Blog How Much Does ISO9001 Certification Cost?

But becoming certified to the ISO9001 standard comes at a cost, both in terms of the initial implementation and in terms of keeping your QMS (quality management system) going. And before you start to progress the idea your senior management will want some figures. So in this blog we’re going to look at the question “how much does ISO9001 certification cost?”.

What are the main components of the cost?

In making a calculation for the total costs of getting to a certificate on the wall, there are a few main areas where costs are pretty sure to be incurred, and lots of other areas where you might have to spend some money depending on where your starting point is.

1. Certification body

The main certainty is of course the cost of engaging a certification body to perform the assessment. Certification is a two-stage process (usefully called “Stage One” (document review) and “Stage Two” (certification audit)) and in general is priced by the number of audit days required. Most certification bodies (these are the companies that perform the audits and can certify you) have a formula that they use to calculate the audit days needed and this usually depends on factors such as the number of employees, number of sites and the level of risk involved. The risk factor can have a big impact as they will want to look much more closely at an organization that provides important services to a critical industry such as medical, than at a company that provides optional services to an industry with less impact on society. This means that you will need to ensure that your answers to the questions they ask are accurate, so as not to give a false impression of the level of risk involved. A typical certification body will provide a quote for a specified number of audit days, at a stated daily rate. Some certification bodies charge additional administration fees and add a supplement for a half, rather than a full day.  As a very general guide (2022 prices in UK) you might be charged anywhere between GBP 1000 to GBP 1500 per day by a UKAS-accredited certification body to perform your audits, possibly with an additional annual management fee of GBP 300 to GBP 500. Given the cost, you may want to shop around to get the best price, but be careful of very cheap quotes from companies whose certificates are not worth the cost of printing them.

2. Internal auditing

To become certified to the ISO9001 standard you’ll need to have performed an internal audit of all clauses before the certification auditor performs the Stage Two audit. If you are lucky enough to have an internal audit department then you are likely to be able to use their resources, but depending on their skillset, some training in auditing an ISO9001 QMS may be required. Another option is to make use of the services of an external third party who is already qualified. This will come at a cost, and audits will be needed both prior to certification and as part of an ongoing internal audit programme afterwards. Daily rates for such services can vary significantly, but might be between GBP 500 and GBP 1000 if you use a smaller company, and likely much more if you use one of the big ones.

3. Training and qualifications

There are a variety of training courses and associated qualifications covering the implementation of a QMS according to the ISO9001 standard, and courses for becoming a lead or internal auditor are widely available too. These vary in the number of days required and therefore in their cost, and you may need to factor in hotel accommodation too. A typical price for an ISO9001 Lead Auditor training course is around GBP 2000, with the shorter ISO9001 Internal Auditor equivalent coming in around half that.

4. Help with implementation

You may decide to go it alone and do all the implementation work yourself, or you may want some external help with getting your QMS (quality management system) in place. A do it yourself ISO9001 toolkit such as that available from CertiKit will cost around GBP 400 and consultancy services are often priced either by the hour or by the day, with some variation in price depending on whether they are provided remotely or by onsite visits. How many hours or days you need is really up to you and consultancy rates are generally similar to those for internal auditing.

You may decide that you would find a gap assessment carried out against the ISO9001 standard useful, to identify how much work may be involved in achieving certification, and these typically take 2 or 3 days to perform. Other areas that you may appreciate help in are scope, risk and opportunity assessment, setting objectives, defining processes and management reviews, and the amount of external assistance required (for example an hour of remote guidance through to multiple days of in-depth consultancy) will affect the cost involved.

5. Hardware and Software

Depending on the approach you decide to take, you may need to invest in additional software, hardware and/or cloud computing resources in order to get your QMS in place. These will all come with a range of functionality and pricing, so you’ll need to be prepared to take some difficult decisions about the facilities you think are necessary and how much you want to spend. Bear in mind that most cloud “software as a service” applications are priced as a monthly subscription and it can be hard to swap or finish with the service once you’ve started.

6. Standards and other documentation

Don’t forget that you will need a copy of the ISO9001 standard itself (priced at CHF 138 (that’s Swiss Francs) from the ISO website) and any other related standards that might be helpful – consider ISO9004 (“guidance to achieve sustained success”) for example. You might also want to invest in the odd book in either good old hardcopy or fancy electronic format.

7. Internal resources

We’ve discussed some of the external costs you may need to meet, but don’t underestimate the amount (and therefore the cost) of the internal resources you will need to make use of to get to certification. Unless you are lucky enough to have volunteers, people’s time is not free and the amount of effort it’s going to take your project and business teams to get things in place must be carefully considered. Whether you need to define your expected use of internal resources in hard money terms may depend on your organization’s attitude to budgeting. If any of your team are contractors then it’s likely their cost will need to be included, and the possibility of having to bring in temporary staff to backfill people working on the project must be factored in.

Is it all worth it?

When trying to answer the question “how much does ISO9001 certification cost?” it’s vital to see the costs in the context of the benefits of achieving the goal. These will mainly depend on the reasons your organization feels ISO9001 certification is desirable in the first place. For example, if certification is likely to help to win more business by providing external proof of a commitment to quality then this may be a quantifiable benefit, based on making some stated and agreed assumptions. Similarly, keeping up with the competition in a competitive industry where ISO9001 certification is common has its own benefits in terms of business survival.

In summary

There’s no doubt that there are costs associated with achieving certification to the ISO9001 standard and only your organization itself can reach a considered view whether these costs are justified by the anticipated benefits. But having a clear definition of these costs (and of course the benefits too) from the very beginning will help to get the commitment of senior management to the goal and smooth the path to certification.

More ISO9001 Resources

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