Reagent inventory by lot: what is on the shelf, what to use first, what to order.
LotWarden is laboratory inventory software for reagents, calibrators, controls and consumables, tracked by lot and expiry. It builds the inventory from the receiving logs the laboratory already keeps in Excel, so there is no second stock system to maintain. Every lot is followed from the delivery note to the day it is put into use and the day it is removed. It runs offline on one PC.
Inventory in an accredited laboratory is a record of lots, not a count of boxes.
ISO 15189:2022 clause 6.6 asks a laboratory to control its reagents and consumables from receipt to use: to record what arrived and in what condition, to keep stock that has not been accepted apart from stock that has, to know each lot's expiry and the date it entered service, and to keep those records. A stock count answers how many. An assessor asks which lot, accepted when, and in use from what date.
One line per lot, from the docket to the bin.
| Stage | What is recorded | How |
|---|---|---|
| Received | Date, product, lot, expiry, quantity, supplier, delivery-note number, condition, receiver's initials | Read from the scanned delivery note and written to the department's log after a preview. Only a quantity a person has confirmed is written to stock |
| Accepted | The lot's verdict against the pre-acceptance register | Cross-checked at receipt in Chemistry; flagged for bench verification elsewhere |
| Short-dated or expired | Expiry within 90 days flagged amber on arrival; expired on arrival quarantined | Checked the moment the docket is read |
| Put into use | The Date in Use, signed and dated | Typed, or scanned with a USB barcode scanner (GS1 barcodes read as they are; scanning is in preview) |
| Removed | Expired unopened lots taken off the shelf, written to the log's discarded count | Listed by the stock outlook, written after a preview |
| History | Every lot the logs have shown and what happened to it, across departments | Kept beside the application after a new year's log replaces the old one |
Three lists, each with its count.
Tell LotWarden how long a delivery takes and how many weeks of stock to keep. It forecasts from the logs' own Dates in Use.
Order
Products that will run out before a delivery could arrive. Tick a product as ordered and the tick clears when the logs show the delivery. Delivery times are learned from those ticks.
Use these first
Unopened lots expiring within 60 days, each with a button to put it into use, so the oldest stock goes on the analyser first.
Take off the shelf
Expired unopened lots. The removal is previewed, then written to the log, so the shelf and the record agree.
Also in the outlook: shelf counts with a printable count sheet, days-of-cover charts, each supplier's record for the yearly evaluation, and expiry reminders saved as a calendar file. Three or more lots put into use give a forecast; two give a rough one. Past years' logs can be read to give a rate of use from the first day.
Built for one job. Say no early if yours is a different one.
A good fit
An accredited laboratory that keeps its reagent and consumable logs in controlled Excel workbooks, wants lot-level traceability and expiry control without migrating to a new system, and cannot or will not put stock data in a cloud service.
Not a fit
Purchasing and ordering: the outlook is advisory and orders nothing. Multi-site warehousing, pricing and invoicing. Sample or specimen inventory. Laboratories that want stock held in a database rather than their own workbooks.
Requirements: a Windows PC with Microsoft Excel. No installer, no admin rights, no network. More: Deployment and licensing.
Questions about laboratory inventory.
What inventory records does ISO 15189 require for reagents?
Clause 6.6 of ISO 15189:2022 expects a record for each reagent and consumable that affects results: its identity, the supplier, the lot number, the date received, the expiry date, its condition on receipt, the date it entered service and, where it applies, the date it was taken out of service. Stock that has not been accepted must be kept apart from stock that has.
Can a laboratory manage reagent inventory in Excel and still meet the standard?
Yes. The standard asks for the records and for control of them, not for a particular system. The weak points of a spreadsheet are hand transcription, no check at the door and no trail of who changed what. LotWarden keeps the laboratory's own controlled workbooks as the record and adds the reading, the check and a hash-chained audit trail around them.
Does LotWarden replace a LIMS inventory module?
It does a narrower job. It covers receiving, lot acceptance, expiry, date in use and a stock outlook for reagents and consumables, and it does not connect to the laboratory information system or hold patient data. A laboratory that already runs inventory inside its information system would use LotWarden only if the receiving step and the lot record are still done by hand.
Does it place orders?
No. The stock outlook lists what will run short before a delivery could arrive, and a person places the order. LotWarden never connects to a supplier, an ordering system or email.
Does it read barcodes?
Yes, in preview. A USB barcode scanner puts a lot into use in one scan. GS1 barcodes are read as they are, and any other label layout is taught once from one scan. Receiving is done from the scanned delivery note, not from barcodes.
See a delivery become a stock record.
Twenty minutes on a video call, on fictional data: a docket read, the lots checked, the log written and the outlook updated.