What's new in LIMSey
LIMSey's roadmap is heavily influenced by customer feedback — many features exist because a lab asked for them. Highlights from recent releases are posted here; complete release notes ship in-app with every version.
Searchable Metrics filters, resizable grid columns, and signing passwords for single sign-on
Every filter on the Metrics screen is now a search list: a count beside each entry, typed words that match in any order, and, for tasks, sample traits, tags, and job fields, an All containing option that keeps the words rather than a list of names — so 'Tensile Test', 'Tensile Test (Rev B)', and 'Group 1: Tensile Test' all count, and a variant added next month joins automatically. A new Status to status time card shows the median time between any two statuses, the share of jobs that made the move within 3 days or took 30 or more, and how many are still waiting. Jobs in these metrics lists every job behind the cards, and unticking a test job or a duplicate leaves it out of every card, saved with the view. Compare groups now work on Trends, with a lane per group on a shared scale, and Trends and Tasks & Results filters that took up to 30 seconds on large accounts now answer in about a second.
- Drag a column edge to resize a job's Samples grid or a task's results grid; widths belong to the job, so everyone sees the same grid, and widths set on a template carry to every job made from it
- Single sign-on users on accounts that require a password to sign approvals and signatures can now set a signing password from an emailed link — used only for signing, never to sign in
- Task measurements gained an Include in Reports switch, honored by the PDF, custom Word, and Excel reports
Result Measurements under the grid, a Pass / Fail row, and setup measurements
A task's result measurements — the columns of its results grid — now have a Result Measurements section under the grid on the Results tab, listing every column in order with its type, unit, pass/fail rule, whether it prints in reports, and, on a job, how many results have a value. Drag a row to reorder the columns, click a name to rename it, and open a chevron for a dropdown's options, a formula, decimal places, or material limits. A Pass / Fail row now sits under the grid's header, one cell per column, showing each column's limits right where the values are typed — and hovering a red cell says why it failed, like '5 min is above the maximum of 2 min'. Task measurements that must be recorded before any result makes sense — the chamber, the gauge serial, the ambient temperature — can be marked Needed before results: they show in a Setup Measurements section above the grid until they have a value, and the Results tab reads 'setup 1 of 3' until they are all in. Nothing is locked, results can still be entered in any order, and a switch set on the template carries to every job made from it.
- Task Measurements show each measurement's rule in a Pass / Fail column, with the same limits band as the grid
- Changing a measurement's definition re-judges its recorded values at once, and changing its field type keeps the values that fit and asks before clearing the ones that don't — cleared values stay in the audit trail
- Custom Word reports now include only the tasks and results on the job page, the same as the default PDF report — regenerate a report to pick this up
Time at Status, a readable activity feed, and Excel export of the Jobs screen
The Time at Status card on a job's Summary now covers only the statuses the job has been in: a one-line read like '24d from Draft to Completed', a bar that splits the time across statuses in their own colors, and a legend with each stint's duration and share — with See details opening the full trail, from total elapsed and longest stint to a table of every stint in order. Latest Activity is now a timeline: a dot marks the kind of action, a status change shows as two status pills, a field edit shows the value before and after, and a run of the same change by one person folds into a single line, so 'created 5 tasks' is one entry rather than five. All Activity groups the trail by day, with filters by kind of change and by person. And the Jobs screen gained an Export button that emails you the list as an Excel spreadsheet — every job that matches your filters across every page, in your sort order, with every column from your Jobs table in your column order, real Excel dates, a header row that filters and sorts, and each job's name linking back to LIMSey.
- Single sign-on: when your identity provider refuses a sign-in the page now shows the reason it gave, and a browser that signed in with SSO goes straight to the SSO form next time
- Status pills show each status's own color everywhere — the Jobs table, the top of a job, job groups — not just once you had picked colors on the Jobs screen
- API: the bulk result value update applies the whole batch in one transaction, so large batches from sync clients finish well inside the request limit and a row that fails validation is reported on its own
Notification receipts, rule health, and template pickers that offer what you use
A job's Summary now has a Notifications card listing every email an account rule sent about the job — when, the status it was about, the rule, everyone on the To line, and whether it was sent or is still queued. People who manage rules also see the status changes a rule was aimed at but did not fire on, with the reason, which answers 'why didn't the team get an email for this job' without a support ticket. Settings › Notifications shows when each rule last sent and how many events it sent this month, and flags setup that cannot work: a condition on a field no template has, a field only some templates carry, a user tag with no active users, or people on the rule who have been deactivated. And everywhere a template is chosen as a filter or condition — the Jobs screen, Metrics, notification rules, board automations — the picker now leads with the templates you actually use, ranked by jobs made in the last 90 days, with the rest behind Show more and a search that reaches inactive templates too.
