Certification vs Accreditation
Companies get certified; certification bodies get accredited. Certification confirms your organization meets a standard. Accreditation confirms the certification body itself is competent to make that judgment.
The chain of trust
Three levels. Your organization is certified against ISO 9001 (or 14001, 45001, 27001, 42001) by a certification body, after audit. The certification body is accredited against ISO/IEC 17021 by a national accreditation body — ANAB (US), UKAS (UK), DAkkS (Germany) and peers. The accreditation bodies mutually recognize each other through the IAF, which is why an accredited certificate issued in one country is accepted worldwide.
This chain is what a tender committee or customer actually relies on when they accept your certificate without auditing you themselves.
Why it matters when choosing a certification body
Anyone can sell a certificate; only accreditation makes it worth the paper. Before contracting, verify the body's accreditation on the accreditation body's public directory, and confirm the accreditation covers the standard and scope you need — a body accredited for 9001 is not automatically accredited for 27001.
Related structural rule: an accredited body cannot consult on the system it certifies (independence, per ISO/IEC 17021). USQC operates in accordance with ISO/IEC 17021, 17024, and 17065. Full guides: ISO 17021 and ISO 17024.
Go deeper, free.
Every standard this term appears in has a free clause-by-clause guide on ReadSafety.com — and when you're ready for certification, USQC provides accredited third-party audits.
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