Changing Certification Audit Dates
Personally, to change a certification date, a precertification date or a post certification date is not best practice. To a certification body and / or the friendly auditor, it suggests the priority your company is placing on either the certification process or the quality management system itself might be lacking. Do it too often and the desired business relationship could be soured.
Your quality management system should be able to operate at all times, assuming the organisation can continue to operate without key personnel for an hour, a day, a week? Second-in-commands, explicit instructions, pre-prepared records, audit trails, etc can all be put in place in order to meet an agreed deadline or event. Sure there will be times when calendars don’t sync, but once they do, commit and prepare. Don’t make the audit date so low on your priorities that it is the first date you think of changing when reviewing your time.
Remember, some certification bodies have quite heavy and intricate penalties for changing dates. Most certification bodies use subcontracted auditors who book such events 2, 3, 6, 12 months in advance. To chop and change them within a week or two weeks will cause lack of income. Then they may not be so accommodating with forward planning future audits or even charge you more for fully flexible airfares just in case, and so on.
The point being. Commit to your quality management system and commit to your certification audit date. Give both priority and if you are only doing either for certification’s sake, be prepared to pay for this strategy and the baggage that comes with it.