- The Templates screen gained an Idle 12+ months filter, a Last job date on every card, and Mark inactive in bulk — reversible, and nothing retires on its own
- A rule set to send one combined email now puts the person who made the change on the To line too, so they can see who was told and reply to the same thread
- Deactivated people are skipped by every notification rule and the daily digest, and the people picker on the rule form marks them
A new task page, linked procedures, and scan stations
The task page has been flattened into four tabs — Summary, Results, Equipment, and Approvals — matching the job page one level up, so results are one click closer and the old row of panel buttons is gone. Tasks and task templates can now link the controlled documents they follow: a template always hands out the newest revision, a job task records the revision in force when it ran, and the document's own page lists every task following it, with a filter for open tasks still on an older revision. Task measurements are now a table that saves as you leave each cell, the Results Summary card sits on the task itself, and the Equipment tab shows each item's calibration state at the time it was logged.
- Scan stations: an enrolled tablet or scanner at the receiving desk moves a job to its next status and stamps a date by scanning the traveler
- The Jobs table columns are yours — hide, reorder, and resize per person, with a new Tasks column showing progress
- Sample labels gained tape presets for common label printers, a headline line, and a choice of which logo prints
- Releases now announce themselves in the app, with a What's new card and one-time callouts on the screens that changed
- API: job field definitions and result units are exposed, soft-deleted records are hidden, and the docs site has a sidebar and stable anchors
An in-app Help Center, automatic result statuses, and combined notification emails
LIMSey now has a built-in Help Center: 32 guides covering every screen and the core workflows — creating jobs, working tasks, entering results, building templates, reports, and an end-to-end walkthrough of a job from start to finish — with a Learn more link on each screen that opens the guide in a slide-over without leaving the page. Result statuses are now derived from the row itself: a result flips to pass or fail as values come in, and back again if a value is corrected; rows with no criteria fill in as completed or in progress. Any status you set by hand is locked against automation until you switch it back to Automatic.
- Account notification rules can send one combined email to the whole recipient list, so a team sees who was notified and can reply-all
- Welcome and forgot-password emails on single sign-on accounts now point straight to SSO sign-in
A rebuilt AI assistant, plain-language roles, and shorter reports
The AI assistant has been rebuilt from the ground up. It now runs real, read-only queries against your account data and answers from the actual results — scoped to the asking user's own permissions, with records that link straight to their pages and tables that download as spreadsheets. A floating Ask AI button opens it on every screen, already aware of the job or task you're viewing, and it doubles as a help system that answers how-do-I questions with step-by-step guides. Bring your own Claude, OpenAI, or Gemini key as before, or opt in to a LIMSey-provided model with a monthly allowance of questions.
- The role editor was rebuilt around plain-language capabilities, with per-job enforcement and one-click reset to the default Admin, Lab User, and Requester roles
- Lab and requester seat types with per-account seat caps
- Report results tables consolidated to one per task, with values colored by their pass/fail verdict — a six-job combined report that ran 426 pages now renders in 223
Job fields, job checklists, and samples filtering
Job fields now have one home: a new Job Fields page in Settings shows account-wide fields alongside the ones individual templates add, and a promotion wizard upgrades a template field into an account-wide one — gathering its spellings, cleaning up dropdown options, and backfilling values onto existing jobs. Jobs can now carry a checklist of Yes/No, multiple choice, and text questions built on the template, with every answer recording who answered and when. And the samples screen now filters like the jobs screen: filter chips for status, material, dates, and every trait, saved views with live counts, shareable filtered links, and rendering that's about six times faster on large accounts.
- Merge look-alike dropdown options in place, with usage counts and an audit record
- Custom job and sample IDs are guaranteed unique by the database, with deterministic numbering for bulk imports, multi-add, and cloning
- Creating results for many samples at once is faster and completes as a single all-or-nothing operation
Redesigned reports, job groups, and job costing
PDF job and task reports have been rebuilt from the ground up: cover pages, running headers with page numbers, a navigable outline, faithful rendering of formatted notes and photos, and revision-aware output with draft watermarks — plus your lab's own logo and accent color. Related jobs can now be linked into named job groups, each with a combined report that rolls results up across every member job, and a new Job Costing page tracks what a job costs across labor, equipment, inventory, and per-task base costs.
- Magic link sign-in — a one-time emailed link instead of a password
- Custom account branding in the app and on generated reports
- Create several numbered samples at once, and drag-and-drop attachments in the create-job wizard
Guided template selection
Labs with a large template catalog can now guide requesters to the right job template with a short set of questions instead of one long list — each answer narrows the matches until the right template is easy to spot, with a live preview while you configure it. Job templates can also carry a shortlist of the task templates that usually belong on their jobs, so the common case is one click and the full catalog stays one click away.
