Using Bulk Sample Imports for recurring Sampling Rounds
Way back in Bika 2, we had a highly valued ‘Sampling Rounds’ feature that fell by the wayside during major upgrades. Here’s a way to achieve a similar result
10July 2026, Cape Town, Lemoene Smit
Sampling Rounds were originally sponsored by water quality laboratories that did recurring field trips along rivers and around towns collecting water samples. This made the weekly or daily sample creation process fast, consistent, and less prone to error
Analysis Templates, including Sample Points, Types, Partitions, and required Analyses, were grouped together in a Sampling Round. They were used before every field trip to create the Batch of Samples needed, with minimal clicks
The feature found more use in Hygiene Surveys at food safety labs. More recently, we needed it for high volume mining labs where a large number of the recurring samples arrive at the lab per shift
Importing sample batches from spreadsheets fulfils this function currently at water quality labs. It works well and we are using it successfully at the mines as well
By using validation tables in a spreadsheet set, populating the import sheet is easy and in most cases they do not change once they are set up
The imported samples are created in new Batches and can also be appended to existing ones, from where they are processed per standard Bika workflow
Sampling Rounds in the LIMS remains highly desirable, the basic building blocks are there and it won’t be a big job. In its deluxe form, it’ll include packing slips and checklists, maps perhaps to help newb Samplers, accessing their Worksheets onsite using mobile devices. See 2022 functional specification. Sponsors anyone?-)