This ISO 9001:2026 transition checklist has nine steps, each tied to the clauses of the ISO 9001:2026 standard: obtain the standard; brief leadership; question your certification body in writing; treat the transition as a planned change under 6.3; run the gap analysis; list every document that cites the 2015 edition; update the registers, templates, agenda and awareness material; train auditors and complete one internal audit and one management review to the 2026 edition; book the transition audit and close findings. ISO 9001:2026 was published on 16 September 2026 and the transition ends on 30 September 2029, so the checklist is written for a start now and an audit in 2028.
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How to use this checklist now that the text is final
The earlier version of this checklist was split into work against the Final Draft and work after publication, because wording could still move. It cannot move now. ISO 9001:2026 was published on 16 September 2026, and Global ACI published the transition requirements, Global ACI-TECH-3-TR 2029-09-30 (M), the same day. Every step below is against the printed text, and every clause reference is to the 2026 edition.
Three rules make the checklist work. First, do the steps in order, because each one produces the input for the next: the leadership briefing decides what the policy and the registers will say, the gap analysis decides which documents change, and the internal audit and management review are the last two entries before the certification body arrives. Second, record the evidence, not the activity; an auditor will ask for what exists, not for what was done. Third, give every step an owner in your organisation rather than a consultant, because the changed requirements that carry most weight, quality culture and ethical behaviour (5.1.1 i), 7.3 e)), opportunities (6.1.3) and the planning of changes (6.3), are tested with your people in interviews.
The deadlines that frame the checklist are the milestones in the Global ACI document: accreditation bodies ready by 31 March 2027, certification-body declarations by 30 June 2027, accreditation decisions by 30 September 2027, initial certifications only to the 2026 edition from 31 March 2028, and all transitions completed by 30 September 2029. The transition deadline page explains each one.
Steps 1 to 3: the text, the leadership and the certification body
The first three steps cost little and fix your position. You obtain the ISO 9001:2026 standard so that nothing is done from a summary; you brief top management on the five changes that they, not the quality team, must own; and you write to your certification body so that its accreditation date and audit approach are on record. All three can be finished within a month of starting.
Step 1: obtain the ISO 9001:2026 standard
Buy ISO 9001:2026 from ISO or from your national standards body, and work from it. The sixth edition is 36 pages; the transition affects a small part of it, but the audit covers all of it. ISO’s digitally enhanced content that includes ISO 9001 is available from 1 October 2026 for organisations that prefer the digital format. Do not work from a draft, from a training slide deck or from a web page, including this one; the clause-by-clause register is a map to the text, not a substitute for it. Evidence: the copy itself, with a controlled reference in your document register. Owner: the quality manager.
Step 2: brief top management on 5.1.1 i) and k), 5.2.1 e), 6.1.3 and 6.3 e) to g)
Hold one session with top management on the five requirements that fall to them. Item 5.1.1 i) requires them to promote quality culture and ethical behaviour, which NOTE 2 says is reflected in shared values, attitudes, practices and actions. Item 5.1.1 k) requires them to promote opportunity-based thinking alongside risk-based thinking. Item 5.2.1 e) requires the quality policy to take the organisation’s context into account and support its strategic direction. Sub-clause 6.1.3 requires opportunities to be determined, analysed and evaluated in their own right. Items 6.3 e) to g) require planned changes to be communicated, their effectiveness monitored and evaluated, and the results reviewed. The session should end with decisions: what the organisation means by quality culture and ethical behaviour, how the policy will be reworded, and who owns opportunities and changes. Evidence: minutes with decisions and owners. Owner: the chief executive or general manager. The leadership and quality policy page gives the briefing content.
Step 3: ask your certification body, in writing, about its accreditation date and its audit approach
Write to your certification body and ask five things: which accreditation body accredits it for ISO 9001 and when it expects that accreditation to be extended to the 2026 edition; what its transition declaration, due by 30 June 2027, will say; whether your transition audit will be conducted at a scheduled surveillance audit, at recertification or as a special transition audit, and whether any part will be remote by ICT; how much additional audit time it calculates and on what justification under ISO/IEC 17021-1; and the last audit date it will accept for a certificate decision before 30 September 2029. Ask for a written reply and file it. Evidence: the letter and the reply. Owner: the management representative’s successor in your structure, usually the quality manager, since ISO 9001:2026 requires no management representative.
