03.1
Side by side
JASANZ puts it in one line: “Accreditation and certification work together, but they are not the same thing.” The table sets out how ISO and JASANZ describe each.
| Question | Certification | Accreditation |
|---|---|---|
| ISO’s definition | Written assurance (a certificate) from an independent body that a product, service or system “meets specific requirements” | Formal recognition by an independent body, usually called an accreditation body, that the certifier “operates according to international standards” |
| Who is checked | Products, services, systems and processes | Organisations that carry out certification, inspection, testing and verification |
| What it shows | Evidence that the product, service, system or process went through an assessment against “defined requirements” | That the organisation has “the competence, impartiality, and capability to perform their work” |
| What is issued | A certificate, where the requirements are met | From JASANZ: an accreditation certificate, a scope of accreditation, a listing on its public register and the right to use its accreditation mark |
| Another name for it | “third party conformity assessment”, in ISO’s words | “the independent evaluation of conformity assessment bodies against recognised standards”, in Global ACI’s definition |
| Compulsory? | Not for ISO management system standards, ISO says, though for some industries it is “a legal or contractual requirement” | “In most countries, accreditation is voluntary”, according to Global ACI |
The two sentences that settle it come from JASANZ’s own page: “JASANZ does not certify products, management systems, or individuals.” It accredits the organisations that do. A business’s certificate is therefore never issued by JASANZ; at most it comes from a JASANZ-accredited body.
03.2
“Accredited” does more than one job
The word turns up across the standards world with different objects. Three uses that a reader in Australia may meet:
Accredited by JASANZ
Certification, inspection, testing and verification bodies, assessed for competence and impartiality.
Accredited to ISO/IEC 17025
Testing and calibration laboratories. Global ACI names ISO/IEC 17025 as the standard they may seek accreditation to. For Australian test laboratories, Standards Australia points to the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA).
Accredited by Standards Australia
Organisations accredited to develop Australian Standards in their own field. Standards Australia lists five such Standards Development Organisations (as at October 2026).
So “accredited” on its own says little. The useful questions are by whom, for what activity, and to which standard or scheme; JASANZ’s register lists each accredited body with its “scope of accreditation”.
03.3
Two JASANZ marks with two meanings
JASANZ uses two marks, and it is careful to separate them.
In short, the symbol sits on a certificate, while the logo belongs to an accredited certifier and is not a certificate at all. Neither is shown on this page: both belong to JASANZ.
03.4
When the words are stretched
JASANZ’s Accreditation Manual (issued 1 July 2026) requires accredited bodies to make it a condition of service that their clients correct any misleading statements about their certification. Its own example of a misleading statement is worth knowing:
“representing management systems in word or graphically as certifying a product”, and the reverse.
JASANZ, Accreditation Manual, section 13
Read that way, a certificate for a management system speaks about how a business is run, not about any one product it sells. Where a client’s misleading claims are not corrected, the manual says the accredited body is liable to cancel the registration.
And one caution from ISO in the other direction: accreditation is “not compulsory”, and a certification body without it may still be reputable. The guide to checking a certificate shows how to see which kind a certificate is.