How to check if an ISO certificate is valid?

Only a valid ISO certification will help you reap benefits such as better brand credibility, enhanced stakeholder trust and customer acquisition. In this article, we will talk about how you can check if your ISO certificate is valid.

What is the ISO standard?

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) creates a series of recommendations that work as a template for organisations to implement effective management systems. The purpose of these standards is to bring consistency across different organisations in a specific industry, enhance their efficiency and inculcate fair trade. Additionally, ISO also aims to help organisations consistently meet the expectations of their target audience.

What is ISO certificate?

When any organisation implements the recommendations of the chosen ISO standard into the organisation, they build a management system that is concurrent to the standard.

They must then conduct reviews to check the compliance of the management system. If they are compliant and find no major non-conformances, organisations have the choice to register with an external body for certification. To acquire certification, organisations must undergo strict external audits.

After clearing the audit, the registrar or the certification body sends a soft copy of the certificate with an email and a hard copy via snail mail. For more information, you can use our ISO certification service.

What are the benefits of ISO certification?

As ISO is an internationally recognised and appreciated organisation, acquiring certification means that you are showcasing your commitment to improvement to the entire world. Any potential customer or stakeholder that comes across your ISO certificate will understand that you have spent significant time, resources and energy to clear the external audit.

Therefore, you build brand credibility and can acquire new clients. However, acquiring the certificate also means that your management system is compliant and effective.

An effective management system, irrespective of the fact that it is a Quality Management System (QMS), Environmental Management System (EMS), or an Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS), will grant you many benefits, such as:

Leaner process and better efficiency
Lesser wastage
Better allocation of resources
Improved cost savings
Access to newer markets
Easier assimilation to international trade
Better employee engagement
Enhanced employee productivity

What is the ISO certification process?

In order to understand if your certificate is valid, you need to understand the reasons why it can expire and how the certification is actually granted. The certification process begins by organisations documenting their core processes, implementing the management system and verifying its efficiency.

To verify its efficiency, organisations must conduct internal audits to measure if the processes are actually operating as they have been described in the documentation and in accordance to the recommendations of the standard. These reviews will help organisations identify areas that need additional help.

By identifying these areas, corrective or preventive actions can be implemented that are outlined in the chosen ISO standard. Once you believe that you have created a compliant management system, you can contact an external accreditation body for an audit. In the ISO certification procedures article, we have fully talked about the ISO certification process for different businesses.

ISO certificate life-cycle

In the certification audit, the external body’s auditor will review your management system and its documentation for compliance. As per your performance, you are granted a certificate. As we explained in the ISO certification validity duration article, This certificate remains valid for a period of three years.

Furthermore, in order to maintain the validity of your certificate for these three years, you must conduct surveillance audits that are similar to certification audits to measure if your management system is still compliant. Failure to conduct regular surveillance audits leads to the suspension of your certificate.

How to check the validity of your ISO certificate?

The easiest method to check the validity of your certificate is to call the registrar directly and ask them to verify your certificate. Alternatively, every certificate should include the registration/certificate number, the name of the certification body, and the name of the applicant body.

If there is no such detail on your certificate, then your certificate is definitely not authentic. To check if your certificate is valid, you can look at the list of accreditation bodies in the IAF and choose the country or area from where the supplier is. This will provide a list of the approved national accreditation bodies for the countries and you can further refine your search.

For example, in Australia, the accreditation body is JAS-ANZ and in America it is ANAB. If the accreditation body is not in the list of approved accreditation bodies, then, most likely, you have a problem. Similarly, if your certification body is not in the approved list of certification bodies, you are in a soup.

Having said that, these instances are very rare, as, in the majority of the cases, the certification body that you choose will present its accreditation credentials in the first few rounds of the interview.