SOC Reporting Services

What is a SOC Report?

System & Organizational Controls (SOC) reports are internal control reports that outline the services that are being provided by a service organization and the controls related to the service that is being offered. This provides valuable information to potential customers and allows the service organization to build trust and confidence around their service offerings. A Service Auditor's Report can help a service organization to:

• Build trust with customers
• Be a key differentiator to prospective clients
• Ensure that all requests from user organizations and their auditors rely on the SOC report

SOC reports are intended to build consumer trust, and are required or beneficial for organizations such as: Data Centers, Loan Servicing, Payroll, Medical Claims, SaaS, Software Developers, etc. Not all SOC reports are alike. These documents come in the following variations:

SOC 1 Report

A SOC 1 report examines internal controls at a service organization that impact a user entity’s (your customers) controls over financial reporting. This report is only to be issued when an auditor of your customer needs to gain comfort with your controls to be able to issue audited financial statements. This report can only be used by the auditors of user entities and user entities’ management.

SOC 2 Report

The SOC 2 report deals specifically with controls related to Security, Confidentiality, Privacy, Availability, and Processing Integrity and are known as the 5 Trust Services Criteria (TSC). SOC 2 reports provide organizations with a broad range of information and assurance in regards to the controls and organization has in place for their systems that deal with the information processed by these systems.

SOC 3 Report

The SOC 3 report is intended to be publicly shareable, and can be provided to clients or posted on an organization's website to boost consumer confidence in the organization's controls, whereas the SOC 1 & 2 can't be publicly shared. SOC 3 covers the same areas as SOC 2, but the report removes confidential information and details.