Laboratory information management is a job before it is a system: somebody in every small laboratory already does it, in a register, a freezer map, a calibration diary and a spreadsheet, and the question a LIMS answers is whether that somebody's time is better spent elsewhere. The job has seven parts that repeat every week, and each ends in a number the manager needs and usually estimates: whether the week's samples fit on the bench, what a test costs, how much of the bench the controls take, when the freezers fill, what leaves retention, what calibration costs, and whether sign-out keeps up. This page describes the job part by part and points at the free sheet on this site that turns each part into its number, with no account.
Managing intake, capacity and turnaround
The first part of the job is knowing whether the work fits. Samples arrive with tests attached, each test takes minutes, and the bench has a fixed number of analyst hours. The intake and turnaround sheet works the hours the week needs against the capacity and returns the turnaround the load implies. Managed by hand this is the whiteboard; managed as information it is a number the manager can quote to a client on Monday and defend on Friday.
Managing cost, quality and the instruments
The second part is money and evidence. A test costs reagent, consumables and minutes, plus its share of the overhead; the cost per test sheet works it and the margin at the price. Every batch carries controls that prove it; the quality control sheet works their share of the bench and their cost per result. Every instrument is calibrated on a schedule; the calibration sheet works the year's cost. ISO/IEC 17025 asks a testing laboratory to keep the evidence behind those; the sheets show what keeping it costs.
Managing storage, retention and review
The third part is space and sign-out. Freezers fill at the rate samples arrive; the storage sheet works the months left and the retention sheet works the boxes the policy needs and the month's disposals. Results wait for a reviewer; the results review sheet works the hours. The guide this page supports takes the seven parts and turns them into the four questions that choose a system. Limslane Pro keeps the record the seven parts produce for a small lab at one flat price; the sheets stay free.
Questions people ask about laboratory information management
What is laboratory information management?
The job of keeping a laboratory's samples, tests, results, controls, instruments, reagent lots and storage as a record, and working the figures that record allows: capacity, cost, QC share, storage, retention, calibration and review. A LIMS is the software version of the job.
Can a small lab do laboratory information management without software?
It already does, by hand. The free sheets on this site turn each part of the job into a number without a system; Limslane Pro keeps the record when the register and the spreadsheet stop scaling.
Which part of the job should a small lab work first?
Intake and turnaround, because capacity decides whether the rest matters, then cost per test, because the margin decides what any system can cost.