Blog · Certification & Compliance Strategy

I'm Halfway Through ISO 9001 Certification. Do I Certify to 2015 or Wait for 2026?

Published 28 September 2026 · 7 min read

You started working toward ISO 9001 certification months ago. The documents are coming together, maybe you have even booked an audit. Then on 16 September 2026, ISO published a new version of the standard, and now every email in your inbox seems to be asking whether you are "2026 ready".

So which version do you certify to? The honest answer is that it depends on how far along you are, not on the standard itself. And there is one option that is almost always wrong: stopping to wait and see.

This article walks you through the decision, based on where you actually are, and gives you the exact questions to put to your certification body this week.

First, what is actually at stake

A quick bit of background. Your certificate is issued by a certification body, the independent company that audits you (think SAI Global, BSI, Bureau Veritas and many smaller firms). In Australia, those bodies are themselves checked and accredited by JAS-ANZ, the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand. When a tender asks for "accredited certification", that is what it means.

Your certificate names the version of the standard you were audited against. Right now that can be ISO 9001:2015 or, once your certification body is ready, ISO 9001:2026.

A 2015 certificate does not stop working because a new version exists. There is a transition period, and it ends on 30 September 2029. After that, 2015 certificates can no longer be used. So a 2015 certificate issued today still gives you years of use, and you move it across to 2026 at a later audit.

Those dates are confirmed. Transition rules are set by the international accreditation community. That used to be the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), which merged with another body at the start of 2026 to form Global ACI (Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated). Global ACI published its ISO 9001:2026 transition requirements on 16 September 2026, the same day as the standard. If you are part-way through certification, the date that matters most is 31 March 2028. From then on, new certificates can only be issued to the 2026 version.

The good news is that the work you have already done is not wasted either way. The 2026 version keeps the same ten-clause structure as 2015. Most of what you have built carries straight across. If you want the full picture of what changed, our article on what ISO 9001:2026 actually means for a small Australian business covers it clause by clause.

Work out where you actually are

Most businesses that are part-way through fall into one of three spots. Be honest about which one is yours, because the answer changes.

If you are close: finish on 2015

You are close if your documents are largely built, you have been keeping records for a few months (things like complaints, corrective actions and an internal audit), and your Stage 1 audit is booked or already done. Stage 1 is the first visit, where the auditor checks your documents and your readiness. We explain it properly in what actually happens during a Stage 1 audit.

In this position, finishing to 2015 usually makes the most sense. You get your certificate sooner, which matters if a tender, a head contractor or a big client is waiting on it. You are not relying on your certification body being ready to audit a brand new version. And you can do the move to 2026 later, often at one of your yearly check-up audits (called surveillance audits).

The cost of this path is a bit of extra work down the track: updating a short list of documents and a transition audit. We have mapped out exactly which documents change in do I have to re-do my ISO 9001 documents for the 2026 version? For most small businesses it is a bounded job, not a rebuild.

If you are in the middle: build to 2026, certify to whichever is ready

This is the genuinely tricky spot. Your documents are partly written, you have some records, but no audit is booked yet. Picture a six-person electrical contractor in Parramatta that has its procedures drafted and has been logging jobs and complaints for two months.

Here is the approach we recommend. Write the new 2026 expectations into your system now, while you are still writing it, and then certify to whichever version your certification body can audit when you are ready.

This works because building a little beyond the 2015 requirements never fails a 2015 audit. The main additions are:

• Climate change. This is already required under 2015. A 2024 amendment added it to Clause 4 (the part about what affects your business). So you need it either way.
• Quality culture and ethical behaviour. The 2026 version makes these a clear leadership responsibility. In a small business that means you, the owner, showing how you set the tone for doing the job properly.
• Opportunities, not just risks. Clause 6 (planning) now separates risks from opportunities more clearly. Most small businesses only ever wrote down the risks.

Build those in now and you avoid writing the same documents twice. If your certification body is ready to audit 2026 by the time you are, you go straight to a 2026 certificate. If it is not, you certify to 2015 and your transition later is tiny, because the work is already done. Just remember that a 2015 certificate has to be issued before 31 March 2028.

If you are early: build to 2026 from the start

You are early if you have done a gap analysis, maybe written a policy, but most of the system is still ahead of you. In that case, there is no good reason to build to a version you would soon have to update. Work to 2026 from day one.

The one catch is timing. Your certification body has to be accredited by JAS-ANZ to audit the new version before it can issue you an accredited 2026 certificate, and each body gets there on its own timeline. Under the Global ACI timeline, JAS-ANZ has until 31 March 2027 to be ready to assess certification bodies against the new version, and those approvals run through to 30 September 2027. By the time you are audit-ready, which for a small business is often six months or more away, that may well be sorted. But ask now rather than assume.

The four questions to ask your certification body this week

Whichever spot you are in, your certification body holds most of the answers. Send them an email with these four questions:

• When do you expect to be accredited to audit ISO 9001:2026? This tells you whether a 2026 certificate is even an option on your timeline.
• Will you stop issuing new 2015 certificates before 31 March 2028? That is the latest date Global ACI allows for a new 2015 certificate, but your certification body can choose to stop earlier.
• If I certify to 2015 now, can my transition to 2026 happen at a surveillance audit, and what extra audit time would that add? Extra audit time means extra cost, so get a straight answer.
• Is anything I have already submitted affected? If you are past Stage 1, check that nothing in your documents needs to change before Stage 2 (the main on-site audit).

If you have not chosen a certification body yet, these questions are also a good way to compare them. How clearly they answer tells you a fair bit about what they will be like to work with.

What not to do

Do not pause the project. Waiting until everything is certain is the only choice here that reliably costs you months. The ten clauses have not moved. The work in front of you is the same work it was in August.

Do not buy a rebuild. If someone is selling you a full "2026 transition package" to rewrite a system you have only just built, be sceptical. The changes are real, but they are targeted.

Do not leave it to the last year. If you certify to 2015, plan your transition for well before mid 2029. Certification bodies get busy as deadlines approach, and audit dates get harder to find.

The short version

• Stage 1 booked or done, records running: finish on 2015, transition later.
• Documents part-written, no audit booked: build in the 2026 additions now, certify to whichever version your certification body can audit.
• Just started: build to 2026 from the start, and confirm your certification body's timing.
• Everyone: email your certification body the four questions above, and keep going.

Not sure which spot you are in? A gap analysis will show you quickly how much of your system is in place and what is still missing. Our guide on how to run your first gap analysis in Lead Comply walks you through it, and you can run it free in the portal today.