ChemInventory Support

ChemInventory helps you keep track of individual chemical containers in your laboratory. Each has its own Container record saved in your inventory, against which information is stored such as container size, supplier, date acquired and more. You can also define any number of your own custom fields to store other information relevant to your lab.

We manage a separate substances database where substance-specific information is kept. This includes chemical structures, synonyms, IUPAC names, exact masses and molecule formulae. Each container record is saved with an internal link to the appropriate substance record.

When a container is added, ChemInventory will automatically find and link the relevant substance using the CAS number supplied by the user. If a CAS number is not given, the container name will be used instead. If the container holds a substance that is not available commercially or has not been seen by ChemInventory before, you can draw your own structure.

The integration of chemical structures in ChemInventory can help you find relevant results at a glance. Structures are saved to containers and shown alongside other important information, such as CAS numbers and container barcodes, when you search or browse your inventory.

Structures are assigned automatically to containers that hold commercially-available substances, including those added using the Excel import tool. For custom compounds that are made in-house, you can draw a structure if you wish. Alternatively, structures can be imported from ChemDraw, or added using a SMILES string or Molfile.

ChemInventory fully supports depiction and interpretation of stereochemistry in chemical structures. Chiral molecules are rendered using standard solid and hashed wedged bonds, and can be searched by chiral fragment (using the structure search tool).

A location within your inventory is a place where container records can be grouped. It could represent a shelf within a laboratory cupboard, a place as large as a storage room or as small as a sample grid tray. Locations can be positioned in a hierarchy known as a locations tree, where parent folders hold child locations and folders in an organized structure.

With ChemInventory, you are free to create and manage your locations tree in whichever manner best suits your laboratory. There are no limits on the number of locations within your inventory, nor are there limits on the hierarchy depth within the tree. Locations can be given any name.

ChemInventory's Order Requests pages are designed to help manage new container orders by acting as a centralized 'shopping list' for your lab. The order requests module operates alongside your existing procurement method—it is not designed to replace your purchasing system, nor does it place orders automatically with suppliers.

It consists of two pages: Request an Order and Current Orders. The first page allows you to request a new container be purchased, while the second shows a list of all pending and purchased orders. All items in this list are displayed in search results.

As soon as a container is delivered, a new container record can be created in your inventory directly from the original request. This aids with cradle-to-grave tracking of containers to help you meet potential audit obligations.

ChemInventory's watchlist feature lets you generate reports detailing the sizes and locations of containers which hold substances on pre-defined watchlists. This feature helps laboratories to meet their obligations under compliance legislation in a variety of countries.

Watchlists contain search information about compounds that require monitoring. When generating a watchlist report, our servers go through each of the containers in your inventory to check if it appears on the watchlist by comparing its CAS number, name and GHS hazard codes against each item on the list. If a record is found then an entry is made on the report.

You can upload files of any format to ChemInventory and link them to substances under your account. Other members of your inventory can download these files when viewing container information in search results, or when browsing locations.

All users can access the MSDS and File Storage page and download files, but only users with Group Administrator, Order Handler or User privileges can upload, rename or delete files, or link them to substances. Our servers will try to link files automatically to relevant substances when they're uploaded.

All GHS information in the uploaded files will be extracted and saved against the applicable substance, ensuring that hazards remain visible to all users in your inventory.