Introduction
"Can you send us your SOC 2 report?" — the question that turns a promising enterprise deal into a multi-month delay. SOC 2 has become the baseline security credential for B2B SaaS, and the companies that achieve it fastest close more enterprise deals. This guide gives you an honest, realistic roadmap to SOC 2 Type II.
- Honest caveat: "SOC 2 in 90 days" refers to being Type II observation-period-ready, not having a published report. The 6–12 month observation period still applies. This timeline gets you ready to start — and gets your Type I done fast.
Understanding the Timeline: Type I vs. Type II
SOC 2 Type I SOC 2 Type II
What it proves Controls are suitably designed at a point in Controls time operated effectively for 6–12 months
Time to achieve 4–8 weeks (with Iron Fort) 6–12 months after Type I
Value Satisfies initial procurement security reviews Required for most enterprise contracts
Observation period None — point-in-time Minimum 6 months (12 recommended)
Cost (audit fees) $8,000–$20,000 $20,000–$50,000
The 90-Day Roadmap
Weeks 1–2 — Scoping & Setup
- Define your SOC 2 scope boundary (systems, services, geographic locations)
- Select Trust Service Criteria relevant to your product and customer contracts
- Connect infrastructure to Iron Fort (AWS, GCP, Azure, GitHub, Okta)
- Generate initial control inventory and gap analysis
Weeks 3–5 — Policy & Controls Gap
- Draft or import all required policies using Iron Fort's policy library
- Identify control gaps with prioritized remediation tasks
- Assign ownership of each control to engineering, IT, or HR
- Set up vendor risk management — identify all in-scope vendors
Weeks 6–9 — Remediation
- Implement missing controls (MFA, logging, access reviews, encryption)
- Complete policy approval workflows in Iron Fort
- Conduct workforce security training with completion tracking
- Execute vendor questionnaires for all in-scope vendors
Weeks 10–12 — Type I Readiness
- Run Iron Fort's pre-audit readiness check
- Engage auditor and share evidence vault access
- Complete auditor requests and resolve findings
- Receive SOC 2 Type I report
The 5 Most Common SOC 2 Delays (and How to Avoid Them)
- Scope creep: Define scope tightly. Start with your core SaaS product and the systems that directly support it. Add additional systems after Type I.
- Missing vendor reviews: Get your vendor list done in Week 1. SOC 2 CC9.2 (vendor management) is the most commonly missed control at audit time.
- Policy bottlenecks: Use a policy library and template-driven drafting. Don't write policies from scratch — it adds weeks and introduces gaps.
- Evidence scrambles: Use continuous evidence collection (Iron Fort). Manual evidence collection adds 3–6 weeks of sprint work at audit time.
- Auditor availability: Book your auditor in Week 4, not Week 10. Good SOC 2 auditors are booked 8–12 weeks out.
Book a Free SOC 2 Scoping Call
Iron Fort gets SaaS companies to Type I in 30 days and Type II-ready in under 6 months. Book a free scoping call at goironfort.com/demo — walk away with a project plan specific to your stack.