Lab Requests Guide

A lab request is the work order: what's being tested, which tests are being asked for, on what samples, and which laboratory is doing the work. Every catalog item, batch and delivery eventually turns into one of these when it needs to go to the lab.

In one sentence: fill in what you're asking, send it to a laboratory, and watch it move from your side of the desk to theirs and back — all on one page.

The dossier: Prepare and Laboratory

Open any request and you land on its dossier — one page with two stages, shown as a rail at the top:

A request still in Draft is on Prepare. The moment it's sent, it moves onto Laboratory, which holds the whole story of the lab's side of the work — status, a tracking timeline, sample outcomes, documents — with the running conversation about it pinned on the right. Reload the page or send someone the link and it opens on the same stage.

The rail's second line always tells you where the request stands in plain terms: Not reached, Nobody has it yet, Where it is now, Sent, Archived, or, once a laboratory has it, the laboratory's name together with its own status.

Header actions

At the top of every dossier:

• Preview PDF — renders the request as it will print, using whichever PDF template applies.
• Send to laboratory — draft only; walks through the pre-flight checklist and moves the request onto Laboratory.
• Edit references (pencil icon) — edits the tracking number once the request has been sent; see The tracking number below.
• ⋯ menu — Copy link, and, on a draft only, Delete draft (this removes the request and everything on it — there is no undo).

Request status vs. laboratory status

These are two different things, and the rail is careful to keep them apart:

• Request status — Draft, Submitted, In Progress, Completed, Archived. This is the request's own lifecycle, and it's what decides which of the two rail stages you're on.
• Laboratory status — Accepted, In Testing, Requires Documentation, Done. This is the laboratory's own progress once they have the request, shown on the Laboratory stage; see The laboratory's progress.

Starting a request

There are two ways to raise one:

1. New request (from the requests list, or the New request button) — opens a template picker: "To raise a request, start by choosing a template. Each one comes with the fields this kind of testing needs, ready for you to fill in before the request goes to the laboratory." Choose one and you land straight on the new draft's dossier, ready to fill in on Prepare. If no template fits, an owner can build one or copy a platform one — see Request Templates.
2. Send to lab, from a catalog item, a selection of lots, a production batch, or a packaging run — raises the request for you and pre-fills what's already known (the subject, its lots, its recorded field values). If the item's template can't be worked out automatically, you're asked "Which template?" before the request is created.

Either way, you always land on the same dossier — there is no separate "new request" page to fill in before one exists.

Prepare

Prepare is one form, organised into bands:

• Request details — the fields the chosen template asks for. If a field was answered before the template changed and is no longer part of it, it still shows, under its own Recorded earlier band, so nothing already on file is silently lost.
• Samples
• Tests
• Laboratory
• a tracking number field

Samples

Each sample is its own block: a name (e.g. "Gouda cheese, 3 kg block") and a sample type. Behind a Details toggle sits quantity, unit, batch/lot number, production and expiry dates, packaging type, and — for a sample linked to a catalog item — its version and the item type's own per-delivery fields.

• Add another sample — adds a new, independent sample block.
• Add sub-sample — nests a sample under a parent (one level deep).
• Remove — takes a sample off the request.

Tests

Tests are shown as a strip of chips — "asked of every sample on this request." Add tests (or Change tests once you have some) opens an inline picker rather than a dropdown, so it stays usable no matter how the samples area scrolls. If the test you need doesn't exist yet, type its name and an Add "…" as an examination option appears in its place — it's created and attached in the same step, no separate trip to Settings required.

Laboratory

A searchable picker; without a laboratory chosen, the request cannot be sent. The same "add what's missing without leaving the page" pattern applies here too — search for a lab that isn't in the list yet and an Add "…" as a laboratory option lets you register it (name, address, city, country, phone, email, website) on the spot.

