Partner Labs

Where this page lives

Partner Labs is an administration page. Open it from Admin > Organization > Partner Labs when you need to define the labs, reference laboratories, mega labs, or external processing partners that your company works with.

The page does not replace the operational lab-to-lab orders screen. Use Partner Labs to configure who the partner is and how Kashef should treat that partner. Use Lab-to-lab orders in Operations when staff need to send, receive, price, track, or close actual outsourced work.

What a partner lab account represents

A partner lab account is the master record for another laboratory or processing destination. It keeps the partner name, code, contact information, pricing defaults, destination settings, portal users, and contract notes in one place.

This separation is important because the same partner can appear in multiple operational areas. Reception may select it on a lab-to-lab order, sample routing may use it as a processing destination, finance may reconcile balances by partner, and the public partner portal may allow that partner's staff to submit requests.

Create one account per real partner relationship. Avoid creating duplicate accounts for the same partner unless the commercial agreement is truly different, such as a separate branch contract or separate pricing list.

Partner Lab section

The first form section identifies the partner and the default business rules:

Field	How to use it
Name	The visible partner name shown to staff in orders, sample routing, and reports.
Code	An optional short code used for searching, reconciliation, or matching external references. Codes are trimmed, converted to uppercase, and must be unique within the company.
Status	Active partners can be selected for new work. Suspended partners remain visible for history but are blocked from new routine use.
Partner Type	Choose Partner Lab, External Lab, or Mega Lab to describe the relationship. This helps teams understand whether the partner sends work to you, receives work from you, or acts as a high-volume reference lab.
Contact Person	The main operational person to call about samples, missing data, delays, or report delivery.
Contact Email	The email used for formal communication, report coordination, or invoice follow-up.
Contact Phone	The practical phone number staff should use during daily work.
Default Lab-to-Lab Price List	The active special pricing list Kashef should use first when calculating lab-to-lab prices for this partner.
Address	Physical address for pickup, delivery, courier planning, or contract records.
Notes	Internal notes such as reporting instructions, sample packaging requirements, billing agreements, or escalation contacts.

If prices look wrong on a lab-to-lab order, check the default price list here before adjusting finance records manually. This setting is one of the main links between partner setup and the pricing engine.

Processing Destination Settings

Use this section when the partner can process samples for your lab or when samples may be routed to them.

Can Process Samples marks the partner as an available processing destination. Turn it on only after the partner is operationally ready, the agreement is approved, and staff know how samples should be packaged and transferred.

Expected TAT (min) records the expected turnaround time in minutes. This helps operations compare destination choices and understand whether outsourced work is at risk. Use realistic time from dispatch or receipt to expected result availability, not only the analytical machine time.

Default Cost / Test is an internal cost assumption for work sent to this partner. It helps owners and finance teams estimate margin. It is not the same as the patient-facing sale price.

Accepted Sample Type Codes lists the sample codes the partner can receive, such as serum, plasma, whole blood, swab, or urine codes used by your catalog. Keep these codes aligned with the sample types configured for tests. Incorrect codes may make routing look possible when it is not.

Pickup Schedule records one window per weekday. Times use 24-hour HH:MM-HH:MM format, and the end must be later than the start. Use it for predictable dispatch planning, especially when a partner collects samples once or twice a day. Disable a row instead of deleting it when a schedule is temporarily paused.

Contract Rules stores structured internal rules that do not fit into a standard field. Use clear keys and values, such as cutoff notes, packaging requirements, emergency contacts, invoice terms, or special reference numbers.

Portal Users

The Portal Users section manages partner staff who can access the partner portal. Each user has a name, email, phone, password setup, and active status.

Give each partner employee their own portal user. Shared logins make it hard to audit who submitted an order, uploaded information, or viewed a result. When a partner employee leaves, disable that user instead of deleting operational history.

When creating a new portal user, enter a password of at least 12 characters containing letters and numbers. When editing an existing user, leave the password blank unless you intentionally need to change it.

Existing portal users cannot be deleted from this form because their identity may be referenced by order and portal activity. Turn off Active to block access while preserving attribution.

The list page

The Partner Labs table shows the partner name, code, status, partner type, processing destination status, portal user count, linked lab-to-lab order count, and last update time. Use it before adding a new partner to avoid duplicates.

The status, partner type, and processing-destination filters narrow the table. Search covers partner name, code, contact person, email, and phone. The edit action opens the full configuration.

Partner accounts cannot be hard-deleted from the Lab Panel because they may be connected to orders, portal users, samples, routing decisions, and finance references. Set Status to Suspended to stop new routine use while preserving historical links.

The old hidden External Labs editor has been retired. External processors and mega labs are now managed here as partner types, so pricing, routing, logistics, and portal access have one source of truth.

Permissions and access

Partner Labs uses the lab-to-lab view, create, and update permissions. No role can hard-delete partner accounts from the Lab Panel; suspend the relationship instead. In most labs, owners or operations managers should maintain this page, while reception and technicians only select existing partners during daily workflows.

If a staff member cannot find Partner Labs under Admin, check their role permissions, subscription feature access, and tenant context before assuming the page is missing.

Operating checklist

• Create one partner account for each real laboratory relationship.
• Use a clear name and short code that reception and finance can recognize.
• Set inactive or paused relationships to Suspended instead of creating duplicates.
• Link a default lab-to-lab price list before live orders are created.
• Turn on processing destination only when routing to that partner is approved.
• Keep accepted sample type codes and pickup schedules aligned with real logistics.
• Add portal users individually and disable users who no longer work with the partner.
• Review partner accounts whenever pricing, pickup timing, contract terms, or sample routing changes.