Location Tracking (LIMS)

Vault LIMS Location Tracking provides a framework for users to trace the movements of a sample from place to place within the lab or even to an external organization via a courier.

How LIMS Location Tracking Works

Lab Managers can establish trackable Lab Locations of any granularity, down to a specific container on a shelf. Lab Samples then reference the Lab Location record, establishing that the sample is in that particular location. Lab Manager and Analysts can determine every sample stored in a given Lab Location simply by viewing the record. Labs themselves are typically tracked as Organization records.

Locating a Sample

You can begin tracking a sample by selecting a Lab Location value in its Current Location field.

Defining Lab Locations

Create locations that you wish to track as a hierarchy of Lab Location records:

  1. Navigate to a lab’s Organization object record.
  2. In the Lab Locations section, click Create.
  3. Select a type from the drop-down: Lab, Lab Storage, or Shipment. See below for more details about the Shipment type.
  4. Enter the required details.
  5. If this location is a sublocation of another, select a Lab Location Parent. For example, if you are creating a Lab Location for a shelf in a refrigerator, you might select the refrigerator’s Lab Location as its parent.
  6. Optional: Enter Storage Conditions at the location.
  7. Click Save.

Shipment Locations

You can use the Shipment location type to track a courier’s custody of a sample. To fully utilize the Shipment location type:

  1. First create Organization records of the Courier type for each shipping organization you use, and ensure that you add a Base Tracking URL value.
  2. When a shipment is sent out, create a Lab Shipment record with a Tracking ID.

Vault LIMS can join the Base Tracking URL with the Tracking ID field value of a Lab Shipment record in order to create a clickable tracking link for the shipment in the Lab Shipment’s Tracking URL field.