SOC 2 Policies and Documentation
How do I write a SOC 2 policy when I'm not a compliance expert?
You Already Know More Than You Think
If you can answer these questions, you can write SOC 2 policies:
- How does someone get access to your production systems?
- What happens when a developer wants to deploy code?
- How would you respond if you discovered a data breach?
- Who decides what vendors you use, and how do you vet them?
SOC 2 policies are just formalized answers to these questions.
Step-by-Step Approach
Step 1: Document Reality
Open a doc and describe what your team does today. Don't worry about SOC 2 language. Write:
- "New engineers get AWS access from the CTO via IAM. They need a Slack request in #access-requests."
- "All code goes through a PR on GitHub. We require one reviewer before merge."
- "If something breaks in production, the on-call person gets a PagerDuty alert."
Step 2: Add Structure
Organize your descriptions into policy sections:
| Your Description | SOC 2 Policy Section |
|---|---|
| How people get access | Access Control Policy |
| How code gets deployed | Change Management Policy |
| How you handle incidents | Incident Response Plan |
| How you pick vendors | Vendor Management Policy |
Step 3: Add the Missing Pieces
Look for gaps: Do you have a formal access review process? Is MFA required everywhere? Do you have background checks for new hires? These are common gaps that you can address before the audit.
Step 4: Use SOC 2 Language (Lightly)
Swap casual language for slightly more formal phrasing. "We do code reviews" becomes "All code changes require peer review through GitHub pull requests." You don't need legal jargon, just clear, specific statements.
The AI Alternative
If the manual approach feels overwhelming, Screenata reads your codebase and cloud setup, then generates policies in proper SOC 2 format that reference your actual systems. You review and approve instead of writing from scratch.