Say goodbye to whiteboards, spreadsheets, and messy email chains. Labstep makes it easy for scientists to request the supplies they need and for lab managers to approve and respond. All in one place and tied directly to your inventory.
While capable of serving as your primary purchasing system, using Labstep for requests does not require you to replace your institutional purchasing system. Labstep is designed to integrate seamlessly into any existing processes.
What is an order request?
When you need something for your research, more often than not, someone else has to make the purchase for you. Order requests are an easy way to detail all the information about an item so that the person in your team responsible for purchasing can get you the right thing. The Order request is also used for the purchaser to keep the item requester in the loop. You can add the purchase information, such as PO, shipping information and price paid.
Order request key features:
Order requests can be shared and duplicated just like experiments, protocols, resources and resource items.
The order request will show you who created the request and when.
By clicking on an order, you'll be able to see its status, requested resource, quantity of items and urgency. Selecting the resource name will take you to the resource page which has all the specific resource details and history.
"Add Metadata Field" is great for adding in the purchase details, such as PO and tracking number. The fields are customisable, but we provide you with some default fields to get you started.
Click on "Items" to show you the items that were received from this request. See below for how to generate these items.
The "Notes" tab is a thread for your team to discuss the request.
The "Activity" tab shows the full history of the request including the status history.
You can add members to the order request by clicking on the icon near your icon.
Click on the vertical ellipsis ⋮ for additional options.
Creating an order request:
There are two ways to create an order request
On a resource, click on "Request items" (or "New Request"). A modal will appear asking for the quantity you wish to request. Select "Finish", and an order request will be created.
Navigate to "Order Management". Select "New order request". A modal will appear asking you to select the resource, the quantity you wish to request and the option to mark the request as urgent. You can create resources from this modal. Select "Create" and an order request will be created.
Labstep team tip: The person responsible for purchasing in your lab will want as much detail as possible to be able to complete the purchase. The purchaser can use the information associated with the attached resource or the details in the order request.
Tracking an order request:
The status of the order request can be adjusted as the order request is processed. The following statuses are available:
Requested (All new order requests will have this status)
Approved
Ordered
Back Ordered
Partially Received
Received
Cancelled
In addition to Order request notes, the status is a great way to keep everyone who has an interest in the purchase up to date. The full status history, including who adjusted the status is tracked in "Activity".
Adding items to your Inventory:
Once you've received your order, you can change the status to "Received". This will prompt a pop-up asking you if you wish to add the items to your inventory. You can also dismiss it and add the items later on.
Still need help?
Contact us here or start a conversation with a member of our team using our in-app chat.