Calibration software for small labs

What a small lab actually needs

Most calibration software is sold to quality departments in large manufacturers. A service lab with one to ten technicians has a narrower problem: the same data gets written three times. Once on a field sheet, once into a spreadsheet or database, and once into a certificate. Each copy is a chance for an error, and each one takes time nobody bills for.

Software earns its place in a small lab when it does five things:

1. Captures readings where the work happens. On a phone or tablet at the instrument, including in a plant basement with no signal.
2. Does the arithmetic. Error, tolerance at each point and pass or fail, so a certificate cannot disagree with its own readings.
3. Produces the certificate from the same data. With the reference standards, uncertainty and decision rule already on it.
4. Knows what is due. Customer instruments coming up, and your own reference standards before they expire.
5. Keeps a trail. Who took the reading, who approved it, and what was changed afterwards.

What you can do without

Features built for a different kind of organisation add cost and training without helping a small lab. Unless you have a specific need, you can leave these off the list:

• Gage R&R and other measurement systems analysis, which matters to manufacturers studying their own processes.
• Tool crib issue and return tracking.
• Document control, training records and corrective action modules, if you already manage those another way.
• Direct links to automated calibrators, unless you own the hardware.
• Installing and maintaining your own server.

A checklist for comparing systems

Run a real job through each product you are considering, and note the answer to each of these:

• Can a technician finish a calibration with the device in flight mode?
• Does it support your tolerance types: percent of span, percent of reading, absolute, and a percentage plus a fixed amount?
• Does it record as-found and as-left separately, and report an instrument that was out of tolerance as found?
• Does it stop a technician using a reference standard that is past its own due date?
• Is the certificate complete as it comes out, or does someone edit it in Word?
• Can a customer get their own certificates without emailing you?
• Can you import your current instrument list, and export your records later?
• What does a busy month cost compared with a quiet one?

To check a certificate against the standard, the free ISO/IEC 17025 certificate checklist lists what clause 7.8 asks for.

How Probatus fits a small lab

Probatus was built for calibration service companies of this size. What it does today:

• Offline entry on phones and tablets, syncing when the signal returns.
• As-found and as-left sheets for pressure, temperature, transmitters, switches, conductivity and pH, and chart recorders, plus procedures you set up yourself.
• Tolerances per job with simple, guarded or non-binary decision rules.
• Reference standards recorded on every calibration, and blocked once past their due date.
• Supervisor approval and a signed PDF certificate with your logo.
• A customer portal, work orders, invoices and QuickBooks Online.
• Import of instruments and past calibration history from Excel or CSV.

What it does not do, so you can rule it out early if you need these:

• A direct connection to a documenting calibrator. Results can be imported from a file or over an API.
• An installer for your own servers. It runs in the cloud; running it yourself is possible but is your project.
• A one-click export of every record to a spreadsheet. Certificates and the audit package download as PDFs.

It is also a new product. If a long track record matters more to you than fit, weigh that. Direct comparisons with established systems are on the calibration software compared page.