Benches

A bench is a workstation or discrete work area within a lab. Benches organize chemical and equipment inventory at a finer level than the lab itself.

When to use benches

Benches are optional. They are useful when a lab has:

• Multiple workstations with distinct chemical sets (e.g., a synthesis bench vs. an analytical bench)
• Equipment assigned to specific positions in the room
• Team members who primarily work at a particular station

If a lab is simple and doesn't require this granularity, chemicals and equipment can be assigned directly to the lab.

Creating a bench

Benches can be created two ways:

• From a Lab's detailed view, scroll to the Benches list and click the + icon. Then, name the bench, assign it a lab location (by default this will be the lab you were in the detail view for), and optionally an owner and description.
• Alternatively, while in an existing bench's detailed view, click the Duplicate quick action button. Then, name the bench, assign it a lab location (by default this will be the lab you were in the detail view for), and optionally an owner and description.

The Bench tab overview

The bench tab lists all benches in your organization, organized by lab. You can filter by location using the dropdown to the right of the Benches header. Each lab on display will be a separate section which you can click to expand and display the benches. This will show the compact view of each bench in that lab.

Bench compact view

When you are in the Bench tab and expand a lab to show all benches in it, the compact cards will display:

• Name
• Description - Optional description of the bench. Supports rich text formatting.
• Owner - the user or group that the bench is assigned to.
• Parent Lab - The lab the bench is assigned to. Clicking this will allow you to navigate to that lab's detailed view.
• Equipment - shows the count of equipment Available, needing Maintenance, or Out of Order.
• Tasks - A count of tasks linked to that bench.
• Chemicals - A count of chemicals linked to that bench. Clicking on the compact view will expand the bench into the detailed view.

Bench details

Each bench has a detail page showing:

• Quick Action Buttons - Edit, Refresh, Duplicate, Delete, and Back buttons.
• Bench Name
• Parent Lab - The lab the bench is assigned to. Clicking this will allow you to navigate to that lab's detailed view.
• Description - Optional description of the bench. Supports rich text formatting.
• Owner — the team member responsible for the bench, if assigned
• Equipment - A list of the equipment assigned to the bench. You can add equipment by clicking the + icon, search and filter by category and status. From the compact equipment view in the list you can adjust each piece of equipment's availability or remove it from the lab. Clicking on it will also bring up the detailed view for that piece of equipment.
• Chemicals - A list of each chemical assigned to the bench, including their name, NFPA 704 safety square, GHS pictograms, optional notes, and a button to unassign them.
• Tasks - Active tasks linked to that bench. The dropdown will allow you to filter by who the task is assigned to (including unassigned tasks, and all tasks), and tasks can be created from this view by clicking the + icon.
• Bench Activity log — a log of changes to the bench's contents and configuration. Includes comments.
• Comment input - A rich text field that allows you to comment directly from this view. You can tag other users with @.

Assigning resources

From a bench's detail page, you can assign chemicals and equipment to it by clicking the + icon on the right of each section. Resources assigned to a bench appear in both the bench's inventory and the parent lab's inventory. Equipment can be moved between benches in the equipment edit view. Both chemicals and equipment can be unassigned from a bench at any time.

Beaker AI

Beaker can look up what is on a specific bench:

"What equipment is on the PCR bench?"

"Show me the chemicals assigned to Bench 2 in Lab A."