What does ISO 9001 Certification cost?

Have you been considering investing in ISO 9001? Are you worried about the cost of becoming certified? Perhaps your business is an SME and you are concerned that ISO is only for larger organisations?

Regardless of your business size or the sector that you operate in, we all have a budget to stick to. This is where Compliant’s flexible payment plans come in.

We offer payment options including a 20% deposit followed by flexible monthly payments and can pass preferential rates from partnering certification bodies directly onto our clients.

Our prices are based entirely on the certifying body’s costs and all of our ISO certifications are UKAS certified.

Cost of ISO certification

In choosing to implement ISO 9001:2015 you are investing in a quality management system that follows a thorough set of process and procedures. If you decide to partner with Compliant, we can supply bespoke processes and procedures for your organisation and make recommendations on how these can be successfully embedded.

The entire process of UKAS certified ISO certification helps reduce risks, lowers operating costs and improves the relationships between the stakeholders within your business. The benefits arising from ISO certification will go far beyond any upfront costs you are likely to incur.

Any size or type of business can implement ISO 9001; the procedures and processes are identical regardless of the organisation. The challenge comes with the business’ ability to effectively embed the certification across the company and ensure that all members of staff understand the value of the certification and their responsibilities.

Here at Compliant we are happy to offer a FREE, no obligation quote for ISO 9001 to help you get a better idea of how much the certification will cost your business.

Following on from your quote we recommend a 30-minute teams meeting with our BSI Lead Auditor, Mark Henderson who will guide you through the entire process.

The Quote

Your quotation will differ depending on a wide range of variables. This includes the type of organisation, the rates of the certification body, the standard of certification that you need, and many more. Your bespoke quote includes the number of days for audits, which is multiplied by the daily rate of the certification body. As mentioned before we enjoy many preferential day rates from our certification body partners that we can pass directly onto clients.

The quote is broken down into the cost of certification for stage 1 and stage 2 audits. Also, the ongoing maintenance costs are shown, including surveillance and audit prices.

It is well known that non UKAS certified certifications may be slightly cheaper than UKAS certified certifications however they are nowhere near as valuable.

Many public sector organisations and large commercial businesses tendering for work require that ISO certifications held are UKAS certified.

Factors that impact the cost of ISO certification

ISO certification costs include any direct costs paid to the certification body, the consultant supporting certification and indirect costs incurred by your organisation to meet the standards you choose. Below is a list of the factors that can directly affect ISO certification costs;

Implementation

The certification cost will vary depending on the resources and times used in implementing the chosen standards across your organisation. We understand that many organisations don’t have the time or resource to implement ISO certifications across the company. That is where we come in. We act in place of a member of staff who would be responsible for the standard, freeing your staff up to concentrate on their jobs.

Training employees

In order to effectively implement ISO certification, you will need to train your employees. Part of the Compliant process is to ensure that all team members fully understand the importance of the certification that you have invested in and what their responsibilities are in contributing to the maintenance of the certification.

Hidden costs

You may incur some additional costs during your ISO certification process. This includes expenses, application fees, travel time, annual management fees, and many more. This needs to be included to know the exact total costs at the end. However, other third parties tend to hide these costs where most clients won’t seem. Compliant never charges any hidden costs meaning that you will always be aware of what you are paying for and how much you are paying.

Duration of audit

Audit duration directly affects the cost of ISO certification. If the audits take less time, you will pay less to the third-party certification body. Your quotation will always include the amount of time required for audits.

How to determine audit duration

Audit duration has a direct impact on your ISO certification costs, so it is wise to clearly know the factors that will cause changes to audit days. You may find out that some organisations have a shorter audit duration while others have a longer one. Here are some factors considered each time you are estimating audit duration:

Scope of certification

This element evaluates all the activities conducted by your business. You can identify any risks associated with your organisation’s impact and scope. This process makes it easier to identify any potential failures arising from the organisation’s management system.

For example, you are exposed to higher risks if there is a failure in the quality or environmental management system in a power plant. You cannot compare this to a similar failure occurring in an office surrounding. Therefore, any risks associated with your organisation’s scope can be easily predicted whenever you offer finer details.

Number of employees

This is the most important factor that greatly affects the audit duration. The number of employees helps us to know the size of the organisation and the users involved throughout the management system processes.

Ideally, we also have to understand all the activities or tasks that the employees in the organisation undertake. Here, you do not have a breakdown of the roles and jobs of each individual but rather the group of individuals who perform similar tasks. For example, those working in sales could be grouped. Also, those seasonal employees who work during a certain period such as Christmas holidays or staff who work in shifts in different sectors in the organisation. This clearly displays any differences or variations that may arise as we move from one month to the other.

Number of locations of the organisation

The number of sites that your organisation is operating from has a huge impact on the audit duration and the overall costs of ISO certification. A UKAS certified certification body always ensures that the management system complies with and implements all its locations under the scope of certification. This ensures that all the sites are fully covered.

If you have a wide range of sites across the UK or the globe performing the same tasks, you can easily sample all of them. However, if you have different locations performing different activities, you will need an audit of each of the locations every year. This ensures that you are compliant with the scope of certification.

Complicacy of your organisation and its activities

Getting a house insurance quote is similar to knowing how complex your organisation is. For example, there are some questions that you will have to answer, such as if your house is built on flood plains or the locking mechanism that you use in your doors. Regardless of the answers you give, this will either increase or decrease the risk or complexity of your insurance. In the end, it will also impact on the quote.

