NDNB provides Southern California businesses in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego – and other SoCal regions – with industry leading SOC 2 Type 2 reports for fixed fees. As industry leaders in the world of regulatory compliance, NDNB has been working all throughout the state of California for years in offering professional services at reasonable fees that all businesses can live with.

Compliance can be an expensive and time-consuming mandate – particularly when it comes to SOC 2 Type 2 reports – so do what other businesses all throughout Southern California have done, and that’s turn to the compliance experts at NDNB.

Want to learn more about SOC 2 – great – then take note of the following critical issues regarding the System and Organization Controls (SOC) framework:

SOC 1 and SOC 2: SSAE 18 SOC 1 assessments are different from SOC 2 assessments, and this you need to know. Yes, they both assess a service organization’s control environment, but SSAE 18 SOC 1 is for businesses providing services that can impact a client’s financials, while SOC 2 is for technology-oriented businesses. You would think with such a clear distinction between two (2) reports that picking the right audit is easy – wrong – and that’s because your clients are often misinformed and mislead on which reporting option to choose. The SOC 1 vs. SOC 2 debate continues to rage, but thankfully, clarity and transparency are coming into play where service organizations are truly beginning to understand the differences.

Type 1 vs. Type 2: It’s also important to note that differences between SOC 2 Type 1 reports and SOC 2 Type 2 reports, and it’s relatively straightforward. Type 1 reports are for a defined date, while Type 2 reports cover a test period, such as six months. Type 1 reports are a great starting point and springboard towards SOC 2 Type 2 reporting, so keep this in mind.

Trust Services Criteria: The Trust Services Criteria – TSP’s for short – form the very fabric of a SOC 2 assessment in that they are the criteria-based provisions for which auditors assess a service organization against. There are five Trust Services Criteria (TSP): 1. Security. 2. Availability. 3. Processing Integrity. 4. Confidentiality. 5. Privacy. Most service organizations do NOT elect to assess against all of the TSP’s – rather – picking a few of the TSPs and focusing on the applicable criteria and related subject matter. Why not all five – because many times a service organization may not have applicability to all five, so there’s simply no reason for trying to assess and/or test against all of them.

Scope: For scoping purposes, it’s important to identify very early on what the actual business functions are that need to be tested for the assessment. While a vast majority of service organizations will try to assess their entire infrastructure, a number of other entities also have multiple business lines and services, many which would NOT be included in the scope of a SOC 2 assessment. Talk to your SOC 2 auditor and other internal personnel for determining audit scope.

Policies and Procedures: Ever wonder what the most demanding, time-consuming and taxing process is of SOC 2 compliance? It’s developing all necessary policies and procedures for a wide-range of enterprise activities, that’s right. Think about it, how can a service organization’s control environment be effective without any documented guidance from policies and procedures? Auditors will demand a rather large list of policy documents for SOC 2 compliance, so now’s the time to get serious about dusting off those antiquated policies and procedures. NDNB provides a comprehensive SOC 2 Policy Packet to all of our valued clients, so contact us today to learn more.

Remediation: No client ever has a picture perfect control environment – and that’s perfectly understandable – but just remember that remediating gaps and control failures is a normal part of the SOC 2 auditing process. From missing policies and procedures – as discussed earlier – to changes needed for critical I.T. systems, expect to spend some time on remediation. How much? That depends on the number of gaps and issues found during a SOC 2 readiness assessment, which can be performed by NDNB prior the actual audit itself. Call and speak with CPA Christopher Nickell today at 1-800-277-5415, ext. 706 to learn more about NDNB’s SOC 2 services.

Why NDNB: We’ve been entrenched in the California market for years, helping businesses up and down the coast in becoming compliant with today’s ever-growing regulatory compliance rulings and laws. We started years ago in California with the original SAS 70 auditing standard, which is long gone, yet NDNB is still hard at work in the Golden State, performing SSAE 18 SOC 1, SOC 2, PCI DSS, and HIPAA assessments, just to name a select few. We offer competitively priced, fixed fees for all our compliance offerings, so call and speak with CPA Christopher Nickell today at 1-800-277-5415, ext. 706 to learn more about NDNB.

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Where to Begin? With a comprehensive, yet cost-effective SOC 2 scoping & readiness assessment for Southern California service organizations. Being properly prepared for an actual SOC 2 audit requires an in-depth assessment of a service organization’s internal controls – your policies, procedures, and processes – before the audit begins! NDNB will successfully identify all relevant gaps, weaknesses, and deficiencies within your control environment, ultimately providing a roadmap for correcting all issues prior to the audit. If you’re new to the world of SOC audits and regulatory compliance, then performing a SOC 2 scoping & readiness assessment is absolutely critical to the long-term success of one’s SOC 2 assessment.

NDNB - Southern California’s SOC 2 Experts

In need of expert SOC 2 advice, a true roadmap from beginning to end for ensuring an incredibly efficient and cost-effective process is in place – then talk to the Southern California SOC 2 leaders today at NDB by speaking with CPA Christopher Nickell today at 1-800-277-5415, ext. 706. With NDNB, you’ll receive a fixed fee, superior service, and a SOC 2 audit that’s delivered on time and within budget.