Steps 4 to 6: the transition as a planned change, the gap analysis and the document list
Steps 4 to 6 are the analytical core. You plan the transition itself under 6.3 a) to g), which produces the first record of the new change-planning requirement and a project plan at the same time; you run the gap analysis against the ISO 9001:2026 standard; and you build the list of every document that will change. Together they take two to four weeks in a maintained system.
Step 4: treat the transition as a planned change under 6.3 a) to g)
Clause 6.3 in the 2026 edition requires the organisation, when it determines the need for changes to the quality management system, to consider a) the purpose of the changes and their potential consequences, b) the integrity of the system, c) the availability of resources and information, d) the allocation or reallocation of responsibilities and authorities, e) the communication of the changes, f) how the effectiveness of the changes is monitored and evaluated, and g) how the results are reviewed. The transition is a change to the system, so plan it under all seven items. Doing so gives you a dated project plan with owners, a communication plan for the workforce, monitoring measures such as the internal audit result and the awareness sampling result, and a review point at management review. It also gives the transition auditor the first worked example of 6.3 e) to g) in your system. Evidence: the completed change plan. Owner: the quality manager, approved by top management. The planning of changes page has a one-page template.
Step 5: run the gap analysis against the register
Assess every changed requirement against what your system does now, using the clause-by-clause register, and record each gap with its clause reference, the current state, the required state and the owner. Classify each gap as wording (a document says the wrong thing), evidence (the practice exists but nothing shows it) or behaviour (the practice does not yet exist and needs time to operate). The behaviour gaps set your audit date, because they need months of operation before an auditor can sample them. The register you assess against should include, at minimum, 4.1 and the climate-change determination, 4.2 c), 5.1.1 i) and k), 5.2.1 e), 5.2.2 d), 5.3 e), 6.1.2 with NOTE 1, 6.1.3, 6.3 c) and e) to g), 7.1.6, 7.3 e), 8.2.1 e), 9.1.3 e) and f), 9.3.2 c), g) and h), and 10.1, plus the removal of any reference to 10.3. Evidence: the gap register. Owner: the quality manager, or Sterling through the gap analysis service. The free online gap check is a reasonable first pass before anyone is engaged.
Step 6: list every document that cites ISO 9001:2015 or a 2015 item letter
Search your documented information for every reference to “ISO 9001:2015”, to “10.3”, and to item letters in the clauses whose lists changed or were renumbered between the editions: 5.1.1 (now a) to l)), 5.3 (now a) to f)), 6.1 (now 6.1.1 to 6.1.3), 6.2.1, 7.3 (now with item e)), 9.1.3 (now with items e) and f)), 9.3.2 (now with items c), g) and h)) and 10.3 (absorbed into 10.1). Typical hits are the scope statement, the quality manual if you keep one, the process map, the internal audit procedure and checklist, the management review procedure, the corrective action procedure, the document register, training records that cite clause numbers, and any certificate reference on your website or tender documents. Put each on a list with an owner and a target date. Evidence: the document update list. Owner: the document controller. Where documents live in Effivity or another platform, the search is a report rather than a manual trawl. The documented information page lists the required set, which has not changed.
Steps 7 to 9: registers, auditors, review and the transition audit
The last three steps produce the evidence the transition auditor will sample. You update the four instruments that carry the new requirements, you rebuild the audit capability and run one full internal audit and one management review to the 2026 edition, and you take the transition audit at the scheduled visit that follows. These steps take longest, because two of them depend on the system operating in its updated form.
Step 7: update the registers, the change template, the review agenda and the awareness material
Four updates carry most of the change. Split the risk register into risks and opportunities: under 6.1.2, risks determined, analysed and evaluated, with actions proportionate to the potential impact on the intended results of the system and with disruption considered as NOTE 1 names it; under 6.1.3, opportunities determined, analysed and evaluated, with actions appropriate to context. Adopt the change-planning template from Step 4 as the standard form for every planned change under 6.3. Rewrite the management review agenda to include changes in the needs and expectations of interested parties (9.3.2 c)) and to separate the effectiveness of actions on risks (g)) from the effectiveness of actions on opportunities (h)), which means the analysis under 9.1.3 e) and f) must also be split. Add awareness of the organisational quality culture and ethical behaviour to induction and refresher material under 7.3 e), using the decisions from Step 2. At the same time reword the quality policy for 5.2.1 e) and show it is implemented for 5.2.2 d), record the climate-change determination under 4.1, and record which interested-party requirements the system addresses under 4.2 c). Evidence: the updated registers, template, agenda and awareness content, and the first records produced with them. Owner: the process owners, with the quality manager coordinating. The risks and opportunities page, the management review inputs page and the quality culture and ethics page give the formats.
