A kit is a box of several reagents and supplies that you buy and receive as one, like the DNeasy Blood & Tissue Kit from Qiagen. In Labsistant a kit is a reagent whose Category is Kit, with its parts listed. Each part is a reagent or supply on your master list and an item of its own, grouped under the kit. Most kits stay whole, every part in the kit's one place, and a kit can be split later.
Say once what is in the kit
- Click Add Inventory and choose Add Reagent.
- Switch on Add new reagent to master list? and set Category to Kit.
- Enter the kit's name and Catalogue Number, which replaces CAS Number. For the DNeasy Blood & Tissue Kit, Qiagen's catalogue number is
69504. - Enter Uses per box if the box states one, such as 50 uses. It replaces Default Unit and is optional: without it there is no uses count or cost per use.
- Under What is in the kit, add each Part with its Size, the amount and unit that come in one box.
Part searches your master list as you type. Pick a match, or add the name as a new reagent or a new supply. A new reagent part starts at the kit's hazard level and vendor; a part already on the master list keeps its own details. A supply is not asked for a hazard level. A Researcher or PI can define a kit.
Lots, expiry dates and hazard levels come from the box, the safety sheet or a person. Copy the real information rather than guessing it. See Add a reagent and Lot numbers, CAS, hazard and expiration for those fields.
When a box comes in
For the next box, open Add Inventory, choose Add Reagent, switch Add new reagent to master list? off and pick the kit from the Kit group. You reuse the definition instead of listing its parts again.
Lot Information takes the lot printed on the box, its expiry, the vendor and the price. Kit Parts asks Where the kit goes, and every part takes that place. Every place is picked, with no default.
Every part starts at No lot yet (add later) with the kit's vendor. The bar above the parts applies Use the kit lot, Use the kit expiry, Set location, Set share level or Set vendor to every part, or only to the ones you tick. You can also edit a part on its own. A part's own lot never holds up Add to Inventory.
A part kept somewhere else, or shared more narrowly than the kit, needs its own place and saves the kit as split. Read Personal, group and lab items when choosing who may use each part.
Use a kit
The item panel's Quantity reads the uses left, such as 38 uses of 50, and names the part that runs out first. Record use takes a number of uses and every part goes down by its share. Adjust quantity lists every part so you can correct what is actually there.
Move location, Transfer ownership, alerts and the QR label work as on any item. See Update an item's quantity and QR labels and scanning.
Cost per use is the box price divided by uses per box. A $412.00 box with 50 uses costs $8.24 a use. Without the box price or uses per box, Labsistant cannot show a cost per use.
Find a kit and see it run low
The kit's row in Inventory says Kit and shows its uses left. Its chevron opens the parts with their lots, marked Kit lot when they carry the box's lot or Awaiting lot when a part's own lot is not recorded.
Searching a part's name finds the kit. Searching a kit lot finds the kit and its parts, including parts that later left the box. Parts count in their reagent's totals, marked "in a kit".
One kit alert covers every part. A part's own alert overrides it for that part within the people that alert reaches, and the alert names the part that needs attention.
Split a kit into parts
Moving a whole kit moves every part. To give the parts separate places, choose Split into parts under Actions in the item panel.
Choose each part's place. Its name, amount, unit and hazard level are locked; lots and expiry dates stay optional. Splitting is one way: the parts do not become a whole kit again. Whoever may move the kit may split it.
A kit in an experiment
An experiment requirement can be the kit, counted in uses. The schedule shows the uses each box allows, with an asterisk on the part that limits it.
At the pull, any part can come from another bottle instead. A part with no lot of its own asks Which lot is this? Not now lets the pull go ahead. The whole kit never asks that question. See Experiments and templates for the rest of the run.
Finish a kit
Choose Finish kit under Actions in the item panel and tick the parts that are finished. Those parts close. Unticked parts stay in the lab as their own reagents, still marked From kit lot, so a recall still finds them.
Whoever may close an item may finish the kit. Review the ticks before saving so a part you intend to keep stays available.
Who can do what
Kit actions bring no new permissions. Each follows the rule of the item action it is built on: splitting follows Move location, and finishing follows closing an item.
A Junior Researcher has no Add Inventory, so cannot define or receive a kit, and cannot move, split or finish shared stock. They can record use, adjust quantity and pull to their inventory. Transfer ownership needs the Team plan or higher.
See Personal, group and lab items and Plans and limits for the existing access and plan rules.
In the Audit Log
Every kit action writes the event that already exists for it, such as Reagent Created, Added, Used and Moved. Two events are new: Kit Split and Kit Finished, under Inventory in the filter.
One action is one row. Open it to see what happened to each part.
On the phone
The phone app does the same steps. In Add item, choose Kind Reagent and Category Kit to list the parts. Review where the box and its parts go, then save. Receiving another box, recording a use, splitting and finishing work as on the web.