Solutions · Quality management
As quality management representative, you keep a system running that many people contribute to and few have time for. Sightadel manages documents, audits, reviews and corrective actions under ISO 9001 in one place, with deadlines, owners and a status you can show management and the auditor at any time.
Starting point
A good part of the work in quality management is chasing people up. The procedure needs approval, the process owner has not yet delivered the KPI, the corrective action from the last audit has been open for three months. Most of this is tracked in spreadsheets, folders and emails. Before the surveillance audit, everything that was left lying during the year is then gathered up.
ISO 9001 actually requires less paper than many manuals contain. A manual is not mandatory. What is required is documented information on certain points and evidence that the system triggers decisions: objectives are tracked, audits take place, errors lead to corrections, management reviews and decides. These are exactly the points where audits get stuck, not the number of documents.
On top of that, the standard is changing. A new edition of ISO 9001 was published in September 2026. Certificates under the 2015 edition remain valid for a transition period, but every certified company has to make the transition. Your certification body will give you the binding date. If you already run your system in good order, you can work the changes in selectively instead of rewriting the manual.
Why now
The date is set, and open items from the last audit have not yet been evidenced. With a well-maintained status, you show the auditor what has been done and explain the rest, instead of gathering everything together the week before.
Following the publication of the new ISO 9001 in September 2026, every certified system must be transitioned within the transition period. For this, you need a comparison of what has changed and a plan of who adapts what by when.
Management wants ISO/IEC 27001, a customer asks about information security, or HACCP is due in the food division. Then you do not want a second filing system, but to use the existing one.
With every site and every new department, the number of documents, process owners and audit areas grows. What still worked with spreadsheets becomes confusing.
You take over a system from a predecessor or hand it on. Then it becomes clear how much was only in people's heads and personal folders. A central repository with history makes the handover plannable.
Relevant frameworks
Summarised in our own words, not legal advice. The original text in its current version is authoritative.
Not required by law, but in many industries a prerequisite for framework agreements and tenders. Clauses 4 to 10 cover context, leadership, planning, support, operation, performance evaluation and improvement. In Sightadel, they are mapped in 55 controls. The certificate is issued by an accredited body for three years, with annual surveillance audits.
View framework →Often introduced as a second management system because customers ask about information security. The basic structure of clauses 4 to 10 is the same. You manage document control, internal audit, management review and corrective actions together. Many certification bodies offer a combined audit.
View framework →In companies dealing with food, a HACCP plan is mandatory. Supplier assessment, training records, control of records and corrective actions count for both systems and are maintained only once.
View framework →If you build AI into products or processes, you can set up an AI management system on top of quality management. Leadership, risk process and audit programme are shared; what is new is mainly the impact assessment and the life cycle of AI systems.
View framework →Recommended order
You upload existing procedures, forms, process descriptions and audit reports, including from Excel and Word. Then you map them to the controls. That way you see what is evidenced and where there are gaps.
Every controlled document gets an owner, a version, an approval and a date for the next review. Outdated versions remain traceable but are marked as superseded.
All processes are audited over a fixed period, important and conspicuous ones more often. Dates, auditors and checklists are in the plan. Findings become measures directly.
Nonconformities from audits, complaints and supplier problems go through one shared process: determine the cause, define the measure, implement it, check effectiveness. Only then is it closed.
Objectives, KPIs, audit results, customer satisfaction, supplier performance and open measures are already available. Management reviews and decides, and the decisions become tasks.
With a new edition of the standard, you compare the changed requirements with your status, plan the adjustments and evidence them. Then comes the transition audit, usually together with a surveillance or recertification audit.
Working with the certification body
Sightadel does not certify. Under ISO/IEC 17021, a certification body may not also provide consulting. This separation makes the collaboration clear.
You choose an accredited certification body from our independent partner network or keep your current one. No commission is paid for audits, neither to us nor to the partners.
The auditor gets a role of their own. They see documents, evidence and measures in their current state, add comments and can prepare before the appointment. They can never delete anything.
Nonconformities and recommendations from the audit are created as measures with a deadline. At the next audit, it is traceable what became of them.
Certification bodies often allocate dates weeks in advance, and even earlier before transition deadlines. Schedule surveillance and transition audits in good time.
How Sightadel helps
Clauses 4 to 10 in 55 controls, each with an explanation of what is meant and which evidence fits. For the internal audit, you use the same structure as a checklist.
Learn more →Controlled documents with version, approval and expiry date, records and audit reports with the requirement they evidence. One piece of evidence can serve ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 27001 at the same time.
Learn more →Corrective actions, audit findings and management review decisions as tasks with a deadline, owner and effectiveness check. Process owners are invited as Contributors and complete their part themselves.
Learn more →Suppliers with assessment, certificates and follow-up dates. Sightadel reminds you when a reassessment is due or a certificate expires.
Learn more →You set up customer requirements, group requirements or internal standards as your own framework and link them to the same evidence as ISO 9001.
Learn more →Drafts for quality policy, procedures and process descriptions from many years of consulting and certification practice. You adapt them to your processes. Approvals remain your decision.
Learn more →Effort and duration
The ranges are based on experience, not a commitment. The biggest factors are management support and the time process owners can spend on evidence and measures.
What you license · typically Professional
Quality management with several process owners typically works with ISO 9001 in the Professional edition. It includes ten users, 25 suppliers and three custom frameworks. If HACCP or NIS2 is added, it permanently costs less because ISO 9001 is already licensed. ISO/IEC 27001 is excluded.
Licence per framework, minimum term one year, payable monthly or annually. You will find all prices, discounts and a calculator on the pricing page. Fees of a certification or audit body are charged separately.
Questions and answers
More in our FAQ or directly via our contact form.
A new edition was published in September 2026. The basic structure of clauses 4 to 10 remains. Which requirements have changed in detail can be found in the standard itself. In Sightadel, the new edition is available in your current subscription at no extra charge as soon as it has been incorporated, and your evidence is retained.
For a transition period set by the accreditation rules. The first certification bodies are quoting three years from publication. Your certification body will tell you the binding date and the procedure for the transition audit.
For the documents of the management system, usually yes: version, approval, owner, review date and history are managed there. Engineering drawings, test data from production or contracts still belong in the systems where they are created. You link them as evidence where needed.
Yes. There are six roles: Admin, Internal Consultant, Contributor, Viewer, External Consultant and Auditor, who comments, edits after approval and never deletes. Process owners work as Contributors, answer their controls, store evidence and complete measures. You see the status and only follow up where necessary.
No. Under ISO/IEC 17021, a certification body may not consult and certify at the same time. You choose an accredited body from our independent partner network or one of your own. No commission is paid for audits, neither to us nor to the partners.
Yes. Both standards share the same basic structure. In Sightadel, you link one piece of evidence to the requirements of both standards and maintain it only once. You can plan internal audit and management review together, and many certification bodies offer a combined audit.
No. ISO standards are protected by copyright. Sightadel contains structure, controls, guiding questions, templates and its own explanations, not the wording. You need a copy of the standard in-house.
For questions of interpretation, preparing for a difficult audit or the transition to the new edition, you can book consulting as a package directly in the app. You invite your own external consultants into your account with the external Consultant role.
14 days, full access, no payment details. Everything you set up carries over into the paid plan.
