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We’ve all been there.
You’ve carefully planned your lab tasks for the day. You’re all set to go and then you realise that someone (who shall remain nameless) has used up the last of a kit or reagent you needed. A new batch hasn’t even been ordered yet. A bad start to the day but it’s about to get worse. You switch to another task but find that lovely little notice on the equipment you need to use. “Out of order”. The faded sticker on the side tells you that its maintenance was due three months ago. Who knows when the engineer will be able to come out and fix it?
The stress builds up as you think of all the looming deadlines. All the last-minute experiments you want to do to convince those picky reviewers before the rival research group gets the scoop on you!
For the seasoned LabCollector users among you these problems have been eliminated in your lab with our LIMS and its handy alert system.
If you’re using the software correctly your lab manager is alerted as soon as they log into LabCollector that stocks are running low or going out of date and is reminded about equipment needing maintenance. The alerts can also be sent to them by email.
For those of you who are new (or not so new!) to the software here are some tips on setting up the alert system.

Reagents and Supplies lots – As well as alerting you to low stock levels you can also adjust the settings to tell you when lots are about to pass their expiry dates. Check out the last section in this FAQ which tells you how to activate these alerts so you’ll never run out of gloves or buffer again!

Equipment – Activate the equipment alert feature and each time equipment needs maintenance the person in charge of the equipment will get a notification. Take a look at this article for more details on setting up your alerts.

Finally, version 5.31 brought an added alert feature on the Date custom field – in any of the modules you can now set up an alert and decide its duration.