Change Summary_2026_Q1

LabHQ Change Summary 2026 Q1

Update Identifier:

2026_Q1

Scheduled Deployment Date:

Tuesday 31st March 2026

1. Overview

The next update to LabHQ will include new features, improvements and defect fixes to optimise your LIMS experience. This change summary provides a comprehensive overview of what to expect, including a list of changes and impact assessments.

1.1 Impact Assessment Guide

Software changes can vary widely, therefore an impact assessment is carried out for each change using the following impact scoring system.

Each feature is assessed across four key criteria, with scores assigned on a scale from 1 (Low Impact) to 5 (High Impact). The total impact score is the sum of all individual category scores.

  1. Compliance & Regulatory

1 - No effect on compliance or regulatory processes.

3 - Enhances compliance processes but does not require revalidation.

5 - Direct impact on regulatory adherence, requiring revalidation.

  1. User Experience & Training

1 - No training required, feature is intuitive.

3 - Some training or documentation updates may be needed.

5 - Major changes requiring user training or new SOPs.

  1. Data Integrity & Security

1 - No effect on data security or integrity.

3 - Enhances security or data handling but does not require urgent attention.

5 - Introduces critical security updates or requires policy changes.

  1. Configuration

1 - No changes required.

3 - Some configuration needed.

5 - Significant setup or reconfiguration needed.

Total Impact Score Calculation

Total score = Sum of all category scores (Max: 20, Min: 4)

Based on the total score, the impact level is classified as:

4-8: Low impact (Minimal changes needed, no disruption)

9-12: Moderate impact (Some configuration or training required)

13-16: High impact (Significant changes, compliance involvement may be required)

17-20: Critical impact (Requires validation, training and/or rollout planning)

2. Production Environment Updates

This details the features and defect fixes that will be available in production from the scheduled deployment date.

2.1 Features

The following features will be available in this update:

Area: Branding

  • 1685 - Rebrand LabHQ main application
    • The LabHQ application has been updated to reflect the company's latest brand guidelines, ensuring a consistent and modern user experience across the main application, authentication and notifications.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Aligns the main application with the portal and product website
      • Enhanced user experience
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact

Area: Labels

  • 1560 - Customise sample labels
    • Users can now fully customize sample labels to meet operational and printer-specific requirements. A configurable label template allows control over dimensions, layout and displayed data using ZPL (Zebra Programming Language), with support for dynamic data tokens.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Flexible label design
      • ZPL customization
      • Insert supported tokens directly into label templates for automated data population
    • Impact score:
      • 12 - Moderate impact

