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2 | Planning an Order

Customers (and lab users) can plan orders and track progress. This guide shows how to create and configure an order.

Thomas Beuls avatar
Written by Thomas Beuls
Updated over 5 months ago

Create a new order

To get started, click the “Add order” button in the top right corner of the Orders screen.

Required fields

These must be filled out to create an order:

  • Order name (unique per customer)

  • Crop / Variety

  • Order type

  • Order requester

  • Lab owner

These help with planning, prioritization, and communication, but can be added later:

  • Field experiment

  • Link to experiment

  • Samples (estimate)

  • Markers (estimate)

  • Estimated shipping date

  • Results deadline

You can save and come back to it at any time. Orders remain in Registered status until a laboratory user confirms the planning and changes the status to planned.

Order detail view

After you’ve created an order, clicking it from the Kanban view or the list view opens the order detail screen. This screen gives you full access to all aspects of your order: metadata, samples, files, and conversation history.

Order metadata pane

On the left side of the order detail view, you’ll find the metadata pane. This area gives you a structured overview of all key fields linked to the order, including general metadata, responsibilities, and lifecycle tracking.

Order details

Field

Description

Order name

The unique name or code for this order, set at creation.

Order shortcode

The unique and automatically generated shortcode for an order. Based on the 3-letter abbreviation that's configured in the customer section.

Field experiment

Optional free text to describe the field trial or experiment.

Link to experiment

Optional URL linking the order to a breeding software or other external system.

Crop / Variety

Required field indicating the plant material involved. May influence available markers.

Order type

Required field defining the nature of the genotyping request (e.g. marker-assisted selection, fingerprinting). Determines available templates or downstream settings.

People

Field

Description

Order requester

The customer contact responsible for the order.

Lab owner

The lab-side user managing the request internally. This person receives notifications and results-related updates.

These people can be assigned at creation order updated later by the requester or lab owner.

Schedule tracking (Planned vs Actual)

Each order tracks important milestones throughout its lifecycle:

Stage

What it tracks

Shipped

When the customer marks the order as shipped

Arrived

When the lab confirms sample receipt

Processing

When the lab starts working on the samples

Results authorized

When the results are finalized and released

Results deadline

The expected due date agreed between lab and customer

For each step, both planned and actual dates are tracked. This tracking enables:

  • Transparent turnaround monitoring

  • Historical SLA reporting

  • Future capacity and planning optimization

It’s a key feature to align expectations between labs and customers.

Tracking URL

Contains a tracking URL for the laboratory team to track the shipment, e.g. a UPS or DHL link.

Notes

Each order contains a Notes section. This is often pre-filled using a template linked to the selected Order type, depending on your lab’s setup.

You can edit this note freely to provide any instructions, context, or SOPs relevant to the order. Some labs use it to gather critical details that aren’t captured by structured fields.

Note: To configure order note templates go to this article [TO LINK LATER]

Conversation

The Conversation tab combines two types of communication:

  1. Messages – Freeform messages between customers and the lab (like a chat).

  2. System updates – Automatic entries showing key events such as:

    • Status transitions (e.g. Planned → Shipped)

    • Changes in sample or marker estimates

    • Adjustments to shipping or result deadlines

This running log helps both sides stay aligned without needing to send separate emails.

Samples

The Samples tab is where you’ll add or manage all samples and plates linked to the order. You can:

  • Manually add or paste samples

  • Import plates via CSV

  • Assign markers and controls

  • Configure plate layouts

We’ll dive deeper into this step in this article next article.

Files

The Files tab lets you organize documents related to the order. You can create folders (e.g. "Shipping docs", "Field map") and upload files as needed.

Later in the workflow, this is where genotyping results and analysis exports will appear for download.

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