Lab dashboard

What the dashboard is for

The lab dashboard is the first operational screen after the user enters the Lab Panel. It is not a single static report. Kashef chooses a dashboard workspace from the user's permissions and lets eligible users switch between the workspaces they can access. A manager normally starts in the Manager Command Center, a technician or operations user can work from the Operations Workspace, reception staff can use the Receptionist Intake Workspace, and finance users can access the Finance Command Center.

The dashboard should be read as a live routing surface: it shows the branch context, highlights work that needs attention, and links staff to the page where the next action should happen. It does not replace the Orders, Samples, Results Queue, Finance, Inventory, or Quality Control pages. Instead, it helps a lead decide which one deserves attention first.

If the user has a pending subscription checkout, Kashef redirects them to checkout before opening the dashboard. Onboarding is only shown to users who are not assigned to any lab or branch yet. Staff who already belong to a lab enter the Lab Panel first, even if setup still needs review, so managers can finish configuration without blocking the rest of the team.

Users who are not managers do not see the full Lab Command Center widgets on the lab-wide page. Instead, they see Quick Links to the active branch workspaces they can access. Users who still need to finish setup keep the onboarding notice and see setup links for quick start guidance, lab setup guidance, and finishing onboarding.

Lab and branch workspaces

Kashef separates the Lab Panel into two workspaces that use the same topbar, sidebar, colors, and page layout. After signing in, staff who already belong to a lab enter the Lab Command Center at /lab first. This page has no active branch. Managers see a lab-wide view across the branches they can access: orders created today, completed payment revenue collected today, pending results, operational alerts, collection success, sample routing, branch performance, recent activity, and quick actions into the default branch workflow. Non-managers use the same page as a branch switcher so they can quickly open the branch workspace assigned to them.

Use the Lab Command Center to decide where attention is needed across the lab. Use the Workspace Setup area on the same page for lab-wide setup: Admin, Catalog, lab Finance setup, Inventory setup, branches, users, access roles, subscriptions, website settings, and test catalog records.

Branch workspaces open from the branch switcher at /lab/branch/{branch}. On desktop, the switcher is in the topbar. On mobile, open the navigation drawer and expand Switch branch. Use a branch workspace for clinical and daily operations: orders, samples, results, reception, operations, QC, cashier work, branch finance activity, stock receipts, transfers, supply requests, and branch dashboards.

On desktop, select the lab name in the topbar to return to the Lab Workspace. On mobile, open the navigation drawer and select the lab name in the workspace block. The brand logo also returns to the Lab Command Center at /lab. If a page is not visible, first confirm you are in the correct workspace before changing permissions.

Filtering the Lab Command Center

The Lab Command Center has page filters for date range and branch. Use the date range to switch the top KPIs between today, yesterday, the last 7 days, and the last 30 days. Use the branch filter to focus the same dashboard on one branch without leaving the lab-wide workspace.

Some widgets also have their own period selector. Operational Overview controls the chart window. Collection Success Rate controls the payment collection period. Branch Performance controls the branch comparison period. These selectors only affect their own widget, while the page branch filter still limits the branch scope for the whole dashboard.

Click a KPI card, alert row, or sample-routing status to open a branch breakdown. The modal shows the same measure per branch. Select a branch row to open the relevant branch workflow, such as Orders, Results Queue, Finance Reports, Operations Workbench, Instruments, Stock Levels, or Sample Transfers. If a branch has no matching records, the row still shows the current value so managers can confirm the filter is working.

Switching dashboard workspaces

The Switch Dashboard action in the page header shows every dashboard the current user is allowed to open. The last selected dashboard is saved in the user's session, so returning staff usually land where they were working before. If the saved dashboard is no longer accessible, Kashef chooses a default based on the user's permissions: managers get the manager view, users who can enter results get the operations view, and everyone with general lab panel access falls back to the receptionist view.

The switcher button displays the currently selected dashboard name. When you choose another dashboard, such as Operations Workspace, the page title, widgets, saved session value, and switcher label should all move to that same dashboard. The selected item inside the dropdown is highlighted so supervisors can confirm which workspace they are using before making decisions.

This behavior matters during training. Two users may open the same /dashboard page and see different widgets because their permissions are different. That is expected. Do not troubleshoot a missing dashboard by changing browser settings; first review the user's role, access roles, direct permissions, branch assignment, and subscription features.

