How many audit days will your certification body charge for?
Certification body fees are audit days multiplied by a day rate. The day count is not a matter of opinion. It comes from IAF MD 5, the mandatory document every accredited certification body must follow. Work out your number before you ask for a quotation.
Certification audit day calculator
Based on IAF MD 5:2023 Issue 4 Version 3, Annexes A, B and C.
All personnel within the certification scope: permanent, temporary, part-time and, where in scope, contractors. Part-timers convert to full-time equivalents: 30 people working four hours a day count as 15. For ISO 45001, include contractors whose work you control or influence.
Table EMS 2 in IAF MD 5 lists example sectors for each band. Your certification body makes the final determination.
Multiply the day count by your certification body’s day rate, then add auditor travel and any application or certificate fee. Day rates vary between accredited bodies, which is exactly why getting three quotations is worthwhile: the day count should be broadly the same across all of them, so any large difference in price is rate, not scope.
It is the starting point from the IAF MD 5 tables. Your certification body will adjust it up or down for the factors in clause 8: multiple shifts, languages, design responsibility, system maturity, prior certification. Reductions may not exceed 30% of the table value. Multi-site operations are sampled under IAF MD 1 and are not covered here. This is an indicative planning figure, not a quotation.
Why the day count is not negotiable, but the rate is
Understanding this is the single most useful thing you can do before asking for certification quotations.
A mandatory document
IAF MD 5 is not guidance. Accredited certification bodies are required to follow it, and their accreditation body checks that they do. A quotation with far fewer days than the table is a warning sign, not a bargain.
Driven by headcount
The tables start from your effective number of personnel. ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 add a complexity dimension, because environmental aspects and OH&S risk vary enormously between an office and a refinery.
Then it repeats
Surveillance audits run at roughly a third of the initial audit time each year, and recertification at about two thirds. Budget for the three-year cycle, not just year one.
| Stage | Audit time | When |
|---|---|---|
| Initial certification | Stage 1 + Stage 2, from the MD 5 tables | Year 0 |
| Surveillance | About one third of the initial audit time, annually | Years 1 and 2 |
| Recertification | About two thirds of a freshly calculated initial audit | Year 3 |
Surveillance and recertification audits are unlikely to be less than one day.
What people ask about audit days
It is the day count your certification body starts from. What you pay is that count multiplied by their day rate, plus travel and administrative fees. The certification body may adjust the days for the factors in MD 5 clause 8 (shift patterns, languages, design responsibility, system maturity, existing certification) but any reduction is capped at 30% of the table value.
No, and this is where combined certification saves real money. Audited separately, the days add up as shown. Audited together as an integrated management system, the shared clauses are assessed once and the total reduces: the reduction is calculated under IAF MD 11 according to how genuinely integrated your system is, so a system that is integrated on paper only earns very little. This calculator shows the separate figures so you can see the ceiling. See integrated management systems.
Everyone within the certification scope: permanent, temporary and part-time staff across all shifts, plus contractors where they fall inside the scope. Part-time people convert to full-time equivalents. For ISO 45001 you must also include contractors and subcontractors performing work under your control or influence. For seasonal operations, use peak-season numbers. Your certification body will ask you to justify the figure.
Because multi-site certification is governed by a different document, IAF MD 1, which uses sampling rather than a straight multiplication. The number of sites visited depends on the total, their similarity, and your central function. It is genuinely case-by-case, and a calculator that guessed at it would mislead you. Send us your site list and we will work it through.
Treat it as a question rather than a saving. Ask them to show the calculation and the justification for any reduction, which they are required to record. A quotation materially below the table often means the body is not accredited, or has understated your effective personnel. An unaccredited certificate is rejected the moment a serious client checks it.
No. These are audit days charged by the certification body that assesses you: money that does not come to us and on which we take no commission. Consultancy to build and implement the system is entirely separate, and we quote it as a fixed fee against a defined scope once the gap analysis tells us what is actually needed. See what ISO certification costs in the UAE.