The MCS audit process
An MCS audit is a check that the quality management system you wrote is the one you are working to. The assessor picks real installations, follows them through your paperwork, and looks for the gaps between what your procedures say and what the job file shows.
The first audit is different from the ones after it
The initial assessment establishes that the system exists and is capable of producing compliant installations. Because a new applicant may have few or no MCS-registered installations yet, assessors frequently work from a recent non-MCS job, or from a design and a documented process rather than a completed handover.
Surveillance audits after certification are different in kind. By then you have registered installations, and the assessor is sampling them. The question moves from "could this system work" to "did it".
What the assessor asks to see
The specifics vary by certification body, but the shape does not. An assessor is tracing a job from first contact to handover and checking that each step left the evidence your QMS says it leaves.
- The heat loss calculation, and that the emitters and cylinder follow from it.
- The system design and who signed it off.
- Commissioning records, with real readings rather than defaults.
- The handover pack the customer actually received.
- Records of any variation between what was quoted and what was installed.
- Your complaints log — including that it is empty if it is genuinely empty.
- Ongoing competence: current certificates, and training records where relevant.
The non-conformances that come up most
Almost none of the common findings are about installation quality. They are about the distance between the documented system and the working one.
- A QMS template still describing roles and processes that are not yours.
- Commissioning sheets with fields left blank or carrying manufacturer defaults.
- Heat loss calculations that do not match the emitters actually fitted.
- A handover pack missing the documents the QMS promises the customer.
- No record of the design being checked by anybody.
- Certificates that lapsed between one audit and the next.
Minor and major findings
Findings are graded. A minor non-conformance is normally something you correct and evidence within an agreed period, and certification proceeds. A major non-conformance is one that undermines confidence in the system as a whole, and it has to be closed out before certification is granted or maintained.
The practical consequence is that arguing with a minor finding costs more than fixing it. Assessors are used to being told a gap is not really a gap; what closes an audit is a corrected document and evidence it is now being used.
Preparing for a surveillance audit
The work is done in the months before, not the week before. If job files are completed as jobs finish, a surveillance audit is a morning. If they are reconstructed from memory the week before, the assessor can usually tell, because reconstructed files are too tidy and too similar to each other.
Common questions
How often is an MCS audit?+
Certification bodies run surveillance audits on a cycle, typically annually, alongside the initial assessment when you first certify. Your certification body sets the exact schedule and will tell you when yours is due.
Is an MCS audit on site or remote?+
Both are used. Documentation review is frequently remote, and an assessor may also want to see an installation. Which applies to you depends on your certification body and on what you are certifying for.
What happens if I fail an MCS audit?+
A failed audit is normally a set of non-conformances with a period to close them, not an immediate loss of certification. What genuinely puts certification at risk is leaving major findings open past the deadline, or the same finding recurring at successive audits.
Can I use the same QMS as another installer?+
You can start from the same template — most people do. What you cannot do is submit it unchanged. A QMS describes your business, and an assessor reading procedures that describe somebody else’s has found a non-conformance before looking at a single job.