Test batteries and name cleanup
Test batteries bundle task templates into a named, ordered set that can be added to a job in one action — define a standard battery once, apply it everywhere. The new Name Cleanup page finds near-duplicate spellings of fields, measurements, traits, and tags across your account and merges them safely, with an impact preview before anything runs. Metrics gained stackable filters that save into views, and training records joined the read-only API.
Notification rules
Notifications were rebuilt as a single rules engine. Every rule reads as a sentence — when an event happens, on a set of jobs, notify these people, through these channels — and covers assignments, status changes, jobs stuck in a status, equipment changes, and document revisions, delivered in-app, by instant email, daily digest, or text. Existing triggers and watches converted automatically.
- Task parameters can be organized into sections, including conditional ones
- Print QR-code sample labels with the traits you choose
- Paste blocks of cells from Excel or Google Sheets straight into the samples and results tables
- Role switching makes verifying permission setups painless
Metrics: built-in lab analytics
The new Metrics area brings job, task, and result analytics into LIMSey itself: throughput, lead times, on-time performance, pass and fail rates, failure hot spots, and control-chart trends on any measurement — with saved views and side-by-side comparison groups, engineered to render in under a second even on the largest accounts. A new Results Summary card also gives every job a one-glance picture of how its samples measured up.
AutoSchedule, redesigned end to end
Automated scheduling was rebuilt from the ground up. Jobs now enroll themselves in the schedule by status, people and equipment pools can be defined with tags, and time off and planned downtime are packed around automatically. The schedule itself is a rolling timeline with day, week, and month zoom, at-risk flags, and attention chips for jobs that are late, unscheduled, or missing resources — and it recalculates itself whenever its inputs change.
A rebuilt jobs workspace
Across June's releases, the jobs index was rebuilt around saved views — pinnable, reorderable tabs with live counts — over richer card-style rows with inline editing everywhere. Job templates got a redesigned two-lane builder, the Tasks tab gained three view densities, and the index loads substantially faster on large accounts.
- Data-blob result fields store a full instrument payload (JSON or XML) against a result
- Formula results can display in any compatible unit
- New API list endpoints and bulk updates for high-volume integrations
- A clear split between submitting a job to the lab and saving a draft
Faster boards, smarter public forms, a bigger API
Kanban boards got significantly faster, and each column can now show whichever job fields matter at that stage of the workflow. Public request forms gained conditional sections, new API endpoints cover materials and job and task templates, and rate-limited API calls now answer with proper 429 responses so integrations can back off cleanly.
Smarter units, board automations, and equipment insights
Units are now first-class: define custom units with dimensional checks, convert automatically between compatible units, and let formulas derive their output unit algebraically — divide a mass by a volume and the result reports as a density, no configuration needed. April also brought board automations (including a daily 'job is late' trigger), an equipment usage report linking each asset to its calibrations, jobs, and tasks, and HEIC photo support everywhere attachments go.
Boards, units on results, and training triggers
Boards give jobs a visual home: freeform columns that match your workflow, drag-and-drop cards, collaborator permissions, and instant filtering. Result measurements can now carry units from a built-in library organized by category, document revisions can be flagged to require re-training for everyone trained on earlier revisions, and the mobile-friendly Verify Inventory screen makes physical counts quick.
AutoSchedule beta and public request forms
AutoSchedule entered beta: assign people and equipment pools to tasks, prioritize your jobs, and the schedule fills itself in — respecting priorities, sequences, and availability. Public forms let anyone submit a request through a shareable link, no login required, and submissions convert straight into jobs.
Multifactor authentication and the AI Assistant beta
Accounts can now enable TOTP multifactor authentication, and passwords are checked against known-leak databases on every sign-in. Job search got significantly faster on large accounts, and the AI Assistant entered beta — a chat for asking questions about your lab's data in plain language.
Faster tables and corrective-action improvements
The new table experience expanded to the samples screen with improved pagination and loading, corrective action statuses can be updated even after approvals exist, and the API gained data-sync capabilities and better bulk result updates.
Smoother results entry and the Report Builder
The results table now refreshes only the cells that change, so fast data entry no longer bumps you out of the next cell. This release also introduced the Report Builder, added locations to inventory, and returns an on-hold task's inventory to stock instead of holding it until completion.
Rebuilt tasks and results screens
The tasks and results screens were updated for better navigation and performance, tasks gained date-based reminders — think 'remove from chamber' — and inventory gained a checkout feature. The API grew job copying, task creation, and sample modification endpoints.
Mass editing and job status control
The results table gained mass editing and attachment support, and job statuses can now restrict which statuses they're allowed to change to — so steps in your lab's process can't be skipped.
These are the highlights — over 230 releases and counting have full notes inside LIMSey. Want a feature that isn't here yet? Tell us — that's how most of them started.