Step 8: train internal auditors, rebuild the audit checklist, and complete one internal audit and one management review to the 2026 edition
Clause 9.2 is unchanged in substance, but an internal audit against the 2026 edition cannot be conducted with a 2015 checklist. Train your internal auditors on the changed requirements, rebuild the checklist to the 2026 clauses and item letters with no reference to 10.3, and conduct one complete internal audit of the system against the 2026 edition, covering the changed and the unchanged requirements. Close the nonconformities under 10.2. Then hold a management review with the full 9.3.2 input list, including c), g) and h), and record the outputs under 9.3.3. The certification body will ask for both records, and neither can be back-dated, so these two events set the earliest date for the transition audit. Evidence: auditor training records, the 2026 checklist, the audit report, corrective actions, the review minutes. Owner: the internal audit lead and top management. The internal audit checklist contains the audit questions; the training page and the internal audit service are the options if you want Sterling to train the auditors or conduct the audit.
Step 9: book the transition audit and close the findings
Book the transition audit with your certification body in the slot where its accreditation extension and your evidence coincide. Under the Global ACI transition requirements the audit may be conducted during a scheduled surveillance audit, during a recertification audit or as a special transition audit; it may be conducted remotely by ICT; and it shall review the changed requirements of ISO 9001:2026, changes to your context and the need for any other changes to the system, with the certification body considering additional audit time with a justified calculation. Prepare the evidence for the changes in the order of the clause list from Step 5, brief the people who will be interviewed on what they will be asked, and close the findings under 10.2 within the certification body’s timescale. Evidence: the audit plan, the audit report, closed findings, the ISO 9001:2026 certificate on the certification body’s decision. Owner: the quality manager, with top management present for the opening and closing meetings. The certification support page covers the preparation.
The printable ISO 9001:2026 transition checklist
The table below is the nine steps in one page, with the clause references, the evidence each step must leave behind and a column for the owner and the completion date. Print it, assign the owners at the Step 2 briefing, and bring it to every management review until the last row is complete.
| Step | Action | Clause | Evidence | Owner | Done |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Obtain the ISO 9001:2026 standard | Whole standard; ISO digitally enhanced content from 1 October 2026 | Controlled copy in the document register | ||
| 2 | Brief top management and record decisions | 5.1.1 i) and NOTE 2; 5.1.1 k); 5.2.1 e); 6.1.3; 6.3 e), f), g) | Briefing minutes with decisions and owners | ||
| 3 | Write to the certification body: accreditation date, declaration, audit route, additional time, last date | Global ACI-TECH-3-TR 2029-09-30 (M); ISO/IEC 17021-1 | Letter and written reply on file | ||
| 4 | Plan the transition as a change | 6.3 a) to g) | Completed change plan | ||
| 5 | Gap analysis against the register | 4.1; 4.2 c); 5.1.1 i), k); 5.2.1 e); 5.2.2 d); 5.3 e); 6.1.2; 6.1.3; 6.3; 7.1.6; 7.3 e); 8.2.1 e); 9.1.3 e), f); 9.3.2 c), g), h); 10.1 | Gap register classified as wording, evidence, behaviour | ||
| 6 | List every document citing ISO 9001:2015, 10.3 or 2015 item letters in 5.1.1, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2.1, 7.3, 9.1.3, 9.3.2 | 4.3; 7.5 | Document update list with owners and dates | ||
| 7 | Update risk and opportunity registers, change template, management review agenda, awareness material, policy, context records | 6.1.2; 6.1.3; 6.3; 9.3.2 c), g), h); 9.1.3 e), f); 7.3 e); 5.2.1 e); 5.2.2 d); 4.1; 4.2 c) | Updated instruments and the first records produced with them | ||
| 8 | Train internal auditors; rebuild the checklist; one internal audit and one management review to the 2026 edition | 9.2; 10.2; 9.3.2; 9.3.3 | Training records; 2026 checklist; audit report; corrective actions; review minutes | ||
| 9 | Book the transition audit; prepare the evidence for the changes; close findings | Global ACI-TECH-3-TR 2029-09-30 (M); 10.2 | Audit plan; audit report; closed findings; ISO 9001:2026 certificate |
The free online gap check: twenty questions, instant report, quick checklist PDF included
Sterling’s ISO 9001:2026 gap check is a free online self-assessment: twenty plain-language questions on the requirements that are new or changed, each with its clause reference, scored instantly into a readiness report by area with your priority actions. A short form (name, work email, company, mobile) opens before the report, and the quick checklist (PDF), the same twenty questions with a self-score, arrives with it. It is the tool Sterling recommends for Steps 5 to 8.
