Hi Brendan - As SQF Consultants (and prior SQF Auditors) we do a lot of 1st time pre-audit consulting sessions with clients.
When I was an SQF Auditor most companies had pre-audits conducted by the auditor that would eventually be doing their desk and cert audit.
There can be two ways to look at this - many have the feeling that is the same auditor is doing both the pre-audit and their actual audits then it would be impossible for the auditor to come up with "new" stuff when they came back to do the actual certification audit. The upside is that the company personnel can get an insight into what they might think of as hot buttons and they can take the time to fix up what the pre-audit discovers.
The downside is that many people feel that if they "got away" with something because the auditor missed something that it is smooth sailing ahead for the certification audit - NO, Stop, Wait, Listen -- lots of stuff can happen during the time of a pre-audit and the actual certification audit.
It happen many times that the auditor comes back in 3 months to do the certifcation audit and up pops a number of items that were not on the pre-audit. This is when facility personnel start questioning the auditor asking why he/she didn't note this when they were here the first time for the pre-audit. It sure can get messy.
The other issue is that many people expect the Auditor doing the pre-audit to provide consulting advise, No, stop, wait, listen - Whether the auditor is doing a pre-audit or a regular audit the auditor is an auditor - not a consultant. I remember the sage advise that an Auditor told me when I first started auditing years ago... Auditors are reporters - not consultants!
If the idea of having a pre-audit is not only to seek out what is missing, but also get advice on what to do, suggestions, etc - then get a consultant to do your pre-audit. If you strictly want to identify holes and non-compliance items as of such and such a date and nothing else - get an Auditor to do the pre-audit.
We find ourselves doing a lot of what we call SQF compliance consulting reviews with both companies that are going for the their first SQF certification and with those that are established SQF certified companies for two primary reasons... 1. Because of the change over from 7.2 to 8.0 and #2 because ownership doesn't know if they are ready or yet due to a fall out, firing or a person quits a key role having to do with the SQF program....
Right now we are working with and scheduling three companies where the key person either quit or was fired and the audit is upcoming before end of year.
Based on background and having our own food company my polling would be YES for a pre-audit with a determination whether you want a straight reporter to point out issues or a consultant that can conduct the review, point out the issues and help you fix them.