What Is a Pre-assessment Audit?
Some companies that have to go through an audit process or certification will always go for one option before this: a pre-assessment one. This consists of performing an audit in order to identify the non-conformities, issues, or problems in the company and fix them before the final or main audit. This saves companies a lot of time and effort since going through a certification audit is not only simple but also takes days or weeks to do.
And although some companies think that failing the audit or not obtaining the certification the first time or without going through it over and over again isn’t a big of a problem, it is. After all, some companies can’t operate unless their degree of conformance with the requirements of specific standards is high enough or the correct one. Some standards or ISOs aren’t mandatory for a company and instead, you and they can choose to implement any of those only for the benefits it brings to the business.
But just like those, several ISOs are formal regulations for the operations or even creation of the company. And there are more being added every day. Therefore, this takes us to the first and important statement: audits are crucial, and obtaining your certification is one of your priorities if not the one on the top of your list.
What does it review in specific?
The entire management system of a company. You might be familiar with financial audits, which are one of the most common ones among any companies from any industry. They are usually quite needed due to the instability in some aspects in the financial area, but they are carried out—most of the time—after a company started to operate and has a long time doing it.
However, the certification audit is only to review the documentation, processes, standards, and as mentioned before, the conformance of the system with the requirements from the ISOs it has to meet. You can think of it as a general review of your management system in order to determine if it is optimum and follows all the normative that are stipulated for any company—new or old.
The audit can be carried out at any moment and therefore, a pre-assessment audit follows the same—which is our main topic. The Pre-assessment Audit reviews the same the company in charge of the certification one will review from your company.
After all, you are going for the pre-assessment one to determine the issues that are restraining or causing your business to have an unacceptable degree of conformance with the standards. Now, what do you do once it has finished and you are left with the data and all the non-conformities of your company? Quit or don’t carry out the certification audit? These aren’t the right options.
Your company will have and need to work on them and implement correcting methods and solutions. In this way, you can meet all the requirements from the standards you are working with and trying to have conformance with to finally go through the final certification.
It is a lot of work if you think about the aspects, areas, and elements involved in the management system of your company—in a few words, with your entire business. Therefore, keep in mind that even if your company is small and you are hiring an auditor for a pre-assessment, you will need to be patient and give him or her enough space. Otherwise, you will be hurrying a process that can’t be hurried when it needs to be done carefully and even slowly.
Besides, you should request a Pre-assessment Audit with time, which we hope you keep in mind. The right thing to do is to request one even before requesting the certification audit, which most companies have the opportunity to schedule or ask a date for.
Does it save you money?
This question is one we decided to include due to how frequent we receive it, and don’t get us wrong, we understand why. The short answer is: yes, it does save you money. But if we have to go deeper into it—which we will do—it is necessary to explain why the answer is “yes”.
Companies that go through a Pre-assessment Audit are trying to avoid going through a final one over and over again. After all, certification audits aren’t cheap or more than thinking about their cost, it is about the time you have to spend until the auditor is done with it. If the auditor ends up finding many non-conformities and issues, what is your next move? You have to invest time in solving them.
This will make you spend money and time in going through a final audit that ended up being a waste of both things when you could easily carry out one that is cheaper, sometimes even faster, and will allow you to get certified without problems.
You are always saving audit costs when you go for a pre-assessment option beforehand, especially because the auditor that carries it out should be able to provide you with the guidelines to correct everything.
At least, this is how we handle our duties at ISO Pros. Our company provides Pre-assessment Audits to any business or organization that needs it. We will carry it out for you, let you know every detail, and what you could improve in the future even if you can get certified with your degree of conformance.
After all, we want to educate you and support, both at the same time. Something relevant to mention is that our company provides certification in this audit that goes previously the final one. In this way, you also have a way to back you up in the case that something goes wrong with the certification audit and you are not happy with the non-conformities or issues the auditor points out.
If you still have questions or doubts about pre-assessment, you can contact us and let us know what you need to know to make the decision.
