Settings holds both your personal preferences and, if you are a PI, the lab-wide ones. This article covers the personal side. Which alerts reach you at all, and how far back your lab's history goes, depend on the plan, so the plan comparison is worth a look if something here is missing.
Go to Settings in the sidebar. The tabs are Profile, Lab, Notifications, Export, and Privacy. PIs also have a Billing tab.
Profile
The Profile tab shows your account details, display name, language and local timezone.
| Field | Editable |
|---|---|
| Display Name | Yes. Saves when you leave the field. |
| Email Address | No |
| Lab | No |
| Member Since | No |
| Language | Yes |
| Local timezone | Yes |
Your role is shown next to your name, written out in full, for example Principal Investigator.
To change your display name, edit the field and move to another field. The name must have 1–120 characters after spaces at the beginning and end are removed. If it cannot be saved, the field keeps your draft so you can correct it or try again.
Language and Local timezone save automatically. There is no Save button for them and no confirmation step: pick a value and it is stored.
Changing the language switches the interface language for your account only, not for anyone else in the lab. Your selection follows links between the app and the public website. A language carried by an incoming link takes precedence for this browser; choosing another language replaces it.
Personal timezone and lab timezone
There are two timezone settings and they do different jobs. This trips people up, so it is worth being clear.
| Setting | Where | What it affects |
|---|---|---|
| Local timezone | Settings, Profile tab | How dates and times appear for your account. |
| Lab Timezone | Settings, Lab tab | Lab date filters and reporting boundaries. |
Your local timezone is about display. Every timestamp you read, including the Audit Log, is shown in it. Set it to where you actually are.
The lab timezone is about boundaries. It decides where a day starts and ends for filters and reporting, so the whole lab agrees on what "today" covers regardless of where each member is sitting.
Only a PI can set the lab timezone, from the Lab tab.
The timezone mismatch banner
If your saved timezone does not match the device you are using, a banner appears saying so and naming both. It offers:
- Match local, which updates your saved timezone to the device's.
- Update settings, which takes you to the Profile tab.
- Dismiss, which leaves it alone.
This usually means you have travelled, or you set the timezone once on a different machine. If you are travelling temporarily and want timestamps to stay in your home timezone, dismiss it.
Notifications
The Notifications tab is a grid. Six kinds of alert down the side, four ways of being told across the top, and a switch in every cell.
| Category | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Low stock & critical | Stock or container alerts for which you are a chosen recipient. |
| Running-out forecast | Warns before you run out, based on your usage rate. |
| Expiring soon | Lots inside their expiry window. |
| Experiments | Scheduled, started, completed, cancelled. |
| Team & requests | Invites, item requests, handoffs. |
| Reports ready | When a report you scheduled or requested is ready. |
The four columns are In-app, Email, Digest and Push.
| Column | Where it reaches you |
|---|---|
| In-app | The bell in the top bar and the notifications page. |
| Notification emails, which can combine several notices. | |
| Digest | Gathered up and sent as one email on the schedule you set below the grid. |
| Push | A notification on your phone, from the Labsistant app. |
The columns are independent. Switching In-app off for a category and leaving Digest on means that kind of alert stops appearing in the app but still turns up in your summary email. Any combination works, including switching a whole row off.
Every switch saves the moment you flip it. There is no Save button and there is no confirmation step, the same as your Profile preferences.
These are your preferences, not the lab's. Everyone chooses their own, and changing yours never changes what a colleague receives.
Digest schedule
Below the grid, Digest schedule decides when your summary email arrives. Set the frequency to Daily, Weekly or Off, and for weekly also pick the day and the time.
The time is in your personal timezone, the one on the Profile tab, so it stays at the hour you chose even when the clocks change.
Off stops the summary entirely, whatever the Digest column says. A period with nothing in it sends nothing at all, so a quiet week is a quiet inbox rather than an empty email.
What you can switch on depends on your plan
Some rows and columns are locked rather than hidden, so you can see what they do before deciding whether you want them.
| Locked | Needs |
|---|---|
| Running-out forecast row | Lab plan |
| Reports ready row | Team plan |
| Email column | Team plan |
| Digest column | Team plan |
A locked switch shows what unlocks it. See Plans and limits.
What drives the alerts
Some alerts fire off values set elsewhere, so if one is not arriving, check these before changing anything here:
- Low stock uses the item’s Alerts. Each alert specifies what it Counts, an At or below amount, and Who is told. Check that the alert covers the stock you mean and includes you as a recipient. See Add a supply.
- Expiring soon uses the lot's expiry date together with the lab-wide Expiry Warning (days) setting on the Lab tab, which is how far ahead the lab wants to be warned.
- Running-out forecast needs a usage history to work from. An item nobody has recorded using has no rate to project, so it is never forecast.
For what the notifications themselves look like and what you can do with them, see Your notifications.
The other tabs
- Lab. Lab-wide settings: lab name, currency for cost tracking, expiry warning days, lab timezone, and the Edna switch. PI-only to change, though other roles can view. See Let Edna make changes and attach files.
- Export. Getting your data out.
- Privacy. Privacy preferences.
- Billing. For PIs, your plan and subscription. See Plans and limits.