In the same case, the complexity of your organisation and activities will affect the quote and audit duration either positively or negatively. Therefore, it is wise to get well conversant with the activities being undertaken in your organisation and how it operates. All these will help us to determine how complex the organisation is. There are several factors of complexity that will affect your audit duration;

The kind of site or remote work that your employees are performing. This could be construction works on construction sites or any other tasks.
The structure of the organisation. An organisation can have a simple or complex organisational structure. This includes multiple management tiers, 2 tier management structure, and management system levels. The organisational structure can therefore increase or reduce audit duration.
The level of regulation within the industry. You might need a higher degree of regulation such as food safety, banking industry, or management of waste.
If you are a well-known customer and the organisation is well familiarized with how you handle your operations regarding the management system.

All these factors have a direct impact on the audit duration.

Integrating the management system

If you opt to integrate a management system with another standard, your audit duration will be affected. This will either increase or reduce the audit duration. Back in 2015, a very popular structure of management called Annex SL was introduced. Annex SL is the high-level structure for modern ISO Standards. This has made it easier and more convenient for most organisations to integrate management systems while conducting integrated management system audits.

Through this new structure, the ISO wanted to ensure consistency and compatibility between the different Management System Standards. In turn, the structure allows for a more straightforward implementation when integrating multiple Standards and makes it easier for businesses and their staff to follow.

Annex SL clauses include:

Clause 1 – Scope: This defines the intended outcomes of the Management System
Clause 2 – Normative references: References any Standards or publications that are relevant
Clause 3 – Terms and definitions: Definitions of the common terms used throughout the Standard are defined here
Clause 4 – Context of the organisation: This defines the areas that the Management System will cover
Clause 5 – Leadership: This area stresses the importance of the involvement of the leadership team within the operation of the Management System
Clause 6 – Planning: How the Management System will achieve its objectives and how the business will deal with risk
Clause 7 – Support: How the operation of the Management System will be supported to run efficiently
Clause 8 – Operation: Details on the day-to-day processes and operations in your business, including how you will track the performance of these areas
Clause 9 – Performance evaluation: Analysing and monitoring how well your business is operating against the requirements of your Management System
Clause 10 – Improvement: Using the results of your performance evaluation to improve your business and its processes

Different organisations can choose different certifications. An organisation can opt to either integrate ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, or ISO 45001:2018, depending on their needs. You can cover the same clause in the two standards at the same time during an internal audit. Therefore, the management review can try to cover all the similar requirements entailed in ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, or ISO 45001:2018.

An integrated management system combines all aspects of an organisation’s systems, processes, and standards. This integration allows for a much more streamlined approach and can be a cost-effective way of becoming certified.

Moreover, when an auditor comes to perform an audit of the management review element, it is easier for them to audit more than one aspect at one time and save time that would be used to audit them differently. This involves collection of all ISO certification documents at the same time.

What are the main benefits of an integrated management system?

Clients who partner with Compliant for one or more of their UKAS accredited ISO certifications often make the transition to an integrated management system. The benefits include:

Costs and time needed to implement and maintain various management systems are significantly reduced
Procedures are streamlined and productivity increased
Aligned systems ensure consistency across the board

What integrated certifications does Compliant offer?

ISO 9001

ISO 9001 is the internationally ISO standard recognised for quality management.

Organisations that hold an ISO 9001 certificate are recognised in the UK and internationally for high quality in the way that their business is managed.

ISO 14001

ISO 14001 sets the standard for Environmental Management Systems.

Reduce waste management costs and demonstrate your commitment to protecting the environment with the ISO 14001 certification.

ISO 22301

ISO 22301 sets the standard for security and resilience. Business continuity management systems.

This international standard details the requirements of a business continuity management system (BCMS). It enables organizations to prepare for disruptive incidents that might otherwise prevent them from achieving their objectives.

ISO 27001

ISO 27001 is the internationally recognised standard for information security management proficiency.

ISO 27001 certification demonstrates that your business has systems in place to protect corporate information and data, whether this is online or offline.

ISO 45001

The ISO 45001 Standard for Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) provides organisations with a solution to better manage health and safety risks, while reducing associated costs.

Released in March 2018, the standard replaces OHSAS 18001 and allows management system integration with other ISO standards, which provides a more streamlined approach to multiple system management.

ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001

Combine your quality management system, environmental management system and occupational health & safety management system for a fully streamlined approach.

How to reduce costs through Gap analysis

We are often asked how can my organisation reduce costs through gap analysis?

Gap analysis offers you a more convenient way of using assessment to find out how you are almost meeting the standard’s requirements. Using this method, you can easily determine those areas that need you to improve and make the necessary changes. This helps to achieve all the requirements before the real audit is done. Undertaking a gap analysis will save time and reduce third-party certification costs if your organisation has started implementing the ISO standards. We offer a FREE gap analysis to help businesses get started.

Requesting a Quote

There is no one else that better understands your business. Compliant will go the extra step in an initial teams meeting to fully understand your business, its requirements, the structure of the management system required, and the organisational context. We will then submit all your information to one of our preferred certification body partners.

If you need an additional quotation at any point just fill in our FREE quote calculator.

For more information on ISO 9001 certification costs get in touch or visit our 5 easy steps showing how to get ISO 9001 certified page.