The tracking number

Whoever's reference number identifies the request first — often yours, before any laboratory has seen it, sometimes the laboratory's, handed back later — lives in one field, editable for as long as the request is active:

• While it's a draft, it's an ordinary input on Prepare, saved along with everything else.
• Once sent, Prepare's copy becomes read-only, and editing moves to the pencil icon beside the request's title on the dossier header. This keeps exactly one place able to change it at a time, so two people editing at once can't overwrite each other.
• Once the laboratory marks the request Done, even that pencil disappears — the request is locked.

Saving

• Save draft — saves everything on the form as it stands.
• Save and start the next one — saves, then opens the New Request picker again, for entering several requests back to back.
• Send to laboratory — saves, then runs the checklist below.

If part of a save fails, you're told exactly which part by name ("Request details and tests," "Samples," "Laboratory") — nothing else on the form is lost, and a draft can always be fixed and saved again.

Sending to the laboratory

Clicking Send to laboratory runs a short pre-flight check before anything moves:

1. If no laboratory is chosen, you're stopped right there — "Choose a laboratory before sending."
2. The form is saved, then checked against what the request actually needs to go out.
3. You see one of two things:
   • Nothing missing → a plain confirmation: "Send to the laboratory? The laboratory will see this request and everything attached to it. You can still add comments and documents afterwards, but the details stop being editable."
   • Something required missing → a short form holding only the fields still needed, with Save & send to answer them and go in the same step.

Either way, the checklist itself is shown as a list of checks, each either satisfied or not:

Only the first two can actually stop you; the other two are there so you don't send an empty request by accident, not because the platform enforces them.

Laboratory

Once sent, the dossier's Laboratory stage takes over — a left column covering the laboratory's side of the work, and a comments panel pinned on the right that's never locked, even after everything else is.

The laboratory's progress

A status line and a set of buttons that move it forward:

(none)  →  Accepted  →  In Testing  →┬→  Requires Documentation  →  (back to In Testing)
                                      └→  Done

Mark done carries a real warning before you confirm it: "Every sample needs a result first. Completing the request locks it — no further results, samples, documents or lab changes — so anything still Pending could never be answered afterwards." Once done, a plain note on the page says so, and every control except comments disappears.

If your laboratory isn't set up to log in and work through this dossier directly, see the Laboratory Portal — a link the laboratory can use without an account of their own.

LIMS tracking

A preview of what this section will show once your laboratory's own system (LIMS) is connected — for now it's a worked example of the kind of timeline you'll see (sample check-in, panels started and completed, report generated), with a note that live tracking appears here automatically once that connection exists.

Sample outcomes

Every sample on the request, with a result of Pending, OK, or Not OK. Select one or several and use Mark OK / Mark Not OK to record the same verdict for all of them at once.

Documents

Result reports and certificates, attached here and staying with the request for good. Upload result PDF takes PDF files only, and disappears once the request is locked. Every document shows who uploaded it and when, with a straightforward download.

Comments

A running conversation between your company and the laboratory about this specific request — write a note, Post it. This is the one part of the dossier that stays open even after the laboratory marks the request Done, since there's often still something to say once results are in.

The requests list

The list page (Requests in the left-hand menu) gives you:

• Stats — Total requests and Completed are live counts; Overdue and Avg. turnaround are placeholders for now, waiting on activity logging to know when a request was sent and when it came back.
• Filters — search by tracking number, filter by status.
• Three views — Table, Cards, and Board (a column-per-status kanban). Which columns the table and cards show is configurable per company — see List Configuration.

On the Board view, you can drag a card from Draft straight into Submitted — that's the same Send to laboratory flow as the button on the dossier, checklist included. Dragging anywhere else isn't allowed (the laboratory moves a request the rest of the way, through its own portal), and the card snaps back with a short explanation if you try.

Where requests come from

A request rarely starts from nothing. It's just as often raised for you, prefilled with what's already on record:

• A catalog item's Send to lab button (see the Catalog Guide).
• A selection of lots' bulk Send to lab action.
• A production batch's Create QC lab request action, or a packaging run's own QC request (see the Manufacturing Guide).

However it started, every request lands on the same Prepare/Laboratory dossier described above — there's exactly one shape for a lab request in this platform, no matter where it came from.