A storage location is anywhere an item can live: a room, a freezer, a shelf, a drawer, a box. Locations nest inside each other, so Shelf 2 can sit inside Freezer A inside Room 214, and an item stored on that shelf carries the whole path.
Get this right early. Every item you add has to go somewhere, and a location list that matches your real lab is the difference between "it is in the freezer" and "it is in the second box on Shelf 2".
Who can create locations
Managing storage locations is available to PI and Researcher. Junior Researchers can view locations but not create, edit, or delete them.
Create a location
- Go to Storage in the sidebar.
- Click Add Location. The "Create Storage Location" dialog opens.
- Fill in the fields below.
- Click Create Location.
The fields
Some fields only appear once they are relevant, so you will not see all of these at once.
| Field | Required | When it appears | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Location Name | Yes | Always | Between 2 and 100 characters. |
| Description | No | Always | Up to 200 characters. |
| Parent Location | No | Always | Leave as "None (top-level location)" for a room or a standalone unit. Pick a parent to nest this inside it. |
| Temperature | No | Always | Free text, so write it the way your lab says it. |
| Location Type | Yes | Always | Personal or Group; Lab is offered only to a PI. See below. |
| Select Groups | Yes for a group location | Type is Group and groups are available in the form | Which groups share this location. |
| Public visibility | No | Type is Lab | Makes the location visible to all lab members. |
| Allow sub-locations | No | Always | Lets others create storage areas inside this one. |
| Grid box | No | Always | Turns this location into numbered slots. See Grid boxes and numbered slots. |
| Rows and Columns | Yes for a grid box | Grid box is turned on | Use positive whole numbers for both. Leaving both blank creates a regular location. |
| Zones | No | Your lab has at least one zone defined | Assign this location to one or more zones. |
| Allow members to share | No | Type is Group or Lab | Lets members with access share this location with others. |
Location Type
This decides who the location belongs to:
- Personal. Your own location; the PI also has oversight access.
- Group. Shared with one or more selected groups. Choosing this reveals the group selector.
- Lab. Available to all lab members when public visibility is on. Only a PI can create this type.
Personal is an ownership type and is available on Free. Private visibility needs the Team plan or higher. See Personal, group and lab: who sees what.
Temperature and inheritance
Temperature is free text, so enter whatever your lab actually says: a number with units, or a phrase like room temperature.
If the parent location has a temperature and you leave this blank, the child inherits it. The form tells you what it will inherit, and the location's detail page marks an inherited value so you can tell it apart from one set directly.
Set a temperature on the freezer, not on all twelve boxes inside it.
Nesting locations
There are two ways to nest:
- From the create dialog: pick a Parent Location.
- From the parent itself: open the parent location and click Add Sub-Location. The dialog title becomes "Create Sub-Location in" that location, and it shows which location you are creating inside.
The second way is usually less error-prone, because you can see where you are.
A parent only accepts children if Allow sub-locations is on. Once a location actually has sub-locations, that setting cannot be switched off until they are removed, and the form tells you so.
What a location's page shows
Open any location from the Storage page to see:
- Contents: the items stored here and in its sub-locations. If it is empty, it says so.
- Located in: its parent, if it has one.
- Temperature, marked "(from parent)" when inherited.
- Visibility: the Public or Private setting. Check the location's ownership as well; visibility alone does not override ownership access.
- Whether it can contain sub-locations, and who owns it.
- Sub-Locations, with an Add Sub-Location button.
- Edit Location and Delete Location.
Finding a location
The Storage page gives you several ways to narrow things down:
- A search box.
- Grid view and Tree view. Tree view is the one that shows nesting.
- Scope tabs: All, Lab, Group, Personal, with matching sections.
- A zone filter.
- Sorting by name or by date created.
Deleting a location
- Open the location and click Delete Location.
- If it has items or sub-locations, choose a destination and use Move and delete.
- If it is empty and has no children, confirm the deletion.
Two things to know:
- Sub-locations move with the contents. A location with children cannot be deleted in place. The move-and-delete flow relocates its items and reparents its child locations to the chosen destination before deleting it.
- Choose a suitable destination. It cannot be the location itself or one of its descendants. If children need to move, the destination must allow sub-locations. A refused destination gets an explanation beside the picker. Items are never left without a location.
Deleting cannot be undone.
Zones
Zones group locations together and define movement rules between them. They are managed from Manage Zones on the Storage page, and only a PI can create or edit them. Zone management needs the Lab plan.
There are two zone types:
- Standard. Items can enter and leave freely.
- Containment. Items can enter but cannot leave. This is meant for spaces where material is not supposed to come back out, such as a containment lab or a radioactive room.
Containment is a workflow control inside Labsistant, not a safety system. It stops the app from recording a move out of the zone. It does not stop anyone from physically carrying something out, and it is not a substitute for your institution's containment procedures.
Plan limits
The Free plan allows up to 5 storage locations, including Personal locations. Higher plans remove the cap and allow private visibility. See Plans and limits for what each one includes, or the plan comparison for what they cost.