Guidance
Recertification: what a year-three audit checks, and when to book it
A recertification audit assesses the whole management system and its performance across three years. What it checks, and why the expiry date is the deadline.
Read moreInsights
Revisions, deadlines and what auditors actually look for
Written by the people who conduct the audits. No announcements about our own news — the things a certified client needs to know before they become a finding.
- Standard revision
Multi-site sampling: which of your sites an auditor visits
Sampling decides which sites we visit, not which sites your certificate covers. What makes a group eligible for a multi-site audit, and what breaks it.
ISO 9001ISO 14001ISO 45001ISO 22301
- Guidance
Subcontractors and your ISO certificate: what auditors check
Your certificate covers how you control subcontracted work. What ISO 9001 8.4, ISO 14001 8.1 and ISO 45001 8.1.4 require, and the findings we raise.
ISO 9001ISO 14001ISO 45001
- Standard revision
Witness audits: why an assessor joins your audit
Sometimes an assessor from our accreditation body sits in on your audit. They are there to assess how we audit. What that means for your day, and for your findings.
ISO 9001ISO 14001ISO 45001ISO 22301
- Standard revision
How to check a supplier's ISO certificate
A certificate in a tender pack is a claim until you check it against the register of the body that issued it. Four checks, in order, and what each one tells you.
ISO 9001ISO 14001ISO 45001ISO 22301
- Guidance
Compliance obligations: what ISO 14001 and 45001 auditors check
A legal register is half of it. What clauses 6.1.3 and 9.1.2 of ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 require, and the findings raised when nobody evaluates compliance.
- Guidance
What we ask before we quote, and why it shapes your audit
Audit duration follows from the standard, your headcount, your sites and the processes in scope. What you declare before the proposal fixes what your certificate can say.
ISO 9001ISO 14001ISO 45001ISO 22301
- Guidance
Changes you must tell your certification body about
A new site, a new legal entity or a new activity does not reach your certificate by itself. What to report, what needs an audit, and what it stops covering.
ISO 9001ISO 14001ISO 45001
- Guidance
Closing a nonconformity: correction, cause, and evidence
A nonconformity closes on verified evidence that its cause was addressed. What a response has to contain, and what happens while it stays open.
ISO 9001ISO 14001ISO 45001ISO 22301
- Guidance
What you can claim once you hold an ISO certificate
Your certificate covers your management system at the sites in its scope. Where the certification mark may go, and how to word the claim so it can be checked.
ISO 9001ISO 14001ISO 45001ISO 22301
- Guidance
How to read the scope on an ISO certificate
An ISO certificate covers the activities and sites named in its scope statement. How to read that scope against the work you are actually buying.
ISO 9001ISO 14001ISO 45001
- Standard revision
The ISO 9001 revision: what to expect, and what not to do yet
A new edition of ISO 9001 has been in development for some time. Here is what is likely to change, and why restructuring your management system now would be premature.
ISO 9001
- Standard revision
Climate change amendments: what changed in your standard in 2024
In February 2024 ISO amended around thirty management system standards to require climate change to be considered. If you have not addressed it, it is an audit finding.
ISO 9001ISO 14001ISO 45001ISO 22301
- Guidance
How to check whether a certification body can actually certify you
Any body can claim to be accredited. What matters is whether its accreditation covers your standard and your industry, and you can read that for yourself in about five minutes.
- Guidance
Why we will not build the system we are going to audit
Organizations regularly ask us to write their management system and then certify it. We decline, because our accreditation and the value of every certificate we issue both rest on that separation.