Right scheme.Right category.Right site, in season.
Audit scheduling software for TIC food-safety certification bodies. ScheduleAI schedules BRCGS, FSSC 22000, IFS and SQF audits against each auditor's scheme and category approvals, rotation limits and certificate windows, and plans routes across dispersed, rural sites.BRCGS, FSSC 22000, IFS and SQF audits planned against approvals, rotation limits and certificate windows.
✓Approvals, rotation and windows checked · trips clustered
Scheme approvals, rotation limits and production seasons collide, and rural sites mean long drives between audits.
ScheduleAI books each audit inside both the production and the certificate window, with an approved auditor, and clusters nearby sites into trips.
A North American food-safety certification body schedules about 10,000 audits a year automatically. Internal utilisation rose from 51% to 80% and travel distance fell by 28.2%.
The hard part isn't the calendar. It's everything behind it.
Approvals drift
An auditor's category approval changes and nobody updates the planning sheet.
Rotation is easy to miss
A fourth consecutive IFS audit by the same auditor, or a third FSSC 22000 cycle at the same site, slips through when programmes span years.
Sites are far apart
Rural sites, long drives, and audits booked one at a time instead of as a trip.
Unannounced, and kept that way.
Spread across the whole window
Dates are placed across the whole window the scheme allows, not bunched in the final weeks, so the visit stays unpredictable.
Around declared blackout dates
Dates the site has declared unavailable are respected, and the client is never asked for dates.
Visible only to who needs it
The date is visible only to planners and the assigned auditor.
One engine. Four rulebooks, held as rules.
The audit windows and rotation limits below are held as hard rules per scheme version. When FSSC 22000 version 7 or SQF Edition 10 apply to your audits, the rules are updated with your team.
BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9
- Announced audits in the 28 days before the due date
- Unannounced at least once every 3 years, in the last 4 months before the due date
- Up to 10 blackout days per site
- 6-month cycle after a C or D grade
FSSC 22000 version 6
- First surveillance within 12 months of the certification decision
- At least one unannounced surveillance every 3 years
- Same auditor for no more than two 3-year cycles
- Team covers every food chain sub-category
IFS Food version 8
- Announced audits from 8 weeks before to 2 weeks after the due date
- Unannounced at least every third audit
- No more than 3 consecutive audits by the same auditor
- Seasonal sites audited while the product is in production
SQF Edition 9
- Recertification within 30 days either side of the anniversary
- Unannounced once every 3 years
- No more than 3 consecutive certification cycles by the same auditor
- C-rated sites: surveillance at 6 months
Audited while they're in production. Before the certificate lapses.
Seasonal sites can only be audited when the line is running. ScheduleAI places each audit inside both windows, and warns planners before either is at risk.
In production Certificate window Audit booked inside both windows
Same audits. Fewer trips.
An illustration of how clustering works: audits at nearby sites are grouped into trips from the auditor's home base, inside each site's production window.
10,000 audits a year. Two countries. Every rule kept.
A food-safety certification body plans its audits across the USA and Canada, where one trip can mean a long flight. It now schedules every audit automatically, and a planner approves each one.
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Audits a year | About 10,000, across the USA and Canada |
| Scheduled automatically | 100% |
| Internal auditor utilisation | 51% → 80% |
| Travel distance | 28.2% less |
| Impartiality rotation | 100% adherence |
| Audit windows, durations and competences | 100% compliant |
| Processing time | 2.1 seconds per audit on average |
Measured on the customer's own production data. The customer is not named.
Measured on two food certifiers' own data.
North America: a food-safety certification body. International: a certification and inspection body with an agri-food division.
Scheduled automatically means the engine found a compliant slot; a planner still approved each one.
“It let us allocate 90% of our audits automatically in just two minutes.”
Managing Director, Certifications · international certification & inspection body
From a demo on your data to go-live.
- 12 weeks · freeCustom demoA month of your own audits planned and compared with your plan.
- 24 weeks · fixed feeScoping and integrationRules, data and connections configured with your team.
- 38 weeks · one divisionPilotMeasured against success measures agreed in writing. The licence starts.
- 4division by divisionRoll-outFurther divisions and countries on the same rules.
Questions planning teams ask
Can ScheduleAI handle several GFSI schemes at once?
Yes. Approvals and rotation are held per scheme, so BRCGS, FSSC 22000, IFS and SQF are planned together.
What about seasonal production?
Each site can carry its own availability window; audits are placed inside it and inside the certificate window.
Does it reduce travel?
Yes. It clusters nearby sites into trips. A North American food-safety certification body cut travel distance by 28.2%, and an agri-food team saw 22% lower median travel.
Do you support unannounced audits?
Yes. Unannounced audits are spread across the whole window the scheme allows, around the blackout dates the site has declared, rather than bunched in the final weeks. The client is never asked for dates, and the date is visible only to planners and the assigned auditor.
Are rotation limits tracked per scheme?
Yes. Rotation is checked per scheme and client, so the same auditor is not booked past the limit your scheme sets.
Which scheme versions are supported?
BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9, FSSC 22000 version 6, IFS Food version 8 and SQF Edition 9. FSSC 22000 version 7 and SQF Edition 10 rules are configured with your team as your audits move to them.
What happens after a low grade?
When the grade is recorded, the next audit is planned on the shorter cycle the scheme sets, for example 6 months after a BRCGS C or D grade or an SQF C rating.
Does it replace our ERP?
No. It connects through a REST API and webhooks, with a pre-built Intact integration and Outlook calendar sync.
How long does implementation take?
A free two-week custom demo on your data, a four-week scoping and integration phase, then an eight-week pilot with one division live. Rollout to further regions follows.
What does ScheduleAI cost?
The custom demo is free. Scoping and integration is a fixed fee agreed in writing. The annual licence is priced per scheduled day (one calendar day per auditor with a confirmed appointment), with lower rates as your volume grows, plus an annual platform fee.
Is our data secure?
ScheduleAI is ISO/IEC 27001 certified, GDPR compliant and hosted in AWS Ireland (EU). Your data is never used to train models.
Pick a scheme. See the windows and the rotation cap.
The rules below are the ones ScheduleAI enforces, by scheme and version. Enter a due date to see the windows for one audit.
BRCGS Food Safety
Illustrative. In ScheduleAI the window, the blackout days and the rotation counter sit on each site, per scheme version, and every allocation is checked against them.
Watch: the unannounced window
Scheme rules by name and version, rotation counters that block the fourth time, and a date the site never sees.
Prefer to click through it yourself? Take the product tourSee your own programme planned.
A free two-week custom demo on your auditors, your rules and your audits. No licence until you have seen it work.