Area: Dashboard & Insights

  • 1757 - Dashboard
    • Users are now presented with a dashboard view immediately upon login, providing quick access to key information without additional navigation. A new Home centralizes the Dashboard, Job Viewer and Sample Viewer for improved accessibility.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Immediate visibility
      • Dashboard data refreshes automatically at regular intervals
    • Impact score:
      • 9 - Moderate impact
  • 2127 - Customize dashboard
    • Users can customize their dashboard by adding or removing widgets, allowing them to tailor the dashboard to display only the most relevant information for their role.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Tailored insights
      • Widget gallery to easily browse available dashboard widgets
    • Impact score:
      • 7 - Low impact
  • 2071 - Rearrange dashboard widgets
    • Users can now personalise their dashboard by rearranging and resizing widgets to prioritize the metrics most relevant to their daily work. Layout preferences are saved per user, ensuring a tailored and consistent experience.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Personalized dashboard experience
      • Resizable widgets
      • Persistent layout
    • Impact score:
      • 7 - Low impact
  • 2348 - Welcome widget
    • New users are greeted with a welcome widget when they login, providing a brief introduction to LabHQ along with an introductory video. This helps users quickly understand the system and get started with confidence.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Improved onboarding experience
      • Quick orientation with welcome message and concise overview of the application
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 2350 - Support widget
    • Available on the dashboard for new users, providing quick access to help resources and guidance on how to contact LabHQ support. This ensures users can easily find assistance when needed.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Easy access to help with centralized links to knowledge base and user docs
      • Provides clear instructions on how to contact support and visit support site
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 2349 - Onboarding checklist
    • Guides first-time users through key configuration steps required to get their organization up and running in LabHQ. The checklist provides structured onboarding with progress tracking and direct links to relevant setup areas.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Structured onboarding, guiding users through essential setup tasks such as organisation info, settings, users, products and test methods
      • Displays completion progress
      • Organization level tracking
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 1763 - Workflow pipeline widget
    • A visual pipeline has been introduced to provide users with a clear overview of sample progression across key workflow stages. This enables quick identification of bottlenecks and areas where samples are accumulating.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Displays the total number of samples at each stage of the workflow in a clear, visual format
      • Helps quickly pinpoint stages where samples are delayed or building up
      • Supports prioritization and resource allocation based on real-time pipeline data
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 1764 - Overdue samples widget
    • Provides users with a concise view of the most critical overdue samples. This enables quick identification and prioritization of samples that have exceeded their due dates.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Highlights the top most overdue samples directly from the dashboard
      • Samples ordered by most days overdue, ensuring the most critical items are surfaced first
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 1761 - Outstanding samples widget
    • Provides users with a forward-looking view of outstanding samples due by the end of the current week. This enables proactive workload planning and helps ensure turnaround commitments are met.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Proactive workload planning
      • Direct link to the sample viewer for deeper investigation and follow up
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 1759 - Samples completed today widget
    • Provides visibility into samples completed today, alongside a comparison to the same weekday last week. This helps users quickly assess whether current throughput is on track, improving performance monitoring and decision making.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Real-time performance tracking
      • Clear trend indicators
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 1758 - Samples completed this week widget
    • Provides users with a week-to-date view of completed samples, alongside a comparison to the same period in the previous week. This enables quick assessment of throughput trends and supports informed operational planning.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Week-to-date visibility
      • Clear trend indicators
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 1760 - On time rate widget
    • Provides visibility into the percentage of samples completed on or before their due dates this month, along with a comparison to last month. This enables lab managers to monitor turnaround performance and ensure service level expectations are being met.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Turnaround performance tracking
      • Clear trend indicators
      • Focused metrics
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 1765 - Samples approaching due date
    • Highlights samples that are approaching their due date within the next two days, enabling users to proactively manage workload and prevent potential delays.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Proactive risk identification
      • Prioritized visibility
      • Clear time indicators
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 2181 - OOS monthly count
    • Provides visibility into out-of-specification (OOS) results for the current month, alongside a 6 month trend. This enables users to monitor quality performance and quickly identify whether OOS results are increasing or decreasing over time.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Current performance snapshot
      • Historical trend visibility
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 2183 - Active investigations by age
    • Provides visibility into how long active sample investigations have been open, grouped into age-based categories. This helps users identify aging investigations and prioritize follow up actions effectively.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Clear aging visibility
      • Visual distribution, displaying data in a chart format for quick interpretation
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 2184 - View samples by investigation age
    • Users can drill down from the investigation age widget to view a filtered list of samples associated with active investigations within a selected date range. This enables quicker identification of impacted samples and supports targeted follow up on aging investigations.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Seamless drill down capability, viewing related samples instantly
      • Improved traceability, connecting metrics to specific affected samples
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 1762 - Investigation volume
    • Provides users with a view of current investigation workload alongside historical trends. It displays the number of active investigations and a 12 month trend of investigations raised, helping identify spikes and patterns over time.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Historical trend analysis, showing investigations raised per month over the past 12 months
      • Visual insights, highlighting months with higher investigation activity for easy interpretation
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 2185 - Time to investigation closure widget
    • Provides insight into how long it typically takes to close investigations, using median closure time over a rolling 6 month period. This helps users assess investigation efficiency and identify performance trends over time.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Performance visibility for investigation management
      • Historical trend tracking
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 2256 - Stock near expiry widget
    • Highlights stock batches that are approaching expiry within the next 48 hours, enabling users to take proactive action and reduce waste.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Proactive inventory management
      • Helps teams act early to use or manage stock before expiry
    • 4 - Low impact
  • Impact score:
    • 4 - Low impact
  • 2258 - Stock usability widget
    • Provides a clear breakdown of usable versus expired stock, helping lab managers quickly assess overall inventory health. Stock batches are categorized into expired, expiring soon and valid based on their expiry status.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Visualizes the proportion of expired, expiring soon and valid stock batches
      • Shows both counts and percentage shares of total batches
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 2255 - Expired stock
    • Provides a clear summary of expired stock batches, enabling users to quickly identify inventory requiring review or disposal. The widget adapts its level of detail based on size, offering both a simple count and a category breakdown.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Adaptive detail
      • Category insights by grouping expired stock by configured categories
      • Visualizes category distribution
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 2257 - Stock levels
    • Provides a high level overview of stock levels across the system, highlighting items that are out of stock or running low. This enables users to quickly assess inventory status and take timely replenishment actions.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Inventory status at a glance
      • Critical stock visibility, highlighting counts for items out of stock and low in stock
      • Includes a visual health bar showing percentage of items above minimum threshold level
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 2307 - Filter widgets via widget gallery
    • The widget gallery includes filters, making it easier for users to find and manage widgets based on their subscription tier and current dashboard setup.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Shows widgets available based on the user's subscription
      • Highlights widgets already added to the user's dashboard
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact

