Cost of the accreditation in terms of external assessment

The assessment fees are set by each accreditation body. Typically the costs will involve an application fee, an annual fee, and the onsite assessment fee. These costs will depend primarily on your location (impacts on travel and accommodation costs for the assessors) and the scope of accreditation (number of test methods to be assessed as well as their complexity). The initial assessment involves a full assessment, where typically a team leader will assess the management requirements over two days and one or more technical assessors will be assigned to assess the technical competency over the same period. 

Regarding your multiple sites, if they all fall under the same legal entity, and have the same scope of tests, there is a “sampling percentage” for assessment where on initial assessment all five sites will be assessed in full. Thereafter not all will be assessed during surveillance assessments, where a minimum of two of the five will be selected. 

To obtain a cost estimate it would be best to contact the accreditation body that you will use, or look up the tariffs on their website. 

Secondly, you mentioned the instruments and procedures were in place. It was not clear from your question if the management systems were established. If you need assistance with the implementation of ISO 17025:2017, the following may be of interest:

• Project Plan for ISO/IEC 17025 implementation https://info.advisera.com/17025academy/free-download/project-plan-for-iso-17025-implementation
• Diagram of ISO 17025 Implementation Process https://info.advisera.com/17025academy/free-download/diagram-of-iso-17025-implementation-process
• ISO/IEC 17025:2017 Documentation Toolkit https://advisera.com/17025academy/iso-17025-documentation-toolkit/