Internal Audit

Partner with independent, qualified consultants for your ISO internal audits.

We ensure your organisation meets ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 standard requirements while promoting continual improvement to drive operational excellence.

Why Internal Auditing

In the context of ISO, the internal audit process is not a box-ticking exercise, but a mandatory requirement of ISO Management System standards (including ISO 9001, ISO 45001, ISO 14001, and ISO 27001), and is designed to facilitate continual improvement of your organisation’s operations.

A professionally conducted internal audit program acts as a high-level health check for your entire operation, and should be conducted for the following reasons:

1. Mandatory ISO requirement (Clause 9.2)

To achieve and maintain certification for standards like ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, or ISO 27001, you must demonstrate that you are conducting internal audits. Without a documented audit history, your Certification Body cannot issue or renew your ISO Certification.

2. A “Safety Net” for Your Certification

Think of the internal audit as a dress rehearsal. By identifying gaps, process failures, or documentation errors internally, you have the opportunity to implement corrective actions before an external auditor ever sets foot in your office. This significantly reduces the stress and cost associated with external audit “Major Non-Conformances.”

3. Verification of Process Effectiveness

Are your policies, processes and procedures actually being followed on the ground, or are they just merely “dust-collecting documents”? Internal audits provide management with factual evidence that the business is operating exactly how you intended (or not). The internal audit process picks up any gaps between what’s documented versus what is actually happening on the workshop floor or in the field.

4. Drive Continual Improvement

The most successful companies don’t just audit to find “what’s wrong”, but they audit to find “what could be better”. Expert auditors like the team at ISO Certification Experts identify “Opportunities for Improvement” (OFIs) that provide real business benefits and can help you:

Eliminate redundant steps in a process.
Reduce waste and operational costs.
Improve customer satisfaction and product quality.

5. Risk Mitigation & Due Diligence

Internal audits serve as a critical risk management tool. By systematically reviewing your quality, health and safety, environmental, or data security controls, you can identify emerging risks before they turn into expensive incidents, legal liabilities, or data breaches.

Key Differences - Internal vs. External Audits

Expert Tip:

When your internal audits are conducted by an expert third party like us, you gain a level of professional rigor, fresh perspective, and objectivity that internal staff simply cannot provide. This sends a powerful message to your clients and stakeholders that you are committed to the highest standards of governance.

Expert Tip:

Why get us to conduct your audits?

We’re an expert “fresh set of eyes” providing valuable feedback for continual improvement
Often things can be missed or overlooked when audits are conducted by people who are too familiar with the business and its processes
Sometimes people aren’t comfortable raising issues when it relates to work undertaken by their colleagues, whom they need to work with every day

You don’t have a competent auditor within your business to conduct the audits, who can add real business value from the auditing process
Scheduled audits are consistently falling behind schedule
You would just rather focus on running the business
We can manage and effectively implement your organisation’s ongoing audit schedule

The ISO Standards We Can Help You with

Quality

ISO 9001

Quality Management Systems

HEALTH and Safety

ISO 45001

Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems

Environmental

ISO 14001

Environmental Management Systems

INFORMATION SECURITY

ISO 27001

Information Security Management Systems

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The types of auditing services we provide

Internal Audits

Also known as ‘First Party Audits’, these are the main types of required audits to meet ISO Standards requirements for Certification. They are required by the ISO Management System standards prior to achieving Certification, and also regularly as part of the ongoing activities required for maintaining Certification.

Second Party Audits

These are not often part of the ISO Certification process. They could be conducted to verify that an interested party (for example, a subcontractor) is working in accordance with the contract arrangements to provide the specified services.

Compliance Audits

These can be project-specific audits or for certain areas of your organisation, and on an ad hoc or regular schedule. We can conduct your site safety and environmental inspections, ensuring your organisation is meeting “best practice” and compliance requirements for your type of workplace.

INTERNAL VS EXTERNAL AUDITS

While they may seem similar, Internal and External audits serve two very different purposes in the ISO Certification process.

Internal Audits are conducted by an organisation itself (their employees or an engaged consultant like ISO Certification Experts) to evaluate its own processes against the organisation’s own requirements and the ISO Standards requirements. Internal Audits meet ISO Standards requirements for Certification, and also serve as a proactive management tool, focusing on improving operational efficiency, risk management, and internal controls, with findings reported directly to the board or management. They need to be conducted at least once before achieving the Certification, and then on a regular and ongoing basis after Certification is achieved.
External Audits, also known as Certification audits, are performed by independent third-party accredited Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) (also commonly known as a Certification Body or Certifier) to provide an unbiased verification of an organisation’s management system against the requirements of the relevant ISO Standards, with the successful outcome resulting in achieving or maintaining ISO Certification. External auditors must remain strictly impartial and are forbidden from providing “consultancy” or any specific advice on how to address the audit findings. They can only tell you what is wrong, not how to fix it.

