If you’ve ever been out on the town, you might already know the different kinds of experiences you can have at a dance club.

Picture this: you’ve just finished a race.

“How much time do you have?”

Back when it first emerged in 2011, having evolved from SOX and SAS 70 in the wake of devastation caused by Enron, SOC wasted no time becoming the new market standard for compliance reporting, and it’s partly thanks to its flexibility that it remains such a staple.

You know this story.

If you’ve decided to try for compliance, you might already know that, given how much this space has evolved in just the last 20 years, there are a lot of ways to do that.

The great philosopher Plato said, “a good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.” With all due respect to Plato, he did not have to pay for compliance assessments in ancient Greece. But of course, he’s not all wrong—not even when it comes to compliance—you do need knowledge to proceed towards your end goal of a completed report and successful audit. If you’re someone who is considering a SOC 2 audit, be it due to customer request or just because, you may already understand that this examination will evaluate your product or service on a more operational and security-oriented level.

Imagine this, it's a late Wednesday afternoon and you are wrapping up your previous SOC engagement while simultaneously working on your current engagement. A check of your upcoming schedule reveals that next week, yet another SOC engagement for a client in your area looms. Juggling multiple engagements can be tricky, but must less so if there’s a tried and true process that’s become routine. Here are five easy steps to help an auditor prepare for a SOC engagement.