Docs · The first-report guide
Your first report.
Seven short steps from a blank lab to a released report.
The guide below is the one your dashboard shows a brand-new lab — the same seven steps, in a fixed order, with a progress meter and one promoted next step. Each step name and each quoted line is the app’s own; the notes around them are the parts people ask about.
The seven steps, expanded
A lit well is a step your lab has completed; the dashboard keeps exactly one next step promoted, so there is never a question of what comes next.
Complete your lab profile & logo
“The lab name, CLIA number, director, address and logo print on every report — a report cannot be released while any of them is blank.”
Release checks seven fields: lab name, laboratory director, license number (the CLIA number, for US labs), address, phone, email and logo. Fax, website and tax ID stay optional — blocking a lab’s first report over a fax number would be theatre.
Create your first test panel
“A panel is the test you run: its targets, the fluorescence channel each is read on, and how each prints on the report.”
Each target carries three names — the working name your team says, the PDF Name that prints on the patient report, and Name in Result File, character for character as your instrument writes it.
Set CT cutoffs on your panel’s targets
“Every target needs a Lower and Upper CT — the window that reads as positive. Open your panel and fill both bounds for each target.”
This step deep-links to the exact panel still missing a bound. The numbers come from your validation, not our catalogue — the long answer is in Setting CT cutoffs.
Add your run controls
“Positive, negative and blank controls are what let a run be validated.”
Your lab’s list starts empty on purpose: import the controls you run from the reference catalogue in one go, or type your own. Whether they behaved on a given run stays a person’s call at QC.
Add your declaration text
“The methodology and limitations wording printed on the report. Keys like client name and test name fill in automatically per report.”
Your declaration text walks through the merge keys and carries a starter paragraph to adapt, so this step is a paste and an edit rather than a blank page.
Add a report approver
“The signing name your released reports go out under.”
If the approver and the releaser later turn out to be the same person, the software says so in writing and lets you through — staffing is your policy, not ours.
Place an order and release your first report
“Upload the sample manifest, attach instrument results and pay — the first report is free. Release it from the run review.”
No manifest of your own to hand? The sample manifest and result file are fictional end to end and run the loop from upload to released PDF.
Demo rows never tick a step
A new account ships with seed data so the screens aren’t empty, and none of it counts toward the guide — a tweaked demo panel is not your lab’s panel. The meter moves when your own records exist. The dashboard’s summary of the whole path is one line:
Order → accession → run → release. Your first one is free.
About the card
“Your first report is free. Add a card whenever you like — you only need one to release the second.”
That is the app’s own billing copy, unedited, and it holds: you can reach a signed, branded PDF on your letterhead before entering a card number.
Start where the guide starts.
Sign up, and the seven steps are waiting on your dashboard with the first one promoted.
Open the guide on your dashboard →
Stuck on a step: support@pcrlabpro.com.