Using search

Search is the fastest way to jump to daily records without opening each module first. On desktop, click the search field or press Ctrl+K on Windows/Linux and ⌘+K on macOS. On mobile, open the navigation drawer and select Search; a focused search window opens above the current page. Type a patient, order, sample, doctor, or test identifier to see matching records grouped by resource, with short details below each result.

Search uses the same smart index in the Lab Workspace and every Branch Workspace. It searches records across all branches the signed-in user can access, not only the branch currently selected in the panel. Each operational result shows its branch in the result details so staff can confirm the scope before opening it.

Search uses user-facing identifiers wherever they exist. Orders are found by the readable order code such as ORD-2026-777, not by the internal UUID. Samples are found by the barcode/public sample ID such as SMP-2026-888, not by the internal UUID. Orders can also be found by patient name, patients by name or patient ID, doctors by name or doctor ID, and tests by name or code. Catalog test results open in the Lab Workspace because test setup is lab-wide, even when the search was started from a branch workspace.

Order identifiers are ranked intentionally. When the search text looks like an order code, the Orders group appears before related samples or patients so reception, operations, and finance staff land on the order page first. Open the sample or patient result only when that is the record you actually need. A sample result opens the order's Sample Log and selects that sample's detail slide-over; there is no separate sample view page.

Use this search for navigation and quick lookup. If you need to filter a large operational queue, open the relevant table after finding the module and use that page's filters for status, branch, date, payment state, sample type, or category.

Search remains available even when the Lab Command Center is only showing setup or branch-switching quick links. On mobile, it stays at the top of the navigation drawer so users with limited dashboard widgets can still reach records quickly.

Using Quick Access

The Quick Access menu replaces the older single Add button. On desktop it is in the topbar. On mobile, open the navigation drawer and expand Quick Access. It shows the fixed actions the user is allowed to use: New Order, Operations Workbench, Cashier Workbench, and Inventory Workbench. If a user does not have permission for one of those areas, that shortcut is hidden.

Use Customize inside the branch workspace menu to add personal shortcuts after the fixed actions. The customization page can add resources, pages, and dashboard views that the current user is allowed to open. Keep the list short and focused on daily work; the full sidebar remains the place for less common administration pages.

If Customize is not shown, the fixed shortcuts can still be used. Open the needed page from the sidebar and ask an administrator to confirm branch workspace access if the customization option should be available.

Using in-panel help

The sidebar Help link near the bottom opens the Help Center in a new tab, so staff can keep their current Lab Panel work open while reading the relevant guide. The Settings link appears directly above it for account settings, saved machines, logged-in devices, password, and notification preferences. Use Help when onboarding a new employee, checking a workflow step, or confirming what a setting means before changing it.

Information icons appear beside page headers, section titles, and form fields. Hover or click the icon to see a short explanation. Field icons explain what the field controls in the current record. Section icons reuse the section description when one exists, or show a short fallback explaining that the fields are grouped together. Lab Panel actions also include short hover help when a more specific action tooltip has not been defined. When a modal or slide-over opens, help popovers should stay closed until you hover, click, or focus the related help icon or action. These hints are quick guidance; the Help Center contains the full workflow documentation.

Manager Command Center

The Manager Command Center is designed for owners and branch managers who need a complete view of clinical pressure, revenue, SLA risk, QC issues, backlog, and branch throughput. The top KPI area compares today with yesterday and includes orders created today, completed order-payment revenue collected today, orders currently waiting in the Results Queue, QC warnings or rejected QC results, SLA compliance, and low-stock count.

The manager view also includes operational widgets. Operational Pulse summarizes critical overdue orders, at-risk orders, rejected QC incidents for today, and the current SLA percentage. The Operations Worklist shows the readable order code, such as ORD-..., instead of an internal UUID. SLA, Workload by Stage, Backlog, and Throughput widgets help the manager decide whether the problem is intake, sample handling, result entry, review, reporting, or staff assignment. Branch Throughput is useful in multi-branch companies because it compares branches and makes it easier to spot a branch that is falling behind.

The manager quick actions are shortcuts, not separate workflows. They open the Results Queue, Operations Workbench, QC Dashboard when the feature is enabled, the order reassignment lane, and the full Orders list. Use them when the dashboard shows a problem and you already know where the correction should happen.

Recent Activity groups all events created by one operation into a single summary. Select the summary to review every related event and field change in a read-only modal, or use the adjacent record icon to open the related order or sample. This keeps order creation, payment posting, notifications, and similar multi-record workflows readable without hiding their audit detail.

