Certification to ISO standards
Certification is an independent audit of your management system against a standard. The audit is done by a certification body, and if the system meets the standard the body issues a certificate. The certificate says what was audited, against which edition, and for what scope.
01Standards
Eight standards, each with its own page
ISO writes the standards. It does not audit organizations or issue certificates. That is done by certification bodies, and the certificates described here are issued by AQC Group.
02Scope
What a certificate covers
It is the management system that is certified, not a product or a person. The scope says which part of the organization the system covers.
The scope states the activities covered, the sites where they take place, and the standard and edition they were audited against. A buyer reads the scope as well as the standard. A scope such as the manufacture and supply of plastic packaging at one named plant tells a buyer what was audited, and what was not.
A scope that is narrower than what the buyer is purchasing, or that names the wrong activity or site, is a common reason for a buyer to refuse a certificate. A certificate that covers your head office does not cover a plant elsewhere. One that covers manufacture does not cover design.
So read the wording of the tender or the client's request, and settle the scope with us before the quotation. The scope sets the size of the audit. A narrow scope is allowed, but it has to be honest and has to match how you describe your business. Adding an activity or a site later is possible, but it is reviewed first and may need more audit time.
The rules for using a certificate and the certification mark are on the certification marks page. To check a certificate you have been shown, use the verify a certificate page.
- Organization
- The name of the certified organization
- Standard
- The standard and its edition
- Scope
- The activities covered and the sites where they take place
- Issued by
- The certification body that issued it
- Dates
- When the certificate was issued and when it expires
03Combined audits
Several standards, one audit visit
Seven of the eight standards are built on the same outline, so one system can serve them.
The seven follow the same outline: context, leadership, planning, support, operation, performance evaluation and improvement. It is called the harmonized structure. Because the outline is the same, many parts of a system are written once and used for every standard: document control, internal audit, management review and corrective action.
An integrated audit examines two or more of these standards in a single visit, against one set of documents. Each standard is still audited against its own requirements. What you save is the repeated work on the shared parts. How much time that saves depends on how closely your system is joined up, and we confirm it when we quote.
ISO 13485 keeps its own clause structure. It does not line up with the others clause for clause, so less of a system can be shared. If you want it alongside another standard, say so when you ask for a quotation, and we will tell you what can be audited together.
- Same outline
- ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 50001, ISO 22000, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 20000-1
- Own outline
- ISO 13485
04New editions
When a standard is revised
A new edition does not cancel your certificate on the day it is published.
Each revision has a transition period. During it, certificates to the previous edition stay valid. The organization updates its system and is audited to the new edition, often at a surveillance or recertification audit.
ISO published new editions of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 in 2026. AQC Group certifies to the 2015 editions, and each changeover has a three-year transition. The dates, what changes and what to do are on each standard's own page, and are not repeated here.
During a transition, which edition your audit uses depends on the certification body's accreditation, so we confirm it when we quote. If a tender names an edition, that decides it. If it names only the standard, ask the buyer which edition it accepts.
05Transfers
Moving a certificate from another certification body
Often possible, but not automatic.
If you hold a certificate from another certification body, it may be possible to move it to AQC Group without starting again. Before a transfer is accepted, the certificate and the records behind it are reviewed. The review covers:
- the current certificate: its standard and edition, its scope, its dates and the body that issued it
- the latest audit reports
- any open nonconformities
- any complaints received, and how they were handled
Whether a transfer can be accepted depends on the accreditation of the body that issued the certificate and on the status of the certificate. A suspended certificate cannot be transferred. After the review the transfer can be accepted, or a further audit may be needed first. AQC Group's own transfer rules apply.
Talk to us before you end your agreement with your current body, and do not let the certificate expire while a transfer is being arranged. To start, send us a copy of the certificate and the latest audit report.
06Next
Two places to go from here
How certification works
The whole path from application to recertification: what we ask, what the auditor does, what happens when something is found, and what affects the time an audit takes.
How certification worksFind your standard
A short set of questions about your industry, what is driving the request and where you are now. You get the standards that fit, and the reason for each.
Find your standardSend us the wording your client used.
Tell us the standard, the edition and the scope your client or tender asks for. We will tell you what the audit involves.