IAF ConsultancyA transfer is arranged so the new certificate is issued while the old one is still valid. In that order, the company stays certified from one body to the next. A gap opens when the old certificate is withdrawn, or expires, before the new one exists.
How do you keep the coverage continuous?
Apply while the certificate still has time on it. Wait for the written offer. Complete the review. Take the new certificate. Then ask the old body to withdraw its certificate, or let that certificate end. Withdrawing first, to hurry the new body, is how companies spend a month with nothing to send.
The conversation with the current body is in when to tell your certification body. The expiry rule that makes the handoff possible is in keeping the same expiry date.
What do customers look up?
Customers read the PDF you send, and some of them look the certificate up on the register their accreditation system publishes. Those registers do not all refresh on the afternoon of the decision. For a tender that closes on a fixed day, the attachment has to be the certificate. A note that a quote is in progress will not pass that line. How to time the work against a bid is in transferring before a tender.
If a contract names the old body specifically, read that clause before you assume any accredited certificate will satisfy it. A clause that asks for an accredited certificate to a standard is a certification question. A clause that names one company is a contract question.
How does the quote protect the date?
The application produces a written offer with scope, timing, and price, before a visit is booked. Put the expiry date and any tender date in the scope notes, and choose Transfer from another body. If those dates do not fit a transfer, the offer says the work is an audit, and you know that before you cancel anything.
IAF Consultancy audits. SMG issues the certificate. The certificate is what closes the handoff. The recommendation that precedes it is a step in the file. The full route is in how to change certification body.