Standards
Editorial standards
TL;DR. We research primary frameworks and practitioner literature, write answer-first guides, cite uncertainty plainly, and require human edit before publish. AI may assist drafts; humans own claims, structure, and updates.
Claim ladder
We label material statements so readers can weigh confidence:
- Verified — grounded in a cited primary framework source or clearly documented practice on the page.
- Inferred — synthesized from common auditor/practitioner patterns; directional, not a survey result.
- Unknown — practice or figures vary; we say so rather than invent precision.
Where we include “field notes,” they are educational patterns—not attestations about your environment.
How we research
- Anchor definitions to AICPA Trust Services Criteria concepts and common auditor practice—without quoting proprietary firm materials.
- Prefer process truth (owners, cadence, evidence) over tool marketing.
- Separate “usual seed path” from “named enterprise exception.”
- Every claim-bearing page must list ≥1 primary source in a Sources section, or mark the claim Unknown.
- Dollar and calendar bands cite only our educational planning-ranges note—never as AICPA quotes.
How we measure (content product)
We instrument privacy-first data-pw-event hooks (see content/events-dictionary.md): home checklist CTA, procurement ghost, hub stage clicks, and every Next-in-path link. Success is founder path completion and stage clarity—not vanity spoke counts. No fabricated traffic, rankings, or percentages appear in the UI. A collector ships only when explicitly unlocked.
AI + human edit policy
Drafts may use AI assistance for outlining and prose. A human editor reviews every page for: factual restraint, no fabricated statistics, working internal links, accessible structure, and alignment with the disclaimer. We do not publish unaudited model output as attestation guidance.
Updates
Each article shows Updated (aligned with Article dateModified where present). Material changes to cost bands, tooling landscapes, or questionnaire norms trigger a review pass. Indexing follows content/manifest.json (indexingUnlocked); 404 stays noindex.
Corrections
If you spot an error, treat the about page as the provenance contact surface for this portable package; fix forward with a new reviewed date.
Terms: see the glossary. Money posture: disclosures.
Sources
- primary SOC 2 — SOC for Service Organizations: Trust Services Criteria — AICPA & CIMA — Official SOC 2 topic landing; defines SOC 2 as examination of controls relevant to TSC categories.