The table below outlines the key differences in objectives, frequency, and outcomes to help you prepare for both effectively:

Feature	Internal Audit (First-Party)	External Audit (Third-Party)
Primary Goal	Internal continual improvement.	Formal certification and verification of conformance.
Required	Yes, an ISO Standard requirement (Clause 9.2).	Yes, required process for achieving Certification.
Who Performs It?	Internal qualified staff or hired consultants.	Accredited Certification Body auditor.
Who is it for?	The company’s management team.	Customers, regulators and other relevant stakeholders.
Can the auditor give advice?	Yes, they can suggest solutions.	No, that is a conflict of interest.
Frequency	As often as needed, taking a risk-based approach, at “regular intervals”.	Usually annually (Certification, Surveillance, or Re-Certification).
Result	Internal Audit Report with findings and Corrective Actions.	ISO Certificate & Audit Report with findings.
Impact of Failure	An opportunity to fix issues internally prior to client impact.	Risk of losing or failing certification.

Please note ISO Certification Experts is not an Accredited Conformity Assessment Body. We’re a consulting and training business, and we do not conduct Third Party Audits to achieve certification to the requirements of a specific ISO Management System standard. Our role is to assist you in achieving ISO Certification Readiness and Business Process Improvement. No single organisation is allowed to do both the consulting and the certification parts of your project, as this is a conflict of interest and not meeting the ISO governing rule requirements.

The types of auditing services we provide

Internal Audits

Second Party Audits

Compliance Audits

INTERNAL VS EXTERNAL AUDITS

While they may seem similar, Internal and External audits serve two very different purposes in the ISO Certification process.

Internal Audits are conducted by an organisation itself (their employees or an engaged consultant like ISO Certification Experts) to evaluate its own processes against the organisation’s own requirements and the ISO Standards requirements. Internal Audits meet ISO Standards requirements for Certification, and also serve as a proactive management tool, focusing on improving operational efficiency, risk management, and internal controls, with findings reported directly to the board or management. They need to be conducted at least once before achieving the Certification, and then on a regular and ongoing basis after Certification is achieved.
External Audits, also known as Certification audits, are performed by independent third-party accredited Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) (also commonly known as a Certification Body or Certifier) to provide an unbiased verification of an organisation’s management system against the requirements of the relevant ISO Standards, with the successful outcome resulting in achieving or maintaining ISO Certification. External auditors must remain strictly impartial and are forbidden from providing “consultancy” or any specific advice on how to address the audit findings. They can only tell you what is wrong, not how to fix it.

The table below outlines the key differences in objectives, frequency, and outcomes to help you prepare for both effectively:

Feature	Internal Audit (First-Party)	External Audit (Third-Party)
Primary Goal	Internal continual improvement.	Formal certification and verification of conformance.
Required	Yes, an ISO Standard requirement (Clause 9.2).	Yes, required process for achieving Certification.
Who Performs It?	Internal qualified staff or hired consultants.	Accredited Certification Body auditor.
Who is it for?	The company’s management team.	Customers, regulators and other relevant stakeholders.
Can the auditor give advice?	Yes, they can suggest solutions.	No, that is a conflict of interest.
Frequency	As often as needed, taking a risk-based approach, at “regular intervals”.	Usually annually (Certification, Surveillance, or Re-Certification).
Result	Internal Audit Report with findings and Corrective Actions.	ISO Certificate & Audit Report with findings.
Impact of Failure	An opportunity to fix issues internally prior to client impact.	Risk of losing or failing certification.

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Frequently Asked Questions about ISO Internal Audit Services

Yes. ISO Management System standards (such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, and ISO 27001) include Clause 9.2, which explicitly requires your organisation to conduct internal audits at planned intervals. You cannot achieve or maintain certification without evidence that these audits have been performed, and failing to demonstrate that will result in a major Non-Conformance.

Yes, provided the person conducting the audit is deemed competent and impartial. However, the biggest challenge for most businesses is impartiality, in addition to the added workload; an employee cannot audit their own work or their own department. This is why many Australian businesses choose to outsource to an external specialist like ISO Certification Experts, to ensure the audit is objective and meets the standard’s requirements.

The ISO standards require internal audits at “planned intervals.” While many businesses conduct a full system audit annually, a risk-based approach is best. If a particular process is high-risk or has had recent issues, it should be audited more frequently. We recommend a full system audit prior to the first Certification audit, and then, depending on the size and complexity of the organisation’s processes, split into shorter audits throughout the year. ISO Certification Experts can help you plan for an audit schedule and program that satisfies the relevant ISO Standard(s) without over-burdening your team.

This is actually a good thing. Finding a “Non-Conformance” or any other issue during an internal audit is an opportunity to fix the issue before it impacts a client or other important interested party to the organisation, or before the external Certification Body sees it. It demonstrates that your management system is working correctly because you are identifying and correcting gaps yourself.

A Gap Analysis is typically conducted at the very start of your Certification-readiness journey to see what you are missing to meet the requirements of the relevant ISO Standard(s). It’s a more high-level review of your management system against the Standard(s). An Internal Audit, on the other hand, is a formal check of your existing system to ensure it is being followed and remains effective in meeting your own organisation’s requirements as well as the requirements of the relevant ISO Standard(s).

It depends on the size and complexity of your business and the number of ISO standards you are covering. For a small-to-medium sized enterprise, an internal audit might take 1 to 2 days. We provide a clear timeline and audit plan upfront so there is minimal disruption to your daily operations.

No. An internal auditor (like ISO Certification Experts) prepares you and ensures you are ready for the external/certification audit. The final certificate is issued by an Accredited Certification Body after they perform their own external audit. Our goal is to ensure that when they arrive, you pass with flying colors.

Have a question we didn’t answer here? Visit our full FAQ page.