Evidence chaos
Screenshots and spreadsheets scattered across tools and owners.
Teams spend 60% of audit prep simply finding and re-collecting evidence that already exists.
Prepared for Acme Pay
Audit-ready in weeks, not quarters
A faster path to SOC 2, ISO 27001 and PCI for fast-growing fintech teams.
November 2026
What we’ll cover
- 01Where audits slow fintech teams down
- 02How Northwind worksOne team, one platform, one timeline
- 03Results our customers see
- 04A plan for Acme Pay
The problem
Most fintech teams lose a full quarter of engineering time to every audit cycle.
Why audits drag on
Three patterns we see in almost every first conversation.
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Two vendors, two agendas
Your readiness consultant and your auditor rarely agree.
Hand-offs between firms add rework and weeks of back-and-forth.
Calendar creep
Fieldwork slips while controls are re-tested.
Each slip pushes enterprise deals that are waiting on the report.
Results
What changes with Northwind
63%
less prep time
Median across 140 customers
6.5 wks
to report
From kickoff to SOC 2 Type 1
$184,000
saved per year
In engineering hours
How an engagement works
1
Connect
Plug in cloud, HR and code tools in an afternoon.
2
Close gaps
Guided fixes ranked by audit risk.
3
Audit
Our auditors test live evidence directly.
4
Report
Share a trust page with buyers the same day.
One team instead of two
The usual way
- Separate readiness firm and auditor
- Evidence exported to spreadsheets
- Re-testing when findings surface late
vs
With Northwind
- Readiness and audit under one roof
- Auditors read live evidence
- Issues caught before fieldwork starts
Fewer hand-offs means fewer surprises and a faster report.
Customers reach their report faster every year
2023112 days
202484 days
202561 days
202646 days
Where fintech audit effort goes
- Evidence collection42%
- Policy work23%
- Remediation21%
- Auditor meetings14%
Frameworks covered
| Starter | Growth | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | |||
| ISO 27001 | — | ||
| PCI DSS | — | ||
| HITRUST | — | — |
A plan for Acme Pay
Week 1
Kickoff and tool connections
Weeks 2–4
Gap closure sprint
Prioritized by the controls your enterprise buyers ask about.
Week 5
Fieldwork
Week 7
SOC 2 Type 1 report in hand
“
We went from dreading audit season to closing two enterprise deals off the back of our report.
Priya RamanVP Engineering, Ledgerline
Questions we often hear
Do we need to change our tools?
No. Northwind connects to the tools you already use.
Is the auditor independent?
Yes. Audit and readiness teams are separated by policy and reviewed annually.
What if we fail a control?
Findings surface during readiness, before fieldwork, so there’s time to fix them.
Next step
Let’s map your path to a report
A 30-minute working session with your engineering lead.
Jordan EllisDirector, Strategic Accounts