BRL 100 entry assessment: how do you apply for a certificate for the first time?

Your company is not yet BRL 100-certified and you want to start the process for the first time. That is a different story from the annual or biennial surveillance audit of a company that is already certified — with a first application you start from zero, and the Certification Body (CI) still has to establish whether your quality system and your personnel meet the requirements at all. This article walks through the process step by step: from intake to the definitive certificate.

Who is authorised to issue the certificate?

You can't just go anywhere. According to the Informatiepunt Leefomgeving (IPLO) (opent in nieuw tabblad), six Certification Bodies are authorised to issue the BRL 100 company certificate: Bureau Veritas, CIBV, DEKRA Certification, ECH-groep, Kiwa NV and SGS INTRON Certificatie. InstallQ is not on that list — that party certifies other schemes (such as the BRL 6000 series), not BRL 100. See what is BRL 100? for the full background.

Because you can choose from six bodies, it pays to request a quote from at least two. Rates and lead time differ per CI, and none of the six publishes a public price list — how those quotes are put together is explained in what does a BRL 100 audit cost?.

What do you need to have in order before the application?

A CI doesn't just assess your paperwork, but tests whether your organisation actually meets the basic conditions. Two things are non-negotiable in this respect:

• Certified personnel. Every technician who carries out work subject to certification requirements must hold a valid BRL 200 personal certificate. According to the IPLO, the presence of sufficient certified personnel is tested during the initial assessment: without sufficient certified personnel you will not pass that assessment, so in practice this is a hard condition for successfully completing the process.
• A functioning quality system. The CI wants to see that your procedures, responsibilities and working methods are laid down — not just on paper, but also visibly reflected in your day-to-day practice (work orders, installation records, refrigerant records).

It also helps to think in advance about which scope areas you want to have certified. BRL 100 has various scope components (think of design, installation, maintenance); how many scope areas you apply for partly determines the size — and therefore the price — of the process.

The process step by step

The exact procedure differs slightly per CI, but the broad outline is comparable across all six. Kiwa and DEKRA describe the process on their own websites as follows:

• Application and consultation. You contact the CI of your choice and discuss which scope areas you want to have certified. According to Kiwa (opent in nieuw tabblad), the CI gathers information about your organisation during this phase.
• Proposal and agreement. You receive a tailor-made quote, based among other things on company size, number of scope areas and number of locations. After agreeing, you sign a certification agreement and the process starts.
• Initial assessment (the entry assessment). The CI assesses whether your quality system meets the BRL 100 requirements — including a check of whether your technicians hold valid BRL 200 certificates. At DEKRA, this phase also tests whether the quality management system meets the requirements.
• Provisional (or temporary) certificate. If the assessment is positive, you immediately receive a certificate to get started with. Kiwa calls this a "provisional certificate"; DEKRA speaks of a "temporary BRL 100 certificate" with a validity period of 6 months. The terminology differs per CI, but the core is the same: you may already work under the quality mark, but the process is not yet complete.
• Follow-up assessment within 6 months. Within those 6 months the CI carries out a second, usually more extensive assessment — at DEKRA this specifically involves a check of projects on site, to see whether practice matches what you had set out on paper.
• Definitive certificate. If the follow-up assessment is positive, the definitive BRL 100 certificate follows. From that point onward, the regular surveillance cycle applies: see the BRL 100 annual check for what that involves.

Please note: how long the entire process takes from the very first application to the definitive certificate depends heavily on how quickly your organisation is ready for the initial assessment and how quickly the CI can schedule you in. None of the CIs publishes a fixed, guaranteed lead time for this — ask about it explicitly when requesting a quote.

What if something goes wrong during the entry assessment?

A negative or partially negative outcome at the initial assessment does not automatically mean your process stops. In practice you get the opportunity to correct identified shortcomings before the CI reassesses. How that process works for an existing certificate — including correction periods and the severity of a finding — is explained in BRL 100: what happens when there's a non-conformity during the audit?; the same logic around findings and correction periods also applies to a first entry assessment.

The most common mistakes with a first application

• Technicians not yet BRL 200-certified at the time of application. This is the most common blockage: without sufficient personnel holding a valid personal certificate, you will not pass the initial assessment. Arrange this well before you approach a CI.
• Measuring equipment not calibrated. Scales, pressure gauges, thermometers and leak detectors must demonstrably be calibrated. See calibration of measuring equipment BRL 100 for what that involves.
• Requesting one CI quote and signing immediately. Because rates and approach differ per CI, comparing is the only way to know whether a quote is reasonable.
• Applying for scope areas you don't carry out. Every extra scope area makes the assessment — and therefore the costs — heavier, without it gaining you anything if you don't do that work anyway.
• Thinking the provisional certificate is the end point. The provisional or temporary certificate is an intermediate step. Without the follow-up assessment within the set period, you will not get a definitive certificate.

How Koldwerk helps with this

Before you start an entry assessment, you want to be able to demonstrate that your records already add up — exactly what auditors look at. The digital work orders module enforces that every work order has an installation, a technician, a customer and signatures. The refrigerant module automatically keeps the cylinder and installation balance adding up. And with Compliance Autopilot you see at a glance whether all your technicians hold a valid BRL 200 certificate — including a sorted list with a warning before a certificate expires.

Further reading

• What is BRL 100, and why does it affect your work order? — the basics of the guideline and the six authorised CIs.
• What does a BRL 100 audit cost? Cost structure and factors — how the quote for your first certification is put together.
• The BRL 100 annual check: what the auditor expects — what happens once you have the definitive certificate.
• BRL 100: what happens when there's a non-conformity during the audit? — correction periods and the severity of findings.
• Calibration of measuring equipment BRL 100 — what your measuring equipment must be able to demonstrate.
• BRL 200 F-gases — the personal certificate of your technician — the condition you already need to have in order before the application.

Disclaimer: this article is a practical explanation based on the process descriptions of Kiwa and DEKRA and the requirements as summarised by the Informatiepunt Leefomgeving. The exact procedure, conditions and lead time differ per certification body — request a quote and process description from the CI of your choice before you start.