What makes up the budget for an accreditation or a transition?
External fees known in advance, and internal time that depends on the body. In Morocco, accreditation is granted by SEMAC (Service marocain d’accréditation), the accreditation service of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Its fees are set by a notice from the ministry, applied since 1 January 2026: processing of an initial, renewal or extension application, and an annual fee. They are detailed on our ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory accreditation page, since the same schedule applies to all conformity assessment bodies.
Item | Paid to | What makes it vary |
|---|---|---|
Purchase of the standard | Standards body | Number of copies and languages |
Processing fees and annual fee | SEMAC | Type of application (initial, renewal, extension); fixed under the notice |
Assessment days | SEMAC, under its fee schedule A 004.04 | Scope, sites, number of assessors, time added for the transition |
Staff time | Internal | Gaps to address, number of procedures, inspectors and fields |
Training | Internal or training provider | Number of people, starting level |
Data tools | Internal or software vendor | Field apps, spreadsheets, archiving to validate |
Measuring equipment | Calibration laboratories | Number of instruments whose traceability must be shown |
Insurance | Insurer | Cover based on a risk analysis, according to Cofrac’s reading |
Support | Consultant, if you use one | Scope of the assignment: diagnosis only or full project |
Assessment days come on top. On its accreditation page, the ministry publishes SEMAC’s assessment fees (document A 004.04): fees depend on the length of the assessment, the number of assessors and experts and their country of residence. For a national assessor or expert, it sets a daily rate, document review and report writing included, plus accommodation and travel costs, either paid by the body or covered by a flat daily allowance and a mileage allowance. Foreign assessors have their own daily rate, and their accommodation and travel costs are paid in full by the body. Check the current amounts in the SEMAC fee schedule, or ask SEMAC for them, before setting your budget.
We give neither a price nor a range before we have seen the body and its scope: two bodies of the same size can have very different budgets.
Which factors drive the workload?
Six factors explain most of the differences. They apply to a first accreditation as much as to a transition.
Factor | Lighter workload | Heavier workload |
|---|---|---|
Scope | One or two fields, standard methods | Many fields, in-house methods to validate |
Inspectors and signatories | Small team, qualifications already documented | Large team, qualification criteria still to write |
Sites | A single site | A network of sites, all covered by the transition |
Independence | Clear Type A, no other activity | Group that designs, sells or maintains what it inspects |
Data | Simple paper reports, few tools | Field apps, spreadsheet calculations, electronic signatures |
Starting point | Live system, useful internal audits | System written for the application file and little applied |
Three of these factors weigh more with the 2026 edition. Sites: for a multi-site body, SEMAC procedure A 166 sets the number of sites assessed and the duration of surveillance, according to procedure A 110.03; Australia’s NATA requires the transition to cover every site in a network. Data: note INS INF 35 from Cofrac, the French accreditation body, flags the validation of the systems that collect, process and store inspection data as a new requirement. Independence: a group with several activities has to justify the classification of each field and keep a fuller impartiality register.
How long should you plan for?
Preparation time depends on the body; the deadlines for processing and for closing findings are set by SEMAC. The table below takes them from its procedures A 110.03 and A 120.03.
Step | Deadline set by SEMAC |
|---|---|
Completing a file found incomplete | One month, otherwise the application is closed |
Admissibility decision | Five working days after receipt of the complete file |
Pre-assessment | Optional, one day at most |
Findings at an initial assessment | Action plan within two weeks, evidence within two months at most |
Preparing a surveillance | Letter from SEMAC no later than three months before the assessment |
Findings at a surveillance | Closed within six weeks, otherwise suspension may be proposed |
Pace of surveillance | No later than twelve months after the decision, then every fifteen months |
For a transition, the constraint is the date of your next assessment. With a surveillance every fifteen months, there will be only one or two before the 31 March 2029 deadline in our registry. Foreign accreditation bodies add time: the Irish accreditation body INAB adds it to all surveillance assessments, Cofrac adapts the duration and make-up of its teams, and NATA charges for an early assessment requested by the body.
As of 6 November 2026, SEMAC has published neither its transition end date, which SAC and Cofrac set at 27 March 2029 and INAB at 30 March 2029, nor the length of its transition assessments. Ask it both questions in writing before building your budget.
The real cost of a delay is not an invoice: a body whose accreditation is suspended can no longer issue reports under accreditation, according to the policies published by foreign accreditation bodies. For a body that lives on its accredited reports, that is the heaviest item of all.
How do you control the budget without weakening accreditation?
By cutting unnecessary work, not evidence. The levers that work:
- a realistic scope at the start, extended later through an extension that SEMAC processes under its procedure A 111;
- a transition placed on an assessment already scheduled, prepared early enough to avoid an additional assessment;
- a single documentation system for a technical centre that seeks both ISO/IEC 17020 and ISO/IEC 17025;
- data tools listed early: validating three spreadsheets costs less than reworking reports already issued;
- internal auditors trained in-house, with an external auditor for the fields where independence requires it;
- training entered in the training plan, which may qualify for special training contracts (CSF) run by OFPPT (Office de la formation professionnelle et de la promotion du travail, Morocco’s vocational training office) under their rules, with no guaranteed amount: see CSF and OFPPT funding.
Checklist for building the budget:
The preparation method is set out in our ISO/IEC 17020:2026 gap analysis, the requirements in our ISO/IEC 17020:2026 inspection body guide, and a complete transition example in our lifting equipment inspection body case study. Our ISO standards training covers the 2026 edition and internal audit.