Proficiency testing in laboratory work — never miss a round, never lose the paper trail
A missed PT round or an unanswered failure is one of the fastest ways to lose accreditation. LabMODO schedules every proficiency test per method, tracks it from sample to verdict, and turns a failing result into a corrective action — so PTs stop being the thing your lab runs out of an inbox.
How does LabMODO handle proficiency testing in laboratory workflows?
Proficiency testing in laboratory workflows break when the schedule and the results live in scattered emails. LabMODO schedules each PT round per method, tracks the sample from arrival to submission, records the provider’s pass/fail verdict against the method, and turns a failure into a tracked corrective action — the whole round in one place, with a missed deadline or an unanswered fail impossible to miss on Mission Control.
A failed proficiency test is a reason to lose your accreditation — and most labs run PTs out of an inbox
A proficiency test is an open-book exam you can fail out of accreditation. A provider sends a blind sample, you run it in your method, you submit your result — and the provider tells you whether it landed inside the acceptable range. Miss the round, or fail one and never document your response, and that’s a finding an assessor can act on.
Yet this high-stakes cycle is usually run like everything else:
“Calibrations, maintenance, and PTs — tracked across Excel sheets, Outlook calendars, sticky notes.”
“If that person’s out, it doesn’t happen.”
The round slips past the provider’s deadline because nobody was watching the calendar. Or a result comes back failing and the response lives in one person’s email instead of a documented corrective action. The work happens — the proof that it happened, on time and to closure, is what goes missing.
Inside LabMODO's proficiency testing in laboratory management
The full PT cycle in one place — from the round being due to the outcome being filed against the method.
01
Every PT round, scheduled per method.
LabMODO knows which methods need proficiency testing, on what cadence, and when the next round is due — surfaced before the provider’s deadline, not after it’s passed.
02
From sample received to results submitted.
Log the PT sample when it arrives, run it blind in your method like any routine sample, and record that results went back to the provider — each stage visible, nothing stuck on a desk.
03
The provider’s verdict, recorded against the method.
When the provider returns pass or fail against the threshold, it’s logged against the method it belongs to. A pass becomes filed accreditation evidence you can produce on demand.
04
A fail becomes a corrective action, not a crisis.
Because a failing PT is a reason to lose accreditation, LabMODO turns it into a tracked corrective action the moment it’s recorded — investigated, closed, and provable, instead of an email nobody owns. (See CAPA & nonconformance.)
05
Every round on Mission Control.
Upcoming, overdue, passed, failed — PT status rolls up to the lid, so a round that’s about to lapse can’t hide behind a busy week.
Proficiency testing is one part of your quality schedule
PTs are the highest-stakes recurring obligation, but they share a calendar with everything else that comes due on a cycle — reviews (management, document and method, data) and preventive maintenance among them. In LabMODO they all sit on one quality schedule, so nothing dated slips, and Mission Control shows what’s past due or coming up across all of it.
A note on where things live: PTs are tied to methods and analysts, so they’re native to the schedule. Maintenance, calibration, and verification attach to equipment, so each is generated from and detailed in the equipment register — the schedule just surfaces the due date.
→ See how the full quality schedule works
What laboratory proficiency testing looks like when it's run as a system
No missed rounds.
Every laboratory proficiency testing deadline surfaces before it’s due — the round stops being something you remember two days after the provider’s window closed.
A failure you can defend.
When a fail automatically becomes a documented, tracked corrective action, you can show an assessor exactly how you responded — turning your riskiest moment into evidence of a working quality system.
The record outlives the person.
PT history — every round, every result, every response — lives in the system, not in the inbox of whoever used to handle it.
Green on Mission Control.
PT status feeds the lid. On track means the light stays green — audit-ready every day, not the night before.
The clock inside Operations
The quality schedule is the beating clock of the Operations pillar — the daily work, kept on time. In the LabMODO Quality Loop, rules → able people → daily work → checked against your standards, one system watched from above. A failed PT is exactly the moment the loop earns its keep: the finding sends work back to update the rules, and you can prove the whole turn happened.
"It just tells me"
“The best part of LabMODO is that it eliminates the need for Master Lists and change notices. It gives a unique ID and revision date to every form and document to meet TNI requirements.”
Jonathan G.
QAO
Caltest Analytical Laboratory
Twenty minutes about your lab — and what to fix first
Bring your PT calendar however it lives today — the provider emails, the spreadsheet, the reminders. We'll look at where a round could slip and how a failed PT gets handled now, and what it takes to make both airtight. You get a plan either way.
FAQ
Questions labs actually ask
If yours isn’t here, ask it on the demo.
Does LabMODO provide proficiency testing samples or schemes?
Does LabMODO provide proficiency testing samples or schemes?
No — LabMODO is not a PT provider. It manages proficiency testing in laboratory workflows around the provider you already use: it schedules each round per method, tracks the sample from arrival to submission, records the provider’s pass/fail verdict against the method, and opens a corrective action if you fail.
What happens when a proficiency test comes back failing?
What happens when a proficiency test comes back failing?
A failing result automatically becomes a tracked corrective action tied to the method. Because a failed laboratory proficiency testing result is a reason to lose accreditation, LabMODO makes sure your response is documented and closed — not left in an inbox. You can show an assessor exactly what you did about it.
Does the schedule handle preventive maintenance too?
Does the schedule handle preventive maintenance too?
Yes — preventive maintenance of laboratory equipment appears on the same schedule as your PTs and reviews. Because maintenance attaches to a piece of equipment, each service is generated from and detailed in the equipment register on the Calibration & equipment page; the schedule surfaces the due date.
What reminds us before a PT round is due?
What reminds us before a PT round is due?
The schedule surfaces each round ahead of its deadline and flags anything overdue on Mission Control.
Does it work with our LIMS?
Does it work with our LIMS?
Yes — LabMODO works with or without your LIMS. Your LIMS runs samples and results; LabMODO runs the quality side around them, including PT scheduling, results tracking, and reviews. Where the LIMS stops, LabMODO starts.
Is LabMODO ISO 17025 certified?
Is LabMODO ISO 17025 certified?
No — and no software can be. ISO 17025 sets requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, so it’s labs that get accredited to it (by bodies like A2LA, ANAB, or PJLA), not software. What LabMODO does is keep you audit-ready: PTs on time and tracked to closure, every record producible in under a minute.