How to Make Your Lab Management System Much More Efficient

ISO 17025 accreditation is a big deal. It proves your technical competence, gives clients confidence, and keeps auditors happy. 

But once the certificate is on the wall, many labs discover a new problem: the management system that got them certified is harder to run than it should be. Spreadsheets multiply, emails pile up, and staff spend as much time chasing information as they do when running tests. 

This blog is about what happens after you are certified. How can you make your existing ISO 17025 management system far more efficient by moving from a document-centric world into a truly digital, workflow-driven lab environment? 

From “We Passed the Audit” To “This Actually Makes Work Easier” 

Most accredited labs already have the basics in place: procedures, forms, records, internal audits, corrective actions, equipment lists, supplier files, and training records. 

The issue is not “do we have it” but “how do we manage it day to day.” Common signs that your ISO 17025 system is creating drag instead of value: 

• Process steps are coordinated through emails and meetings instead of clear workflows 

• Evidence for audits lives across network drives, personal folders, and SharePoint sites 

• People enter the same information two or three times in different systems 

• Action items get logged, but no one has a clear, up-to-date view of what is still outstanding 

If any of that sounds familiar, you already know that passing the assessment is only the starting point. The next step is to make the system work for your people, not the other way around. 

Automate Your Lab Processes Instead of Managing Them by Email 

Imagine clicking on a process map for “Conduct Internal Audit” and having the system do the legwork behind the scenes. 

That is the idea behind using interactive process maps that trigger workflows instead of static diagrams that sit in a binder or PDF: 

• Staff click on a step to start or move a workflow 

• Notifications go automatically to the next person in the process 

• Approvals, rejections, and comments are logged as they happen 

• Managers can see status at a glance instead of digging through email threads 

• For ISO 17025, this applies everywhere: nonconformances, corrective actions, internal audits, method validation, supplier issues, equipment maintenance, change control, and more. 

• The result is less time spent coordinating, more time actually solving problems. 

Give Everyone “One Place to Work” Instead of Ten Places to Search 

One of the fastest ways to make an accredited lab more efficient is to stop asking people to hunt through shared drives, SharePoint, and email just to find what they need. 

With a web-based management system, each role can have a dedicated desktop that brings everything together: 

• Process maps for the work they do 

• Policies, SOPs, and work instructions 

• Forms for incident reports, change requests, and improvement ideas 

• Dashboards and charts showing performance and backlog 

• Their personal action list with items assigned to them 

Whether they are on a PC in the lab office, a tablet on the bench, or a laptop at a client site, they open one page and get the full picture. 

This “everything in one place” approach does more than save time. It also creates consistency, because people stop inventing their own local ways of working around the system. 

Stop Double (Or Triple) Data Entry for Test Results 

Many labs are still copying and pasting the same information between: 

• LIMS or test instruments 

• Excel trackers 

• Word or PDF reports 

• Email updates

Every extra touch point is an opportunity for delay and error. 

A more efficient ISO 17025 environment lets you capture test results once in a digital form or interface that feeds a central database. From there, the system can automatically generate: 

• Lab reports 

• Trend graphs and visual charts 

• Internal KPI dashboards 

• Client-facing email summaries or portal views 

You get better traceability, faster reporting, and fewer mistakes caused by manual copy and paste. 

Use Ready-to-Use Building Blocks for Accreditation Work 

You do not need to reinvent the wheel for typical ISO 17025 processes. A modern management system should give you ready-made components that you can configure for your lab, such as: 

• Internal audit planning and follow-up 

• Nonconformance logging and categorization 

• Corrective actions with root cause analysis 

• Risk registers for methods, equipment, and suppliers 

• Employee improvement ideas and suggestions 

These building blocks let you move quickly from “we should track this” to “we are already tracking this, with clear owners and due dates.” 

Instead of storing all this in separate spreadsheets, it becomes part of your live system, connected to processes, people, and evidence. 

Never Lose Sight of Action Items 

ISO 17025 is full of follow-up work: actions from audits, management review decisions, corrective actions, changes to methods, training updates, and more. 

The problem in many labs is not identifying actions. It is keeping track of them. 

An efficient lab management system should give each person a personal action list that is automatically updated by the workflows they are part of. For example: 

• When an internal audit finding is assigned to you, it appears on your list 

• When you close it and submit evidence, the status updates and moves to the next reviewer 

• Overdue items are flagged and can be filtered by risk, source, or process 

Managers can see where work is stuck. Staff no longer need separate task lists, sticky notes, or spreadsheets to remember what they owe the system. 

Add New Standards Without Starting from Scratch 

Many ISO 17025 labs are being asked to align with or certify against additional standards such as: 

• ISO 9001 for quality 

• ISO 14001 for environmental management 

• ISO 45001 for health and safety 

• ISO 27001 for information security 

If your ISO 17025 management system is document-centric and fragmented, adding new standards can feel like building a second (or third) system beside the first. 

A digital management system makes integrated management much easier: 

• Shared processes and records can support multiple standards 

• Risks, nonconformances, audits, and actions become cross-cutting across ISO 17025, 9001, 14001, and others 

• You can filter views by standard, location, method, or lab unit, using the same underlying content 

Instead of duplicating effort, you expand what you already have and maintain one source of truth. 

What This Looks Like in a Real Lab 

Picture a calibration or testing lab that has been ISO 17025 accredited for years. Originally, they built their system using Word, Excel, and PDFs stored on a shared drive. Over time: 

• Corrective actions migrated into a series of spreadsheets 

• Internal audit records lived in personal folders 

• Management review inputs were compiled manually from different sources 

• Staff complained that they could never find the latest SOP 

After moving to a web-based management system, they redesigned how work flowed: 

• Staff use interactive process maps to launch nonconformances and improvement ideas 

• Test results go into controlled digital forms that feed dashboards and reports 

• Audit findings automatically create action items and reminders 

• Management can see open issues, overdue actions, and trends from one view 

The ISO 17025 certificate did not change. What changed was the experience of working in the system every day. 

Where CloseReach and QualiWare Fit In 

CloseReach helps laboratories modernize their ISO 17025 management systems using QualiWare as the digital platform. Together, we focus on: 

• Turning your existing procedures and records into interactive, clickable workflows 

• Building role-based desktops that pull everything together for each group 

• Configuring ready-to-use modules for audits, nonconformances, risks, and corrective actions 

• Eliminating unnecessary manual steps and duplicate data entry 

The goal is simple: keep your accreditation strong while making everyday work noticeably easier for your people. 

Ready To Make Your ISO 17025 System Work Harder for You? 

If you already have your ISO 17025 certificate and suspect your management system could run more efficiently, this is the perfect time to act. 

We can walk you through a short, low-cost maturity assessment of your current system, show you where digital workflows will have the biggest impact, and demonstrate what a modern lab management environment looks like in practice. 

You have already done the hard work of achieving accreditation. Now you can upgrade how you run it day to day – so your team spends less time chasing paperwork and more time doing the lab work that really matters.