Checking lab certificates

Checking lab certificates in QC Analytical Results: the Lab files tab checks the laboratory’s certificates before they go into your database.

The Lab files tab checks the laboratory’s certificates before they go into your database. Each certificate gets a pass, query or fail, and each finding says why it matters and what to ask the lab. Nothing is stored when you select Check only. Once you are signed in you can keep certificates in a project. Try the made-up example certificates to see how it works.

• Certificates: Choose the laboratory first, or type its name: its result codes and row prefixes are used to read the certificates. Then choose one or more SIF certificates, comma-separated or fixed width, or a zip of them. The app reads and checks each one and lists it under Batch checks. You can add more at any time, and Clear them starts again. See Upload a laboratory certificate.
• CRM certified values: Optionally, add your standards table from your database, or the filled-in CRM template. The app then checks the lab’s standards and your own CRMs against their certified values. Without them, it lists those results but doesn’t check them. Signed in, the app uses your saved CRM library, and Save them to your CRM library stores a file’s values for next time. See Load your CRM certified values.
• Your QC sheet: Optionally, add a sheet that says which samples are your own CRMs, blanks and duplicates, with the columns Sample, Kind, Standard and Original. A check-sample export from your database works as it is. The app then checks your QC samples too, and lists any on the sheet that didn’t come back. See Load your QC sheet.
• Keep them?: Signed in, nothing is stored when you select Check only, and Keep in a project saves the certificates to a project you pick or name, under the laboratory chosen above them. Give the despatch no. and date sent, and optionally the number sent and the prospect. An empty despatch no. takes the certificate’s PO number. Under Certificate number, keep the number in the file, choose the file name, or type the number your database holds. A file with no number is marked, and the app asks for one. The same file can’t be kept twice. If a certificate number is already in the project, the app asks whether this is the lab’s re-issue. See Keep accepted certificates in a project.
• Before these can be accepted: Lists the result codes and row prefixes the app hasn’t seen before, such as the codes X, IS and LNR or the prefixes Ch, Dup and St. Say what each one means, and give each lab duplicate’s stage, from your own stage list if you have one. Labs differ, so the app doesn’t guess. Signed in, Remember them saves your answers for the laboratory chosen above the certificates, and for the project’s client. Two prefixes can’t be lab duplicates at the same stage. Change or delete a saved answer under Your set-up, Codes and prefixes. See Define result codes and row prefixes.
• Batch checks: Lists each certificate with its verdict and its number of fails, queries and items to confirm. Select one to see its report. All as Excel downloads every certificate and finding in one workbook. See Upload several certificates together.
• Report: Shows the certificate’s batch check: the verdict, the items to confirm, each finding with why it matters and what to check, what was checked, and the rules used. Print it, save it as PDF, or download it as HTML or Excel to file or send to the lab. See Read the certificate report.
• These look like the QC samples you inserted: Lists samples whose values look like a CRM in your library, a blank, or a duplicate of the row before. Values only suggest, so tick the ones that really are your QC samples. Then select Check the ticked ones as my QC. See Act on a suggestion from the values.
• Holding area: With Keep in a project, the certificates wait here and are checked again. Accept adds a certificate’s results to the project, which opens under Projects. Return to the lab keeps it in the project without its results, and you send the lab its report. Delete from the project removes it. See Accept or return certificates in the holding area.
• Your set-up: Saved in your account when you are signed in. Clients is for a consultancy, and gives each client its own projects, CRM library, stages and rules. Add them first, as the other tabs choose from them. Working for yourself or one company, leave Clients empty: the card opens on CRM library and everything is kept with your account. CRM library holds your standards and their certified values, added from a standards table or the template, for the account or for one client. Stages holds your own stage names, each with an RD limit, from a file or the template. A lab duplicate’s stage is then chosen from them. Rules set what fails a batch, and a client’s projects use the client’s library and rules. A CRM can fail beyond ± SD, outside the library’s range or more than a % from certified, and drift can be a query. A blank can fail over a multiple of the detection limit or over the library’s maximum. Codes and prefixes keeps the result codes and row prefixes for each client and laboratory. Add them by hand or from a file or the template, change a meaning or a stage, or delete one so the app asks again. See Set up codes and prefixes for each laboratory.