Lab software compared with Word and Excel
Most small labs in India still type reports in Word and keep the register in Excel, and it works: the layout is exactly what the pathologist wants and nobody needs training. What it cannot do is check itself. Nothing tells you a haemoglobin is below the range for a woman, nothing stops two patients getting the same case number, and nothing proves who changed a value after it was printed. Here is the trade, in both directions.
What Word and Excel do well
Worth reading first. If these three things are what your lab depends on, the rest of this page may not change your mind.
- Any layout you can imagine. A page in Word is a blank sheet, and a pathologist who wants a table in a particular place can put it there in five minutes.
- Everyone in the lab already knows how to use them, so there is nothing to learn and nothing to roll out.
- They work with no internet, no subscription and no account, on a machine you already paid for.
Side by side
Point by point. A tick marks where ZapLab is the stronger choice; a dash means the two are level.
ZapLab is the stronger choice on 12 of 12 points
Nothing where Word and Excel leads on capability.
Compared on
ZapLabUs
12 points compared
Word and Excel
What it does today
Cost and commitment
What it costs
ZapLab
From ₹349 a month plus GST, billed yearly or every six months; no free tier
Word and Excel
Already paid for, plus the hours spent retyping
Front desk
The same patient coming back
ZapLab
One patient record with the whole order history behind it
Word and Excel
A new file, and a new spelling of the name
Case and report numbers
ZapLab
Handed out one at a time by the database, so there are no gaps and no duplicates
Word and Excel
Someone remembers the last one
Laboratory
Reference ranges
ZapLab
Sex-specific reference ranges ship where they apply; add age bands per test
Word and Excel
Typed into the template, and edited per patient by hand
High, low and critical flags
ZapLab
Computed from the range that matches the patient, with critical limits held separately
Word and Excel
The person typing decides by eye
Calculated values
ZapLab
27 shipped parameters compute themselves, including ones that read the patient’s age and sex
Word and Excel
A spreadsheet formula, if someone built one and nobody broke it
Reports
Report formats to start from
ZapLab
157 formats install into your catalogue in one click, with their parameters, units and ranges
Word and Excel
Whatever you have typed before, in whichever file you can find
Sign-off before a report goes out
ZapLab
Draft, verify, approve and release, each a separate permission recorded with the person and the time
Word and Excel
The file’s last-modified date
Delivery
Sending the report
ZapLab
Email, WhatsApp and SMS built in on every plan, with a log of what went where
Word and Excel
Attach the file to an email or a chat by hand, each time
A patient checking a report is genuine
ZapLab
The QR code on the report opens a verification page that names the issuing laboratory
Word and Excel
They telephone the lab and someone looks for the file
Business
Billing
ZapLab
The bill comes off the registration screen as A4, A5 or a 3-inch thermal roll
Word and Excel
A receipt book, or a second spreadsheet that does not agree with the first
Control
Who changed what, after the fact
ZapLab
An append-only audit trail the application offers no way to edit
Word and Excel
Track changes, if it was switched on
Capability and pricing model only. This compares a kind of tool rather than one product, so it describes what each generally does.
Switching, step by step
Every step below is manual. There is no import: your old reports and registers stay where they are, and this system starts from the day you begin. Tick the steps off as you go; the ticks are saved in this browser only.
0 of 8 steps ticked off. Every one of them is yours to do.
Then what
Two pages worth opening before you decide.
Pricing
Every plan, every limit and the trial terms, with prices shown before GST, billed yearly or every six months.
Book a demo
Pick a date and a slot and we will walk the whole flow on your own test list, including the parts this page says are missing.
Set up your lab this afternoon.
Create your organisation, add your tests, print the first barcode. If you would rather see it first, ask for a walkthrough.