10 replies to this topic

[pawel1982]

Hi all! 

I am curious about an unannounced audit. It will be my first attempt in my current company.

From your experience when did it take place within a 4-month window? Rather at the begining? In the middle? Or at the end?

Thanks for any replies as I am a bit stressed although I had had already announced one. 

[Alexis M]

We are currently waiting for our auditor and are in the same boat as you with it being an unannounced audit. Our window actually closes the first week of June so we are at the very end of our window.  I've never had a BRC auditor not come in the 3rd month. In the past they have come on the 23rd or 24th but always the end of the month.  I just hope we are ready for whatever this John Doe auditor has to throw at us.. 

[pawel1982]

We are currently waiting for our auditor and are in the same boat as you with it being an unannounced audit. Our window actually closes the first week of June so we are at the very end of our window.  I've never had a BRC auditor not come in the 3rd month. In the past they have come on the 23rd or 24th but always the end of the month.  I just hope we are ready for whatever this John Doe auditor has to throw at us.. 

 

Good luck then. Keep my fingers crossed. 

[beautiophile]

My company just took an unannounced audit in March while the audit window was from last December to April. We had said the CB that our long holiday fell on late January. We also anticipated that the auditor wouldn't come in December & April due to Christmas and Easter. This led to the higher probability of audit from mid-February to the end of March. We were right.

Another thing we took in consideration is that the audit completion technically lasts a few weeks. It includes preparations and reviews of the CAPAs against found NCs. The auditor might not want these tasks to occupy their holiday.

[Tony-C]

I would expect the audit in the 3rd month allowing the 28 day period for follow up to allow the close-out of any non-conformances.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

[Hoosiersmoker]

I have found it matters more when you submitted your audit request. If you apply early your audit will likely be earlier, if you wait a while it will be later, unannounced or not. That is historically the way ours has fallen. Our last unannounced audit was the second week of the first month of the window...

[Bo16]

Our unannounced audit was the very last 2 days until we were out of compliance, and then the auditor laughed and said we just made it or we would have had a major non-conformance.  I promptly told him he would have a major non-conformance, not "US" as BRC did the scheduling!  

And our audit request was done as soon as we finished the previous year.

 

4 months is too long a window.  They should be able to do better than that.  For small companies its very stressful to the QA department.  Even though others are trained, it would take much longer for the audit to be completed.

[LostInTheWoods]

This is thread is main character syndrome at its finest. I don't think CB's are putting nearly the level of thought into it that we are. If anything, they're probably optimizing to minimize travel amongst all their sites. Our USDA Organic inspection was scheduled for the week of Thanksgiving because we were located between where the inspector lived, and where he grew up. So he did our inspection on the way to his mom's house.

 

We're mistaking noise for signal 

Edited by LostInTheWoods, 26 June 2026 - 02:37 PM.

[LostInTheWoods]

oops, accidentaly double posted, and can't delete... 

Edited by LostInTheWoods, 26 June 2026 - 02:42 PM.

[TimG]

This is thread is main character syndrome at its finest. I don't think CB's are putting nearly the level of thought into it that we are. If anything, they're probably optimizing to minimize travel amongst all their sites. Our USDA Organic inspection was scheduled for the week of Thanksgiving because we were located between where the inspector lived, and where he grew up. So he did our inspection on the way to his mom's house.

 

We're mistaking noise for signal 

I think back then we felt they (CB's) were organized and had their stuff together. Maybe even they did, a little. Now we've all peeked behind the curtain and had off the record discussions with our auditors, and we understand a bit more it's the same amount of flipery we all deal with in a plant, they just get to travel.

[jfrey123]

I don't think CB's are putting nearly the level of thought into it that we are. If anything, they're probably optimizing to minimize travel amongst all their sites. Our USDA Organic inspection was scheduled for the week of Thanksgiving because we were located between where the inspector lived, and where he grew up. So he did our inspection on the way to his mom's house.

 

You're not entirely wrong with this sentiment.  My corp has two facilities in Pennsylvania and were both in their unannounced SQF window.  When the auditor showed up at the first site at 8am on a Monday for their audit, we told the second site get ready for a visit Wednesday.  Sure enough, there she was at 8am Wednesday.