Laboratory information management system software, LIMS software, is judged in demos on its screens and in the lab on its arithmetic. The screens are where a sample is booked in and a result is typed; the arithmetic is where the manager learns whether the bench can take next week's work, what a test really costs, how much of the bench the quality controls take and when the freezers fill. Software that has the screens and not the arithmetic has moved the register onto a monitor and left the spreadsheet where it was. This page is about the second half: what LIMS software should compute for a small laboratory, batch by batch, and how the free sheets on this site do that computation now, from the lab's own figures, with no account.
The batch is the unit the software has to understand
A batch is the set of samples that ran together, on one instrument, with one reagent lot, beside the blanks, duplicates and reference materials that prove the run. Software that keeps results per sample and not per batch cannot show which controls a result ran beside, and that is the first thing an assessor working to ISO/IEC 17025 asks. The quality control sheet on this site works what a batch scheme costs: the controls a week and a month, their share of the reportable tests, and the QC dollars every result carries. That is the arithmetic the software should run on the live batch record.
The figures the software should return every week
Turnaround from this week's intake against the bench; review hours from this week's results against the reviewers; the cost of a test with the month's overhead in it; the months the freezers have left; the boxes retention needs and what leaves it; the year's calibration cost. Each is a sheet on this site, each computes on the page from the lab's inputs, and together they are what the software's dashboard should show without a report being built. A vendor who can show those seven from the demo database has software that computes; one who shows a report builder has software that stores.
What a small lab should ask for
One screen for one sample with everything on it; one screen for one batch with its controls; the seven figures above from the live record; a report that carries the method, the QC status and the reviewer; and an export in a spreadsheet that the next system can read. The guide this page supports walks those five in order. Limslane Pro keeps the record for a small lab at one flat price and prints under the lab's own name; the sheets stay free either way.
Questions people ask about laboratory information management system lims software
What should LIMS software compute for a small lab?
Turnaround from intake against bench capacity, review hours against reviewers, the full cost of a test and its margin, the QC share and its cost per result, freezer months, retention boxes and disposals, and the year's calibration cost. All seven are free sheets on this site.
Why does the batch matter in LIMS software?
Because the controls that prove a result ran with the batch, not the sample. Software that cannot show a result beside its batch's blanks and reference materials cannot show an assessor the evidence for the number.
Is Limslane LIMS software?
Limslane keeps a small lab's samples, batches, results, reagent lots and instruments against the record and works the seven sheets on it. It has no instrument interface and no method library, so a lab that needs those needs an enterprise product; the free sheets work for both.