For Principal Investigators · Protecting Your Programme

Your lab’s translational foundation.
Accountable from day one.

The samples your lab generates today are the foundation of tomorrow’s translational programme. Vial Tracker Free gives you a complete, auditable sample record built entirely in Microsoft Excel — no subscription, no IT approval, nothing to install. Start building the lineage your work deserves from experiment one.

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Free Forever
Excel Native — no add-ins
< 5 min To first entry
Freezer — Box 3A  ·  25 of 25 tracked
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SGP-2024-0847 · Mouse serum
Dr. Tan Wei · Added 12 Mar 2025
SGP-2024-0831 · RNA extract
Review due · Last seen 8 Jan 2025
"I could finally answer the auditor's question in under two minutes."
PI · Immunology Lab · Singapore
The problem

Sample history shouldn't live in someone's head.

Every lab has the same story: a post-doc leaves, a student graduates, or a freezer fails — and suddenly no one knows what samples exist, where they are, or who last touched them.

You end up spending days reconstructing histories from emails, sticky notes, and half-remembered conversations. Experiments get delayed. Grants get held up. You're doing archaeology instead of science.

Vial Tracker Free is a complete, structured sample log built in Excel. It takes less than five minutes to set up, works on any computer, and requires no new software or IT approvals. Your entire lab can be on it today.

"How many hours does your lab spend each year reconstructing sample histories after a staff transition?"
Built by a researcher · Singapore
Staff departure with no handover documentation
Audit requests with no complete sample inventory
Freezer failures with no record of what was inside
Duplicated work because no one knew samples existed
Use cases

Every scenario your lab actually faces.

Vial Tracker Free was designed around the moments when sample records matter most — not just routine day-to-day use.

Post-doc departure & sample handover
When a researcher leaves, their samples shouldn't leave with them. A formal, signed handover record keeps your lab's institutional memory intact — whoever moves on next.
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Freezer failure & disaster recovery
No documented inventory means no insurance claim. Have the proof before the alarm goes off.
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Grant application resource documentation
Reviewers want specifics. Turn your holdings from memory into a structured, verifiable resource section.
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Publication & reproducibility traceability
When a reproducibility challenge arrives, know exactly which passage and batch were used.
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Material transfer agreement tracking
Who has your samples, under which agreement? MTA disputes without records are impossible to win.
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Biosafety & compliance audit preparation
Stop scrambling two weeks before every audit. Make your inventory a living document instead.
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PhD student thesis completion handover
PhD students leave with even less structure than post-docs. Build the handover into their final months.
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Getting started

Up and running in three steps.

1
Download the tracker
Click Download Free and get a single Excel file. No account, no email required. Open it on any computer with Microsoft Excel 2019 or later.
2
Set up your lab
Enter your freezers, racks, and boxes into the location sheet. Add your team members. The tracker is ready for your first sample entry in under five minutes.
3
Log and share
Add samples, record movements, and use the built-in handover sheet when someone leaves. Share via email or a shared drive — no special setup required.
Free download

Translational-ready.
Free. From day one.

No subscription. No software to install. No IT approval. Start building the auditable sample lineage your translational programme needs — from experiment one, in Excel.

Get Vial Tracker Free
Microsoft Excel 2019+ or Microsoft 365. Works on Windows and Mac.