of course, while planning and preparation are critical, you need to actually close the gaps between objective and reality. This comprises the remediation period, during which you implement the measures identified in the SOC 2 compliance gap analysis.

Now, it would be nice if we could just say ‘here are the three things you need to do to meet each criterion’. But the reality is a little more complicated than that. After all, choosing the appropriate security safeguards to fulfil the relevant criteria depends on a range of factors.

These factors include:

• Budget
• Local regulations
• Customer expectations
• Operational capacity
• Level of employee expertise 

For that reason, no checklist can be overly specific. SOC 2 is different for different organizations. The critical point is that you need (appropriate) processes in place to meet the specified criteria. Your SOC 2 auditor will be providing his opinion whether you have met the stringent criteria, not that you’ve simply followed a generic set of best practice codes. Think about it: you could install best-in-class technology, but that counts for nothing if the responsible employees don’t have the time or expertise to run the software properly. 

In short, you need a comprehensive and customized SOC 2 controls list, that extensively applies to the relevant Trust Service Criteria your organization is including in the report.

What makes SOC 2 quite different? SOC 2 has criteria and does not prescribe the controls which meet these criteria, whereas a framework like ISO 27001 prescribes the controls necessary to be considered in conformity with the framework.

While SOC 2 is uncompromising and demands a high level of information security, achieving SOC 2 compliance as a SaaS business offers a lot of flexibility in how companies meet these standards. Practically speaking, then, you need to ensure you develop a thorough SOC 2 security controls list that meets your goals, without any gaps.

Examples of the kinds of intervention your business will need to make include:

• Creating a directory of staff members who are responsible for specific controls and who are required to act if there are failures. 
• Developing and effectively executing appropriate internal controls. 
• Creating periodic reviews and continuously monitoring controls. 

The Essential Step for SOC 2 Compliance: Get an Objective Assessment for 2026 Success

This high-level SOC 2 checklist should help provide a solid foundation on which to begin your compliance journey in 2026. SOC 2 is a powerful, flexible protocol that will give your company a significant competitive advantage. However, precisely because SOC 2 is so flexible and far-reaching, each company’s specific path will be different.

For this reason, there is no step-by-step guide on how you can reach your specific SOC 2 goals. But, if you can tick all the right boxes of our high-level SOC 2 compliance checklist and leverage the best SOC 2 compliance automation platforms like Scytale, you should be well on your way.

FAQs about SOC 2 Compliance Checklist