How to leverage UpLink for SOC 2 Audits

Learn how to use UpLink, the AI-powered PBC to request, query, prevalidate and export relevant documents for conducting a SOC 2 Audit

About UpLink

UpLink is an AI-powered ‘Prepared by client’ (PBC) portal designed to empower auditors by transforming client document requests into real-time insights. Auditors can easily create, track, and manage PBC requests in a centralized workspace.

Pre-requisites:

• UpLink add-on module

Step-by-step video

Start Procedure

1. Click on Add new Engagement to start by creating the new engagement for the SOC 2 Audit:
   1. Manually by filling in required data, including title, client email, deadline, etc.
   2. OR upload the pre-filled UpLink Excel template and populate it with engagements and requests
2. Click on Finalize Upload, and select the engagement to view all Requests for the SOC 2 Audit
3. Your clients will receive emails with secure links to access the portal and upload requested documents
4. Once clients upload the documents, you'll receive a notification and can view the files directly within UpLink in the Active Engagements section
5. In this case, the client has uploaded the relevant policy document for Data Management Policy
6. Click on the relevant request, and a pane will open on the right, where you can view all the uploaded policy document.
7. Simply click on the document to preview within the window
8. Click on Queries to view the all the answers to queries with references to page numbers annotated within the document.
9. You can also view answers to queries annotated per document in the preview window, where they can be individually approved.
10. Once you have review the AI-suggested answers on all relevant documents, you can:
    1. Click on Approve to continue with the audit
    2. Click on Return to request corrections or re-submissions from the client.
11. Once you have pre-validated the documents, click on the 3 dots:
    1. Here, choose Export requested files to download the submitted documents for this request
    2. If you choose Download the workpaper, you can export all the annotations nad answers to the AI queries with sources to documents and page no. in an Excel workbook
12. Once exported, you can now leverage DataSnipper within the Excel workbook to continue performing the SOC 2 Audit.