Area: Stock Management

  • 1747 - Allow reductions for correcting stock levels
    • Users can now adjust stock levels to reflect both increases and reductions identified during reconciliation. This ensures that discrepancies found during stock counts can be recorded using the 'Correction' adjustment type.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Supports both stock increases and reduction
      • Ensures stock levels reflect real-world inventory following reconciliation
    • Impact score:
      • 4 - Low impact
  • 1556 - Expired stock notifications
    • Users can now receive automated daily email notifications highlighting expired stock batches that have not yet been disposed of. The notification provides a prioritized summary of items requiring attention, along with a link to expired stock in LabHQ.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Alerts users to expired stock requiring action, reducing risk of oversight
      • Highlights the top priority items with the highest number of expired batches
    • Impact score:
      • 6 - Low impact

Area: Workbooks

  • 1752 - Group samples & inputs on workbooks
    • Analysts can now record result data in the workbook grouped by test method, then input and finally by sample. This aligns the data entry experience with the natural flow of lab testing, reducing need to navigate between multiple tables and pages.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Workflow aligned data entry, enabling recording of results in the order tests are peformed
      • Logical grouping
      • Minimises switching between workbook sections
    • Impact score:
      • 6 - Low impact
  • 2190 - Remove workbook download from Enter Results
    • The option to download workbooks from Enter Results has been removed to ensure consistency with the Manage Work step and reduce user confusion around workbook generation.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Eliminates conflicting or unclear workbook generation paths
      • Simplifies Enter Results screen by removing unnecessary functionality
    • Impact score:
      • 9 - Moderate impact

Area: User Experience Improvements

  • 2319 - Data previews in the lifecycle
    • Users can view key information such as descriptions and summary details for products, test methods, jobs, samples and clients directly within the sample lifecycle. This reduces the need to navigate between screens and improves confidence in selecting and reviewing data.
    • Key benefits & improvements:
      • Reduced navigation by viewing details without having to leave the current screen
      • Improves data clarity by displaying names and descriptions for test methods and products wherever they appear
      • Accessible to all users, with read-only information visible regardless of permission levels
    • Impact score:
      • 6 - Low impact

2.2 Defect Fixes

This update will address the following issues:

  • 2358 - Client deletion safeguard
    • Resolved an issue where deleting a client could lead to lost access to associated jobs and samples. The system now prevents deletion of a client if any jobs are linked to it.
  • 2445 - Sample viewer sorting
    • Resolved an issue where samples in the sample viewer were not consistently sorted by Sample ID, resulting in incorrect ordering on screen.
  • 2064 - Trend report error with all products selected
    • Resolved an issue where an error occurred when generating a trend report for clients configured with all products.
  • 2031 - Stock item update validation
    • Resolved an issue where users were unable to save changes to an existing stock item when modifying the minimum stock threshold first.
  • 1945 - Daily stock notification rendering
    • Resolved an issue where the daily stock notification email did not render correctly in classic Outlook clients.

3. System Requirements

Please ensure that your system meets the following minimum requirements to smoothly implement the new update:

  • Operating system:
    • Windows 10 or later
  • Browser:
    • Google Chrome version 100+
    • Microsoft Edge version 100+
  • Internet Connection:
    • Broadband internet connection (minimum 5 Mbps download, 1 Mbps upload)

4. Update Process

For a smooth transition to the next software update, please follow these steps:

5.1 Validation

Users are encouraged to frequently visit the LabHQ validation environment to review new features prior to the scheduled go live date in production. Updates will be made to the validation environment every 2 weeks.

Users will be given a one-month window to carry out validation prior to the scheduled go live date, during which time no further updates will be deployed to the validation environment.

Any feedback or issues should be reported to us via the help desk by emailing support@thelabhq.com.

5.2 Pre-update Check

Ensure that your system meets all pre-requisites for the next software update (see System Requirements above). This typically includes having an internet connection, access to the LabHQ app and up-to-date browser versions.

5.3 Accessing the Updates

The latest updates will be applied directly to your LabHQ production environment on the scheduled go live date, with no need for user intervention. Once the latest updates have been deployed, the next time you log in, you will automatically see the latest changes.

5.4 Post-update Monitoring

We will monitor the system to ensure that everything functions smoothly after the deployment to production. If any issues are identified, they will be resolved as soon as possible. Users can report any issues via the help desk by emailing support@thelabhq.com.

6. Latest Updates & Documentation

For more detailed information on this update, including latest updates and test certificates, please refer to the following:

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