Operations Workspace

The Operations Workspace is built for technicians and operations staff who need to process work rather than analyze the whole lab. Its header shows pending task count and the next active order based on the system's active operational statuses, such as pending and in progress.

The operations widgets focus on tasks that move samples and results forward. Expect queue information, scan support, quick actions, result previews, and technician assignments. The best daily habit is to open the dashboard at shift start, check whether the pending task count matches what is physically waiting in the lab, then open the workbench or the order page from the widget instead of editing records from memory.

If the operations dashboard looks quiet but the lab is busy, check whether orders have been moved into the correct active status, whether samples were received correctly, and whether the technician has access to the selected branch.

Receptionist Intake Workspace

The Receptionist Intake Workspace is for front-desk flow. It shows recent arrivals in active order states, counts pending and in-progress visits, and provides shortcuts for creating orders, checking payment, and moving patients through intake. This workspace is useful when the reception desk needs to know who is waiting, which order still needs payment, and which patient is ready to hand off to collection.

Reception staff should treat dashboard information as a queue summary. Patient demographics, selected tests, discounts, contract pricing, invoice details, sample instructions, and payments must still be confirmed in the actual order and cashier screens. If a patient is not appearing in the intake list, check the active branch, the order status, and whether the order belongs to the current tenant branch.

Finance Command Center

The Finance Command Center summarizes money movement. It is available to users with finance dashboard permission and can include KPI totals, pending collections, revenue versus expense charts, cash by account, and recent finance transactions. The goal is to help finance staff know where money sits now: what has been collected, what is still due, which accounts hold cash, and whether recent activity needs review.

Finance values depend on the order and payment lifecycle. An invoice may look unpaid because the cashier has not recorded payment, because a transfer is still pending, or because a refund/adjustment changed the expected amount. Use the dashboard to find the signal, then open Finance Accounts, Transactions, Invoices, Transfers, or the Cashier Workbench to complete the audit trail.

Reading numbers safely

Dashboard numbers are only as accurate as the workflows behind them. In the Lab Command Center, Orders Today, Revenue Today, Pending Results, alerts, routing, branch performance, and recent activity are calculated across the branches available to the signed-in user. In a branch dashboard, the same type of numbers are limited to the active branch. Revenue comes from completed payment records collected for orders in scope on that day. Pending results uses the same order criteria as the Results Queue, so it counts orders with entered results awaiting approval or release rather than every received sample. QC alerts depend on QC results marked warning or rejected. Low-stock counts depend on active inventory items and reorder quantities. SLA values come from the SLA dashboard service and the order timing snapshots available to the branch.

Dashboard cards in the same row use equal-height layout. This is a visual aid only: it keeps mixed KPI, table, chart, and action widgets aligned so there are fewer empty-looking gaps when scanning the page. It does not change how the numbers are calculated.

Before comparing numbers across branches or shifts, confirm the active branch in the panel, the user's scope, the date window implied by the widget, and whether the team has finished entering the real-world events. A sample sitting on the bench but not received in Kashef will not appear as expected. A payment taken outside the cashier workflow will not help the finance dashboard. A QC run that is not recorded will not warn the manager.

When a widget needs action

Open the linked workflow page instead of trying to fix the number inside the dashboard. For pending samples or results, use the Operations Workbench, Samples, or Results Queue. For overdue or at-risk orders, review assignment, status, and expected turnaround time. For QC incidents, open Quality Control and review the control, instrument, target, and run history. For low stock, open Inventory Stock Levels, Items, Receipts, Transfers, or Suppliers. For pending collections, open the cashier or finance records.

This keeps the audit trail clean. The dashboard tells you where pressure exists; the workflow page stores the action with the correct record, user, timestamp, and business rules.

Good operating practice

Start every shift by opening the dashboard for the active branch and checking whether the visible work matches the physical situation in reception, collection, processing, and finance. Managers should review SLA, backlog, QC alerts, and low stock early enough to reassign staff before the queue becomes urgent. Reception leads should check arrivals and payments before peak hours. Finance staff should compare pending collections with cashier handover. Operations staff should use queue widgets to decide which samples or orders to process first.

If the dashboard appears wrong, do not assume the dashboard is calculating incorrectly. First review the source workflow: order status, sample status, result status, QC run status, inventory item setup, payment records, branch assignment, and permissions. Most dashboard surprises come from a workflow step that was skipped, a record assigned to another branch, or a user viewing a workspace that does not match their responsibility.