ISO 9001 - "Remote Audit Fee"

[Bifften]

Hi all,

Our certification body (I won't name and shame but one of the big players) has just invoiced us and included a 'Remote Audit Fee' for a one day external assessment for ISO 9001, Continuing Assessment Visit. It was remote due to Covid restrictions.

Their justification is....

'Experience shows that remote external audits require a higher preparation time on the part of the auditors. We ask for your understanding that we will charge this additionally as follows within the framework of the total invoice'
- 1 hour for IT test and risk analysis
- Plus 1 hour per calculated day rate for preparation and additional work during the audit.'

they go on to say....

'The big advantage for you is that you save money overall during remote audits thanks to the elimination of travel costs'


My initial reaction is to laugh at the audacity and withhold any payment. I've had other remote assessments with other CBs and the same CB and not seen this before.

Interested to know - does anyone else think this might be reasonable? In terms of planning there was very little if any work done by the CB before the audit - and certainly nothing extra due to being remote.

 

[blackholequasar]

@Bifften

Oh wow, I personally have not seen this. We just had our ISO 9001 audit in October. The auditor informed us ahead of time what they would like to see as part of their request for objective evidence, we provided it and that was the long and short of it. There was no additional fee for any additional items like IT testing or prep? That's odd to me. They did let us know ahead of time that the responsibility for system testing befell us; and they would charge us for the day regardless of if it worked or not, so we should make sure it worked! Haha

But yeah, a remote audit fee? That's a little ridiculous.

 

[NickV....]

We saw no increase in costs, however we saw no decrease either due to no travel costs.....Just another example of Covid pricing bs

 

[jmech]

Was the remote audit fee mentioned in the certification agreement or quote for the audit? If so, you might be stuck paying it. If not, and it was a surprise on the invoice, I would fight it.

If your CB is one of the big ones, it is likely accredited to ISO 17021. A surprise fee could be a violation of ISO 17021:2015 8.5.1c, which requires the CB to provide information and update clients on fees.

 

[Mike S.]

Our registrar (a big three-letter one) has been known to sneak in extras in the past, but in the case of remote auditing did not charge any extra, did not charge travel expenses (as there were none) and the auditor arranged a test of our planned Zoom videoconferencing a few days before the actual audit to ensure things went smoothly.

We used a laptop on a cart when we needed to go out on the production floor and show him stuff, which we also tested in advance. It all went very well with only minor technical difficulties.

 

[Randy]

Remote audit fee? You serious? Are they serious?....

Hey Mike S..... I do the same as you described

 

[Kuldeep Singh]

Hi all,

My question is not for ISO 9001 audit fee, we request a quote for MDR (EU 2017/745) . Though there is no major change in quote but they increase the no. of days for the audit as compare to MDD . In MDD they takes only two days for reviewing the technical file , but audit days under MDR increases up to 8-10 days for the same device . They ask the reason for increase in no. of days is their internal policy for MDR.

Interesting to know , if there is any reason for change in audit days for same device group?? or any solid reason to us so that we would fight.

 

[mattador78]

Our registrar (a big three-letter one) has been known to sneak in extras in the past, but in the case of remote auditing did not charge any extra, did not charge travel expenses (as there were none) and the auditor arranged a test of our planned Zoom videoconferencing a few days before the actual audit to ensure things went smoothly.

We used a laptop on a cart when we needed to go out on the production floor and show him stuff, which we also tested in advance. It all went very well with only minor technical difficulties.

We just used the app on my iphone when we toured around I've also seen in done with a tablet as well bit more portable than winging a laptop around on a trolley lol. We found no issues as we also prepped and tested in advance because we used a computer not lined to our main server i just had a couple of items missing what I had to email over to that computer from mine during the audit but other than that it was a standard audit.

 

[Mike S.]

The laptop made it more seamless for us since it was also running Zoom and all participants could continue to participate as they were. Whatever works for you is great.

 

[Bifften]

Was the remote audit fee mentioned in the certification agreement or quote for the audit? If so, you might be stuck paying it. If not, and it was a surprise on the invoice, I would fight it.

If your CB is one of the big ones, it is likely accredited to ISO 17021. A surprise fee could be a violation of ISO 17021:2015 8.5.1c, which requires the CB to provide information and update clients on fees.

Nothing that I can see - and it's a global agreement signed last year. I will investigate the ISO 17021 accreditation. Thanks.