What changes in cost between three systems and one integrated system?
Less the certification body’s invoice than your internal time. We do not quote prices: quotes depend on your site. The table compares the two situations for the same scope.
Item | Three separate systems | One integrated system |
|---|---|---|
Certification audit days | Sum of the three times, each calculated on its own | Same sum to start with, reduced by 0 to 20% according to integration and the audit team |
Opening and closing meetings, reports | Three of each | One meeting of each, an integrated report possible |
Audit preparation | Three preparations, often on different dates | One preparation, more demanding for each process owner |
Management review | Three, or one review in three parts | A single one |
Internal audits | Three programmes, three teams | One programme, auditors to train on several standards |
Registers and actions | Duplicates, two legal registers | One register of obligations, one action register |
Set-up | Nothing to fund if the systems exist | A merger to fund once: review, matrix, rewrite |
Risk | A finding mostly affects its own standard | The certification body considers the impact of each finding on the other standards |
How does the certification body calculate combined audit time?
In four stages, set by Global ACI-TECH-3-008, version 1.0, in application since 28 August 2026. Global ACI (Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated) is the organisation that has taken over the role of the IAF, the International Accreditation Forum, in accreditation; its mandatory documents bind every accredited certification body.
- One time per standard. The certification body calculates the audit time required for each standard separately, applying all its own rules: those of Global ACI-TECH-3-004 for quality, environmental and occupational health and safety management systems.
- A starting point. It adds these times together: this is the starting point T.
- An adjustment. It reduces T according to the level of integration, the ability of your personnel to answer questions on more than one standard and the availability of auditors competent on more than one standard; it may also increase T for the complexity of an integrated audit. The reduction never exceeds 20% of T.
- A written justification. The starting point and the justification for each adjustment are documented, and you are informed that audit time may be revised once integration is confirmed at stage 1.
The reduction is read from a grid, Figure 1 in Annex 1. The rows give the level of integration of your system, which the certification body sets against seven criteria (documentation, management review, internal audits, policy and objectives, processes, improvement, responsibilities). The columns give the audit team’s “ability to perform combined audit”, which measures how many standards its auditors are qualified for.
Level of integration | Team 0 to 20% | 20 to 40% | 40 to 60% | 60 to 80% | 80 to 100% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
80 to 100% | 0% | 5% | 10% | 15% | 20% |
60 to 80% | 0% | 5% | 10% | 15% | 15% |
40 to 60% | 0% | 5% | 10% | 10% | 10% |
20 to 40% | 0% | 5% | 5% | 5% | 5% |
0 to 20% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
This table is our reading of the figure: the document does not say how values that fall exactly on a boundary are treated.
The team’s multi-standard competence is calculated with a formula. In the document’s example, three auditors cover three standards: one is qualified for all three, the second for two, the third for one. The result is 100 × ((3 − 1) + (2 − 1) + (1 − 1)) / (3 × (3 − 1)), or 50%. Even with a highly integrated system, this team opens the way to a 10% reduction under the grid, not 20%.
Which factors change the audit time of each standard for your factory?
The same as for a separate audit, since each time is first calculated on its own. Global ACI-TECH-3-004 starts from the effective number of personnel, temporary staff and shift workers included, and for health and safety the personnel of contractors and subcontractors whose work is under your control or influence. It then classifies the activity by complexity, differently for each standard.
Standard | What sets complexity | Examples given in Global ACI-TECH-3-004 |
|---|---|---|
ISO 9001 | Risk posed by failure of the product or service (high, medium, low) | Food and chemicals among high-risk activities |
ISO 14001 | Nature, number and gravity of environmental aspects (five categories) | Chemicals in the high category; food processing in the medium category |
ISO 45001 | Nature, number and severity of OH&S risks (three categories) | Chemicals in the high category; food processing in the medium category |
These classifications are examples. The document specifies that a chemical sector business with only a mixing operation free from chemical reaction or emission can be classified as medium or even low complexity for the environment; the certification body must document that choice.
Further factors then adjust each time. Several buildings, more than one working language or a high degree of regulation increase it; so do, for the environment, a more sensitive receiving environment, and for health and safety, a rate of accidents and occupational diseases higher than the sector average or dangerous substances in large quantities. The maturity of the system can reduce it, but reductions may not exceed 30% of the times in the tables.
For an audit conducted under TECH-3-008, a reduction on the grounds that the client is already certified or recognised by another third-party scheme is invalid: it is replaced by the calculation based on integration.
Over the three-year cycle, TECH-3-004 puts annual surveillance at about one third of the initial audit time, and recertification at about two thirds of the time an initial audit would require at the time of recertification. The reduction gained through integration holds for the cycle if the level of integration is maintained: the certification body must confirm it throughout the cycle.
Which internal costs does integration reduce, and which does it create?
It creates an initial cost: review of the level of integration, documentation merger, training of multi-standard internal auditors, combined mock audit. It reduces recurring costs: one management review, one audit programme, one legal register, one dashboard, often a single QHSE function.
For a site certified to the 2015 editions, the right moment is the preparation of the transitions: a single gap analysis covers the changed requirements of ISO 9001:2026 and ISO 14001:2026. According to the Global ACI transition documents for ISO 9001:2026 and ISO 14001:2026, additional audit time for a transition is possible, not automatic.
On funding, the rule is the same as for a single standard. For Moroccan companies, courses written into the training plan may fall under the special training contracts (CSF) of the OFPPT, Morocco’s Office for Vocational Training and Work Promotion, under the rates and ceilings of the CSF procedures manual (May 2006, amended by Amendment No. 2 of 2 June 2014), which are based on the vocational training tax (TFP) the company has declared. We promise no amount: we run a simulation on your situation (see CSF and OFPPT funding).
How do you compare two offers for a combined audit?
On the calculation, not on the total. Before you sign:
What lowers audit time for good is not negotiation but real integration. The method is in our guide to the integrated QHSE management system for factories in Morocco, and the step-by-step merger in our article on the ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 cross-reference matrix and internal audits.