Use it in three passes. In Step 5, run the gap check with the people who run the system; it is the gap analysis for the changed requirements, and the report gives you the score by area and the items a certification body will test first. In Step 7, use the quick checklist PDF as the tracker for the updates, marking each item when the document has been updated and again when the first record exists. In Step 8, run the gap check again before the internal audit and hand the auditors the twenty items to verify, alongside their own coverage of the unchanged requirements, which is what the transition audit will also do.
The gap check is a screening, not a system. It will not write your policy, evaluate your opportunities or plan your changes; it tells you whether those things exist and, if not, which clause is waiting for them.
Timing the nine steps against the Global ACI milestones
The nine steps fit the transition calendar with room to spare if they start in the last quarter of 2026 and target a transition audit in 2028. The constraint is not the amount of work but the elapsed time the behaviour items need and the date on which your certification body’s accreditation is extended, which falls between 31 March and 30 September 2027.
| Period | Global ACI milestone | Checklist steps |
|---|---|---|
| October to December 2026 | Transition requirements already published (16 September 2026) | Steps 1 to 5 |
| January to June 2027 | 31 March 2027: accreditation bodies ready; 30 June 2027: certification-body declarations due | Steps 6 and 7; awareness delivered; first change planned under 6.3 |
| July to December 2027 | 30 September 2027: accreditation decisions completed | Step 8: internal audit and management review to the 2026 edition |
| 2028 | 31 March 2028: initial certifications only to ISO 9001:2026 from this date | Step 9: transition audit at the scheduled surveillance or recertification audit |
| 2029 to 30 September | 30 September 2029: all transitions completed | Contingency only; ISO 9001:2015 certificates no longer valid after this date |
Organisations whose recertification falls in 2028 make it the transition audit. Organisations whose recertification falls early in 2027 usually recertify to 2015 and transition at the 2028 surveillance audit; the ISO 9001:2026 playbook sets out the scenarios.
How Sterling runs the checklist for you
Sterling Revise™ is the fixed-scope service that delivers Steps 1 to 7 in four weeks and supports Steps 8 and 9. Week 1 is the documentation review and gap assessment against the ISO 9001:2026 standard (Steps 5 and 6); week 2 is the gap report with the number of requirements needing work, before you commit further; weeks 3 and 4 are the plan, the certification-body letter and the first updates (Steps 3, 4 and 7). Sterling does not certify.
The leadership briefing in Step 2 is delivered by a Sterling lead auditor, but the decisions are yours. The internal audit in Step 8 can be conducted by Sterling or by your auditors after training, and the management review is chaired by your top management with Sterling preparing the input pack. Sterling’s team works from Makati, Cebu and Davao, on site or remotely, using Sterling OS™ as the delivery method, and inside Effivity where a client keeps its registers there. The migration service page describes each week; to start, use the contact page, call +63 977 815 1204 or email info@iso-philippines.com.
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Frequently asked questions
Is there an official ISO 9001:2026 transition checklist? No. Neither ISO nor Global ACI publishes a checklist for organisations; Global ACI-TECH-3-TR 2029-09-30 (M) sets requirements for accreditation bodies and certification bodies, and ISO publishes the standard. This nine-step checklist and the free online gap check are Sterling’s, built from the ISO 9001:2026 standard of the sixth edition, and the clause references let you verify every item against the standard yourself.
