The Definitive Guide to ISO Accreditation & Certification (2024)

What’s this guide about?

Whether you’re new to ISO certifications or an expert, the internet is full of so many resources it’s mind-boggling.

This is the only guide that provides the most useful information and resources related to ISO accreditation and certification, making it invaluable! We have carefully handpicked it for your benefit and enjoyment.

The 101 of Accreditation & Certification (Who’s Who?)

• It all starts with the ISO committee for conformity assessment (CASCO). This is the organisation that authors and publishes the standards in Geneva. Check it out here.
• CASCO explains directly how certification works, and why accreditation is important for certification. Here’s a short version of that explanation.
• ISO states: The International Accreditation Forum (IAF) is the world association of Conformity Assessment Accreditation Bodies and other bodies interested in conformity assessment in the fields of management systems, products, services, personnel etc. While ILAC is the international organization for accreditation bodies involved in the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies when it comes to laboratories and inspection.
• You can know more about IAF at their website, and check a list of the 95 regional and national accreditation bodies here.
• ISO contintues to state: To find an accredited certification body visit the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) CertSearch website. This means that the IAF, as the “governing body” of accrediting bodies, designated by ISO and cooperating with it, is where you can find and check the 2300+ certification bodies operating worldwide.
• The valid ISO certificates can checked at IAF CertSearch. This database contains updated data on millions of ISO issued certificates.
• Lastly, ISO states clearly: ISO does not perform certification or issue certificates, and it does not permit anyone to use the ISO logo in connection with certification. Certification is performed by external certification bodies, thus a company or organization cannot be certified by ISO “directly”.

ISO Accreditation & Certification in Plain English

• ISO publishes the standards. In direct cooperation with ISO, IAF is the body designated to oversee all accreditation bodies for certification.
• Those accrediting bodies (around 95), listed at IAF, apply ISO standards to accredit the certification bodies; those certification bodies (2300+) are listed here. Regional accrediting bodies also has national accrediting bodies as members.
• ISO certificates are either issued for companies or persons. Companies can get ISO certified in standards that are “management systems standards- MSS”, specifically those that has the word “requirements” in their title. This is because there are “schemes” for auditing and certifying them. You can know all about MSS here. Persons can be ceritified as “Lead Auditors” or “Consultants” of those MSS; you can know more about the certification of persons here.
• ISO certificates for companies have a validity cycle of three years, and require an annual audit for renewal. These certificates expire at the end of the cycle, thus requiring re-certification every three years.
• For other standards, that are not MSS, companies can have what is called a Letter of Conformance / Letters of Compliance. ISO compliance simply indicates that companies follow the guidelines set by ISO standards, without going through the formal certification and recertification steps. Its important to note that LOCs are not “accredited”, as they don’t have any “auditing schemes”, and as such cannot be issued regular accredited certificates. The value of having LOCs is that it demonstrates the voluntary commitment of a company to apply the standards while going through a third-party audit to confirm that fact.
• Accreditation is all about the IAF motto: “Certified Once, Accepted Everywhere”!

Short Intro About the International Accreditation Forum (IAF)

• Who is the IAF (International Accreditation Forum)? The International Accreditation Forum is the worldwide association of accreditation bodies. The IAF members are a representation of 83 government and semi-government accreditation bodies and industry associations from around the world. They all work together to govern and achieve the goal of the IAF and reach their common trade facilitation objectives around the world.
• What is an Accreditation Body? Accreditation Bodies accredit certification bodies to demonstrate that they are competent and can be relied on to issue certifications to organizations. Accreditation Bodies are normally government or semi government organizations. Accreditation Bodies are members of IAF. Accreditation bodies will accredit certification bodies to particular standards, once the certification body has been accredited for that standard they can then audit and certify organizations that relate to that particular standard. There are 83 IAF member Accreditation Bodies.
• What is an IAF accredited certification body? A certification body which has been accredited by an IAF member Accreditation Body. These certification bodies have gone through a rigorous accreditation process which demonstrates competence to issue certifications to organizations for the standards and scopes they have been accredited. Certification bodies have received independent third-party endorsement by an accreditation body which is typically a government organization. There are over 2,300 certification bodies globally.
• What is an accredited certification? A certification that has been issued by a Certification Body which has been accredited by an Accreditation Body who is a member of the IAF. Organizations that have been audited by an accredited certification body and proven to meet the standard, receive certification for that standard. There are over 2 million companies who have received management system certifications and millions more who have received product certification.
• What is IAFCertSearch? IAF CertSearch is the global certification database. IAF CertSearch has been established by the International Accreditation Forum and its members so accredited certifications from around the world can be verified. IAF CertSearch is the global database where users can search and validate the status of an accredited certification issued by a Certification Body which has been accredited by an IAF signatory member Accreditation Body.

Valuable Resources About ISO Accreditation & Certification

• Intro Presentation About Accreditation & Certification by the IAF (PDF)
• An Overview about the IAF (PDF)
• The Value of Accredited Certification- by IAF (PDF)
• MLA Explained (Mutual Global Recognition of ISO Certificates)- by IAF (PDF)
• Why use an accredited ISO certification body?- by IAF (PDF)
• Global Accreditation System Handbook- by IAF (PDF)
• CASCO Educational toolbox – 9 modules on conformity assessment (PPTX)
• ISO Survey of certifications to management system standards (XLSX)
• Basic Concepts- by ISO CASCO (Article)
• Techniques and Schemes- by ISO CASCO (Article)
• Attestations of conformity- by ISO CASCO (Article)
• Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs)- by ISO CASCO (Article)
• Recognition of CABs- by ISO CASCO (Article)
• Recognition of CABs results- by ISO CASCO (Article)