Laboratory information system vendors
- Full cost per test
- $29
- Analyst labour per test
- $15
- Direct cost per test: reagent, consumables, labour
- $23
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs entered, by the method stated below it. Limslane publishes no accreditation rule, no method, no QC scheme and no retention period: the minutes, the costs, the schemes and the periods are yours, and the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own figures.
A laboratory information system vendor's proposal reads well until it is put against the lab's own cost per test, because the proposal is priced on what the vendor sells and the lab is paid on what a test earns. A small lab charging $45 a test with $29 of full cost has $16 a test to fund everything, software included, and a proposal that costs more than the margin on a month's tests is not a system, it is a second landlord. This guide walks how to read laboratory information system vendors against the lab's own figures: what the test costs, what the price leaves, what the system would have to save to pay for itself, and which of the vendor's modules the bench would actually use. The free cost per test sheet on this site works the first two with no account.
Try the free sample intake and turnaround sheet Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
Work the margin before you read the proposal
Reagent, consumables and analyst minutes are the direct cost; overhead over the month's tests is the rest; the price less the full cost is what a test earns. The sheet works all three. A vendor's annual figure divided by the year's tests is the cost per test the system adds, and it has to fit inside the margin with room to spare.
Count the modules the bench would use
Vendors price in modules: sample management, instrument interfaces, QC, inventory, reporting, billing. A small lab uses two or three. Strike the ones the bench would not touch in the first year and ask for the price again; the proposal that cannot shrink is a proposal for a different lab.
Ask what the record looks like the day the contract ends
The results, the calibrations and the chain of custody are the lab's evidence to its clients and its accreditation body. Ask every vendor for the export in a format the next system can read and the fee for producing it. The paid plan here exports everything, in a spreadsheet, for nothing.
Laboratory information system vendors: common questions
How should a small lab compare laboratory information system vendors?
On the cost per test the system adds against the margin a test earns, on the modules the bench would use in the first year, and on the export at the end. The free cost per test sheet works the margin from seven figures with no account; the vendor's annual price over the year's tests is the other side.
What is a reasonable cost per test?
The sheet does not say, on purpose: a heavy-metals digest and a pH reading have nothing in common. The worked example runs $29 full cost against a $45 price to show the arithmetic. Compare your tests against each other and against last year.
Does Limslane sell instrument interfaces?
No. Limslane keeps the samples, results, reagent lots and instruments against the record and works the arithmetic on the sheets; results are entered, not captured from an analyser. A lab whose throughput needs interfaces needs an enterprise vendor, and this guide is written to help it read that vendor's proposal.
Limslane Pro
Keeping what you make
The sheets are free forever. Pro turns them into the record: every sample from receipt to report with its status, every result against the sample it belongs to, every reagent lot with its expiry, every instrument with its next calibration, your lab's name and logo on the printed sheets, no watermark, and an export when the auditor or the client asks.
- Download as PDF
- No Limslane watermark
- Save every sheet and reopen it later
- Your lab's name and logo on the paperwork
- Export every sheet and every record in one go
- Calibration-due, lot-expiry and result-ready reminders emailed to the lab and the client
- Connect your own Stripe account and get paid online
- Connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero
$39per month, whole lab
Start Limslane Pro PricingRenews monthly at the price above until you cancel. We email you before any price change.
Will it do what you need for Laboratory information system vendors?
Tell us what your lab needs and we will tell you straight whether Limslane Pro does it today, whether it is coming, or whether you need an enterprise LIMS instead. A person reads these and replies.
Cite or embed this figure
On the worked example, $6.50 of reagent, $1.50 of consumables and 20 minutes at $45 an hour is $23 direct, $9,000 of monthly overhead over 1,500 tests adds $6, and a $45 price leaves $16 a test, 36%.
Laboratory information management software (Full cost per test): $29, Limslane, worked example.
Cite as: "Laboratory information system vendors, Limslane", updated 2026-09-04, https://limslane.com/laboratory-information-system-vendors/.