PCI DSS v4 Policies & Standards - SAQ D (Merchant)

• Straightforward solution for PCI DSS v4 compliance-focused policies & standards.
• Designed to address compliance needs for Self Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ D Merchant).
• Editable Microsoft Word & Excel templates - enables tailoring for an organization's specific needs.
• Immense time & cost savings - policies & standards require minimal effort to customize.

Don't Write It From Scratch.

If you accept card payments, your acquiring bank expects documented policies and standards that satisfy PCI DSS v4.0, and a SAQ D attestation you can actually back up. SAQ D is the most comprehensive merchant questionnaire, so the documentation burden is the heaviest. Could you produce that today, or would a self-assessment expose gaps? The PCI DSS v4 SAQ D (Merchant) Policies & Standards gives you a running start: editable Microsoft Word and Excel policies and standards scoped to SAQ D for merchants, plus supporting documentation to implement them and stay compliant. It gets you roughly 80 to 90 percent of the way there, then you tailor it to your cardholder data environment.

If your company needs information security policies and standards to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) SAQ D (Merchant) then we can be of service to you at a price you can afford. Our professional cybersecurity team developed a comprehensive and affordable PCI DSS Cybersecurity Policies & Standards that are fully-editable in Microsoft Word format, so that you can add any customization that you want to add. In addition to the PCI DSS Cybersecurity Policies & Standards, you get additional documentation that will help you implement it and ensure you stay compliant. It is well documented that the lack of standards and lack of employee awareness are the leading causes of security breaches, malware infections (e.g. viruses & spyware), and identity theft. These cybersecurity policies and standards templates for PCI DSS v4.0 help alleviate the time constraints and errors associated with trying to generate the documentation by yourself. Our product is a fraction of the cost associated with hiring a consultant to write similar documentation for you. We offer an unparalleled product at an exceptional value!

SAQs are requirements for smaller merchants and service providers that are not required to submit a Report on Compliance (ROC). SAQs are designed as a self-validation tool to assess security for cardholder data that uses a series of yes-or-no questions for each applicable PCI DSS requirement. This product page is specific to SAQ D (Merchant).

There are different questionnaires available to meet different merchant environments. Merchants are required to identify the SAQ that best describes how it accept payment cards. Some organizations may even need to fill out different SAQs, based on different methods of accepting payment (e.g., SAQ A for its website and SAQ C for its "brick & mortar" store locations). If you are not sure which questionnaire applies to you, contact your acquiring bank or payment card brand for assistance.

ComplianceForge sells its PCI DSS Policies & PCI DSS Standards based on the SAQ type (shown below):

SAQ Type

Method of Accepting Payment Cards

E-Commerce

In-Person

A

Card-not-present merchants (e-commerce or mail/telephone-order) that have fully outsourced all cardholder data functions to PCI DSS validated third parties, with no electronic storage, processing, or transmission of any cardholder data on the merchant's systems or premises. Not applicable to face-to-face channels.

Yes

No

A-EP

E-commerce merchants who outsource all payment processing to PCI DSS validated third parties, and who have a website(s) that doesn't directly receive cardholder data but that can impact the security of the payment transaction. No electronic storage, processing, or transmission of any cardholder data on the merchant's systems or premises. Applicable only to e-commerce channels.

Yes

No

B

Merchants using only imprint machines with no electronic cardholder data storage, and/or standalone, dial-out terminals with no electronic cardholder data storage. Not applicable to e-commerce channels.

No

Yes

B-IP

Merchants using only standalone, PTS-approved payment terminals with an IP connection to the payment processor, with no electronic cardholder data storage. Not applicable to e-commerce channels.

No

Yes

C

Merchants with payment application systems connected to the Internet, no electronic cardholder data storage. Not applicable to e-commerce channels.

No

Yes

C-VT

Merchants who manually enter a single transaction at a time via a keyboard into an Internet-based virtual terminal solution that is provided and hosted by a PCI DSS validated third-party service provider. No electronic cardholder data storage. Not applicable to e-commerce channels.

No

Yes

D (Merchant)

All merchants not included in descriptions for the above types.

Yes

Yes

D (Service Provider)

All service providers defined by a payment card brand as eligible to complete a SAQ.