In what order should we do the steps? In the order given. The leadership briefing (Step 2) supplies the decisions that the policy, the registers and the awareness material (Step 7) depend on; the gap analysis (Step 5) decides which documents change (Step 6); the internal audit and management review (Step 8) must be complete before the transition audit (Step 9). Step 3, the letter to the certification body, can be sent on the first day.
How long does the ISO 9001:2026 transition checklist take? Steps 1 to 7 take four to eight weeks in a maintained system. Step 8 needs the updated system to have operated long enough for an internal audit to sample real records, usually several months, because quality culture and ethical behaviour (7.3 e)), evaluated opportunities (6.1.3) and monitored changes (6.3 f) and g)) need time. Step 9 depends on your certification body’s accreditation extension during 2027 and its diary.
Do we need new documents for ISO 9001:2026? No. The standard adds no mandatory documents or records; the required set is the same as in 2015, re-expressed as “shall be available as documented information” and “shall be available as evidence of” (Annex A.2 e)). No quality manual, no documented procedures and no management representative are required. Step 6 updates what you have; Step 7 changes the content of four instruments you already keep.
Can we skip the internal audit and management review if our transition audit is at recertification? No. The certification body will ask for an internal audit against the 2026 edition (9.2) and a management review with the 2026 inputs (9.3.2), whichever route the transition audit takes. Both must have happened before the audit, with records, and neither can be back-dated. They are the last two entries in Step 8 for that reason.
What if our certification body’s accreditation is not extended when we are ready? Then your transition audit waits for it, which is why Step 3 asks for the date in writing. Accreditation bodies have until 31 March 2027 to be ready and until 30 September 2027 to complete their decisions, so the first accredited ISO 9001:2026 audits happen during 2027, body by body. Use the waiting time to operate the updated system; the evidence improves with every month.
Is the free gap check really free, and does it replace a gap analysis? It is free; a short form (name, work email, company, mobile) opens before the report. It covers the twenty requirements that are new or changed in ISO 9001:2026, scores them by area and lists your priority actions. It is a useful first self-assessment for an organisation that answers it honestly; a Sterling gap analysis adds an auditor’s judgement of whether the evidence would satisfy a certification body, which a spreadsheet cannot give.
Does the checklist also cover ISO 14001:2026? Not directly, but the structure transfers. ISO 14001:2026 was published on 15 April 2026 and its transition, under Global ACI-TECH-3-TR 2029-04-30 (M), ends on 30 April 2029, five months before the ISO 9001 deadline. Organisations holding both certificates should run one plan to the earlier date, with one internal audit and one management review covering both; the integrated transition page explains how.
Read next
The ISO 9001:2026 playbook for the full picture and the seven transition scenarios; the clause-by-clause register that Step 5 is assessed against; the transition deadline page for the Global ACI milestones; the internal audit checklist for Step 8; the free online gap check for Steps 5 to 8; and the migration service page if you want Sterling to run the first seven steps.
Sources
ISO 9001:2026, Quality management systems — Requirements, sixth edition, published 16 September 2026 (36 pages; ISO catalogue stage 60.60): clauses 4.1, 4.2 c), 4.3, 5.1.1 i) with NOTE 2, 5.1.1 k), 5.2.1 e), 5.2.2 d), 5.3 e), 6.1.1, 6.1.2 with NOTE 1, 6.1.3, 6.3 a) to g), 7.1.6, 7.3 e), 7.5, 8.2.1 e), 9.1.3 e) and f), 9.2, 9.3.2 c), g) and h), 9.3.3, 10.1, 10.2, Annex A.2 e). ISO 9001:2015 for the comparison of item letters in 5.1.1, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2.1, 7.3, 9.1.3, 9.3.2 and 10.3. ISO news release of 16 September 2026, including the availability of ISO’s digitally enhanced content from 1 October 2026. Global ACI-TECH-3-TR 2029-09-30 (M), Transition Requirements for ISO 9001:2026, version 1.0, issued 4 September 2026, published by Global ACI on 16 September 2026 (verified on global-aci.org and in the document on 18 September 2026). Global ACI-TECH-3-TR 2029-04-30 (M), Transition Requirements for ISO 14001:2026, published 14 September 2026. ISO 14001:2026, fourth edition, published 15 April 2026. ISO/IEC 17021-1 for audit-time calculation. No Philippine regulation is cited on this page.
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