{"slug":"/consulting/ndt-audit-documentation","title":"NDT Audit Documentation Packs: Evidence Before the Audit","description":"Audit packs for client supplier audits, operator prequalification, ISO 9001 surveillance and internal audits, plus a mock audit and gap list beforehand.","h1":"The audit pack you build before the auditor builds it for you","answer":"An NDT audit documentation pack gathers the evidence an auditor will ask for, checked and indexed before they arrive: the written practice, certification files with current vision records, procedure approvals, equipment calibration evidence and sample reports traced to all of them. Atlantis builds the pack, runs a mock audit against it and hands over a prioritized gap list to close.","expansion":"Four kinds of audit reach an NDT company. A client supplier audit tests whether you can deliver to the client's specification with the people and equipment you propose. Operator prequalification is frequently a desk review of uploaded documents before you are allowed to bid. ISO 9001 surveillance samples clauses of your quality management system: monitoring and measuring resources under 7.1.5, competence under 7.2, documented information under 7.5, external providers under 8.4, internal audit under 9.2 and corrective action under 10.2. Internal audits are your own check, run on your own schedule. Each starts somewhere different, and all of them converge on the same records. The pack is indexed to the auditor's questions rather than to your filing system, so evidence is produced on request instead of hunted for. Our free [client audit evidence pack checklist](/resources/client-audit-evidence-pack-checklist) shows the structure; for a full programme review, see [NDT audit consulting](/consulting/ndt-audit-consulting).","source":"ISO 9001:2015 clauses 7.1.5, 7.2, 7.5, 8.4, 9.2 and 10.2; ASNT SNT-TC-1A (2024, with Addendum); ANSI/ASNT CP-189 (2024); client supplier audit questionnaires and specifications.","table":{"caption":"Where each audit starts, and what it ends up sampling","columns":["Audit","Run by","Starting point","Records sampled","Result of an unresolved finding"],"rows":[["Client supplier audit","Client quality staff or its NDT Level III","The client's specification and your proposal","Files for the named crew, procedures against the specification, calibration of the kit to be mobilized, sample reports","Conditional approval, restricted scope or no award"],["Operator prequalification","The operator's contractor management team, often by desk review","A questionnaire and uploaded evidence","Written practice, certification matrix, quality certificates, procedure list, safety records","Not added to the approved bidder list"],["ISO 9001 surveillance","Certification body auditor","The clause sample planned for the visit and earlier findings","Competence records, calibration, document control, control of outsourced NDT, internal audits, corrective actions","A nonconformity requiring corrective action, with certification at risk if it stays open"],["Internal audit","Your own auditor or an outside Level III","Your audit programme","Whatever the programme schedules: personnel files, procedures, reports, subcontractors","Your own finding, closed on your own timetable"],["Code inspector review","Authorized Inspector or third-party inspector","The job documents","Procedure approval, personnel certification, demonstration records, reports","A hold on the job until evidence is produced"]],"note":"Every audit type ends at the same records, so build one pack and index it several ways."},"facets":[{"q":"What goes in an NDT audit documentation pack?","a":"The written practice and its approval; a certification matrix by person, method, level and expiry; personnel files with training, experience, examination and vision records; the procedure list with approvals and code editions; equipment calibration and verification evidence; sample reports; internal audit and corrective action records; and evidence of control over subcontracted NDT. Each item is indexed to the auditor's checklist."},{"q":"How is a mock audit different from an internal audit?","a":"An internal audit follows your audit programme and checks the system against its own requirements. A mock audit simulates a specific external audit, using that auditor's checklist and sampling style, ahead of the real visit. A mock audit planned within your audit programme, with findings logged and closed, can count as an internal audit as well."},{"q":"What do ISO 9001 auditors look for in an NDT company?","a":"Evidence that the processes the certificate covers run as the system describes. For NDT that means competence records for certified personnel, calibration status of instruments and reference standards, control of procedures and report formats, control of outsourced NDT, and whether internal audits and corrective actions actually close. They sample, so every sampled record has to stand on its own."},{"q":"How should we prioritize when a client audit is close?","a":"Start with what the client will sample: files for the crew you have named, procedures for the scope you have quoted, calibration for the equipment you will mobilize, and two or three reports traced end to end. Fix anything that would stop approval first. Improvements an auditor would only note can follow on a corrective action plan."},{"q":"What equipment evidence belongs in the pack?","a":"Calibration certificates traceable to each instrument's serial number; reference blocks and standards with their material and dimensional certification; the verification records procedures require, such as pre-use checks; light and UV-A meter calibration; magnetic particle yoke checks; and image quality indicators for radiography. Each must be current on the dates of the sampled reports."},{"q":"What is a gap list and how is it ranked?","a":"The output of the mock audit: every finding, with the evidence that prompted it, ranked by what it would do in the real audit. Findings that would stop approval or certification come first, then findings an auditor would raise, then observations. Each line names an owner, the closure evidence expected and a target date you set."}],"sections":[{"heading":"Four audits, one set of records","paragraphs":["Client auditors, prequalification reviewers, certification body auditors and internal auditors ask questions in different orders and with different emphasis. A client auditor starts from their specification and your proposed crew. A prequalification reviewer starts from a questionnaire. An ISO 9001 auditor starts from a clause sample. An internal auditor starts from your audit programme. Before long, all of them are asking for the same personnel files, procedure approvals, calibration records and reports.","That convergence is what makes a pack worth building. One set of verified records, indexed several ways, serves every audit without being rebuilt each time. The index maps the client's questionnaire or the registrar's clause list to the evidence, so a question is answered by handing over a tab rather than by sending someone to search a shared drive while the auditor waits.","The written practice opens the pack, because every auditor either reads it first or measures everything else against it. Include the current revision with its approval signatures, the edition of SNT-TC-1A or CP-189 it adopts, and a short list of changes since the last audit. If the written practice and the practice on the floor have drifted apart, an auditor will find the gap within a handful of files, so the pack review checks the two against each other before anything else is indexed."]