N/A

N/A

You can click on the matrix below for a downloadable PDF that shows the PCI DSS v4 controls as they apply to the SAQ levels:

Not Sure What SAQ Type You Need?

There are different SAQs available to meet different merchant environments. Merchants are required to identify the SAQ that best describes how it accept payment cards. Some organizations may even need to fill out different SAQs, based on different methods of accepting payment (e.g., SAQ A for its website and SAQ C for its "brick & mortar" store locations). If you are not sure which questionnaire applies to you, contact your merchant services provider for assistance or review the official PCI Security Standards Council's guidance on "assessing the security of your cardholder data" to help determine the appropriate SAQ type for your organization - SAQ Instructions and Guidelines.

No Software To Install

The SAQ D Merchant Policies and Standards is a one-time purchase of editable Microsoft Word-based documentation templates. There is no software to install, no agent to deploy, no account to provision, and no cloud environment to configure. If the merchant can open and edit Microsoft Word files, the SAQ D documentation is ready to use.

This deployment model is intentional. PCI DSS documentation belongs in the merchant's own hands, inside the merchant's own document management and assessor evidence workflows, rather than locked inside a vendor's SaaS tool. Once delivered, this product belongs to the buyer.

How Does The SAQ D Merchant Documentation Solve These Problems?

The SAQ D Merchant Policies and Standards addresses each merchant challenge with documented, PCI DSS v4.0-mapped content. It is designed to give the merchant a defensible policy set in weeks rather than the months it would otherwise require given the broader scope.

Cost Savings Estimate

When you look at the costs associated with either (1) hiring an external consultant to write cybersecurity documentation for you or (2) tasking your internal staff to write it, the cost comparisons paint a clear picture that buying from ComplianceForge is the logical option. Compared to hiring a consultant, you can save weeks of wait time and tens of thousands of dollars. Whereas, compared to writing your own documentation, you can potentially save hundreds of work hours and the associated cost of lost productivity. Purchasing the SAQ D Merchant Policies and Standards from ComplianceForge offers these fundamental advantages when compared to the other options for obtaining quality cybersecurity documentation:

How Much Customization Remains?

Given the difficult nature of writing templated PCI DSS documentation, ComplianceForge aims for approximately a 90% solution because it is impossible to write a 100% cookie-cutter document that can be equally applied across every merchant. SAQ D merchants share many common requirements, but the specific payment environment, stored data handling practices, network topology, change management workflows, and acquiring relationships vary, so the remaining work is fine-tuning the SAQ D documentation with the specific information that only the merchant knows.

In practice, customization is filling in the blanks and following the guidance provided to identify the who, what, when, where, why, and how for the specific merchant. Typical customization tasks include adding the company name and logo, identifying the specific payment applications and POS platforms in use, documenting the cardholder data flows and storage locations, defining the cryptography and key management practices, identifying the vulnerability scanning and penetration testing cadence, defining the change management workflow, and integrating the SAQ D policies with any existing merchant security program documentation.

Why SAQ D Applies To The Merchant

SAQ D Merchant applies to merchants that do not qualify for any other SAQ type. The most common reasons SAQ D applies are: the merchant electronically stores cardholder data after authorization, the merchant operates multiple payment channels that span what other SAQs cover, the merchant has a complex payment environment that does not fit cleanly into a more limited SAQ scope, or the acquiring bank has determined that SAQ D is the appropriate questionnaire for the merchant's environment.

SAQ D Merchant requires answering questions across the full PCI DSS v4.0 standard, covering all twelve requirements. If the merchant has a fully-outsourced card-not-present environment, SAQ A applies. If the merchant has standalone IP-connected terminals, SAQ B-IP applies. If the merchant has internet-connected payment applications, SAQ C applies. If the merchant uses an isolated virtual terminal, SAQ C-VT applies. When none of these narrower scopes fit, SAQ D Merchant is the appropriate questionnaire. The merchant should review the PCI Security Standards Council guidance or consult with the acquiring bank to confirm SAQ D applies before purchasing this product.

This Is How PCI DSS Cybersecurity Documentation Is Meant To Be Structured!

ComplianceForge provides businesses with exactly what they need to protect themselves - professionally written policies, procedures, standards and guidelines at a very affordable cost. Similar documentation standards can be found in Fortune 500 company that have dedicated IT Security staff. All information security policies and standards are backed up by documented best practices.