},{"heading":"Personnel evidence: files that answer before they are asked","paragraphs":["Personnel files absorb a large share of audit time, because each one is a chain of records. The pack should open with a certification matrix showing every person by method, level, certification date and expiry, with vision currency alongside. Behind it sit the files themselves: training records, experience logs, examination records, vision records and the certification letter, each checked against the written practice before the auditor sees it.","The checks that matter are the ones auditors make: hours against the written practice, supervisors certified in the method, examination papers graded by the right Level III, vision current on the dates of sampled reports, and certification letters stating method, level and expiry. Our pages on [vision records](/consulting/ndt-vision-examination-records), [training records](/consulting/ndt-training-records-and-certificates) and [experience logs](/consulting/ndt-experience-logs) set out what each record needs."]},{"heading":"Procedure and approval evidence","paragraphs":["The pack needs a procedure register: every procedure in use, its revision, the code and edition it is written to, the Level III who approved it and the date, and any client acceptance. Superseded revisions should be identifiable and withdrawn from use. Where a code or client requires qualification by demonstration, the qualification record sits with the procedure it qualifies, and the procedure cites it.","Client auditors also check fit: does the procedure you would use cover their specification? A compliance matrix or [project-specific procedure](/consulting/project-specific-ndt-procedures) prepared in advance answers that directly. Where your programme and the client's differ more fundamentally, on certification scheme or code edition, a [bridging document](/consulting/ndt-bridging-documents) agreed before the audit takes a whole category of findings off the table."]},{"heading":"Equipment calibration and verification evidence","paragraphs":["Equipment evidence is a matter of traceability. For each instrument, probe, reference block, image quality indicator, light meter and yoke likely to be sampled, the pack should show the current calibration or verification, the standard it was checked against and its due date, all linked by serial number. A certificate that cannot be matched to the item on the bench, or to the item named on a report, is not evidence.","Procedure-required checks are the second layer: the pre-use or periodic verifications technicians perform under the procedure, such as instrument linearity, UV-A intensity or yoke lifting capability. Auditors pick a report and ask for the checks recorded on that date. If those records live in technicians' notebooks, the pack should either hold copies or show exactly where they are kept and who controls them."]},{"heading":"Report samples: the trace test","paragraphs":["Every serious auditor runs the trace test. They choose a report and follow it: the technician named on it, certified for the method and level on that date, with vision current; the procedure and revision cited, approved and suited to the code; the instrument and probe or source listed, calibrated and verified; the acceptance criteria applied, matching the contract. One broken link is a finding.","A good pack includes several pre-traced reports, chosen to represent the methods and clients the audit covers, with each link documented. Preparing them is the most efficient rehearsal available, because it exercises every record type at once. If a pre-trace fails, the failure has been found by you, with time to correct the system rather than explain it."]},{"heading":"The mock audit and the gap list","paragraphs":["A mock audit uses the real auditor's checklist and sampling style. For a client audit that means the client's questionnaire and specification; for ISO 9001 surveillance, the clause sample and any findings left open from the last visit; for prequalification, the questionnaire and evidence uploads. An outside Level III conducting the mock audit brings the technical reading a general quality auditor may lack and an independence an in-house reviewer cannot offer.","The gap list ranks every finding by its likely effect in the real audit: would it stop approval, would an auditor raise it, or is it an observation. Each line records the evidence that prompted it, an owner, the expected closure evidence and a target date. Closure is verified before the audit rather than assumed, and closed items are moved into the pack so the auditor sees the corrected record."]},{"heading":"What Atlantis delivers on audit documentation","paragraphs":["We assemble and index the pack to the audit you face, check every record against your written practice and procedures, pre-trace sample reports, run the mock audit, and hand over the gap list with drafted corrections where documents need repair. Technical content is reviewed by an ASNT NDT Level III. Atlantis is certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001; a mock audit by us is preparation, not certification, and does not replace your registrar's or client's audit.","If an audit date is already set, tell us the audit type, the scope and the date, and we will build the pack around what the auditor is most likely to sample. [Request an audit pack quote](/contact?service=consulting&subject=Audit%20documentation%20pack) with the auditor's checklist or questionnaire attached if you have it."]}],"faq":[{"q":"Can Atlantis support us during the client's audit?","a":"Where it is agreed in the scope, yes: a Level III can attend to answer technical questions on documents we prepared or reviewed. You remain the auditee, and answers about how your programme runs day to day are yours to give. Most of the value lies in the preparation rather than the attendance."},{"q":"We already failed an audit. Can you help close the findings?","a":"Yes. We review each finding, separate the immediate correction from the root cause, draft the corrected documents and the corrective action record, and check closure evidence before you submit it. Findings closed with paperwork alone, without fixing the cause, tend to return at the next visit."},{"q":"Is Atlantis a certification body?","a":"No. Atlantis is certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 by its own registrar. It does not certify management systems or personnel. A mock audit or pack review from us is preparation for an audit that someone else conducts."},{"q":"Do you audit our NDT subcontractors as well?","a":"Yes, as a separate scope. Control of outsourced NDT is a clause auditors sample, and evidence that you approved and monitor your subcontractors belongs in the pack. Our [subcontractor approval audits](/consulting/subcontractor-approval-audits) page describes that work."}]}