Research

iLab FAQs - Cores

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For Cores

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How can core personnel request services on behalf of a customer?

Login to iLab. Click on my cores on the left-hand menu and select your core. On the core site, click on the Request Services tab. Click on the initiate request button next to the service of interest. Select the All radio button on the search within field Start typing the customer’s name that you are making a request for and names will be autosuggested. Select the customer’s name from the autosuggested list. You may need to select the correct lab if the customer belongs to more than one lab. Click the proceed button. Fill out all the information on the subsequent form. Provide payment information when applicable. Check the skip approval checkbox if the customer has already agreed to the request. Click the submit request to researcher at the bottom of the page to complete the submission. Once the request is submitted, the View all requests tab should open to display the new request. If you did not check the skip approval checkbox, then the status of the request will be Waiting for Researcher Approval indicating that the customer needs to review the request and approve the proposed work and projected cost.

How do I update the price or add/assign services for a request?

Login to iLab. Click on my cores on the left-hand menu and select your core. On the core site, click on the View All Requests tab. Find the request that you wish to update and click the blue triangle to expand the service request. Under the forms and request details, click on the add service link. In the services window, click on the service that you wish to add, enter the quantity, and click the green plus button to add the service. Agree to the new services by clicking the Agree button.

How do I approve a new request?

Login to iLab. Click on my cores on the left-hand menu and select your core. On the core site, click on the View All Requests tab. Find the request that you wish to approve. If you want to review the request details, click on the blue triangle next to the request to expand the details of the request. Click the Agree button.

How do I assign requests to core personnel?

Login to iLab. Click on my cores on the left-hand menu and select your core. On the core site, click on the View All Requests tab. Find the request that you wish to assign. Click on the pencil icon next to the request. Click the track work link. Select the core personnel’s name from the drop-down list, click the add worker button, and click the apply changes button. You can assign more than one person to each request.

How do I search for a request of interest?

Login to iLab. Click on my cores on the left-hand menu and select your core. On the core site, click on the View All Requests tab. Define the filters in the left-hand panel to find your request and click Go or Apply Filters buttons. Filter options that are available:

o Keyword: search any word or form selection on any of the requests.
o Status: Only lists the statuses of the requests available in the search results.
o Category: Service request categories can be set by the core and are only available if the core administration has chosen to use this feature.
o Labels: Individual requests can be tagged with labels. Labels can help you identify a specific group of requests.
o Assigned To: Select from a list of all of the workers that are assigned to the projects displayed in the search results.
o Lab: Search for requests by the research group or PI.
o Owner: Search for requests by the request owner.
o Institution: Search for requests submitted by users from specific institutions.
o Payment Number: Search for requests by the defaults payment number selected on the request. This can be an account number or purchase order number.
o Payment Method: Search for requests by the default payment method selected on the request.
o Request Date: Search for requests by the date they were submitted.
o Start Date: If your core has decided to list the start date on requests, you can search by those dates.
o Due Date: If your core has decided to list the start date on requests, you can search by those dates.
o Completed Date: Once a project is complete, you can search for the project by the completed date. Reset the filter by clicking the Reset Filters button below the filters. You can also save your filtered list by clicking the Create Tab from Filters button below the filters.

How do I update or add a milestone?

Login to iLab. Click on my cores on the left-hand menu and select your core. On the core site, click on the View All Requests tab. Find the request that you wish to update and click the blue triangle to expand the service request. Under the forms and request details, click on the add milestone link. In the milestone window, enter the name, duration, target date, description and click save.

How do I reserve time on equipment?

Login to iLab. Click on my cores on the left-hand menu and select your core. On the core site, click on the Schedule Equipment tab. Click on the view schedule button next to the equipment that you would like to make a reservation on. To reserve time on a piece of equipment, click and drag on the day and time of the intended usage. In the scheduling window, select a user for whom you are making the reservation. Complete the reservation details form and save the reservation.

How do I mark a request as complete?

You can mark an entire request complete or mark individual services for a request as complete. Marking individual services as complete will allow you to bill for services as they are completed even though the entire request is not yet complete.

Marking a request as complete:

Login to iLab. Click on my cores on the left-hand menu and select your core. On the core site, click on the View All Requests tab. Click the Complete button under the Status column for the request. This marks all services within the request as completed and ready to bill.

Marking a service as complete:

Login to iLab. Click on my cores on the left-hand menu and select your core. On the core site, click on the View All Requests tab. Find the request that you wish to update and click the blue triangle to expand the service request. Find the service that you wish to mark complete. Select ‘Ready to Bill’ from the Billing Status drop-down menu and ‘Completed’ from the Work Status drop-down menu. Services marked ready to bill and completed

How do I bill for services?

Billing internal customers:

On the billing tab, click the New Billing Event button. Select internal only from the Include drop-down menu. Select lab from the Group By drop-down menu. Click the Load Charges button. Exclude any charges that are red flagged by clicking on the green arrow under the actions column. Red flagged charges are missing payment information. The payment information will need to be added before these can be included in a billing event. The payment information can be added by the customer, PI, or the core admin on behalf of the customer/PI. Click the Create button. Click the Send file to Baylor College of Medicine.

Billing external customers:

On the billing tab, click the New Billing Event button. Select external only from the Include drop-down menu. Select payment info from the Group By drop-down menu. Click the Load Charges button. Exclude any charges that are red flagged by clicking on the green arrow under the actions column. Red flagged charges are missing payment information. The payment information will need to be added before these can be included in a billing event. The payment information can be added by the customer, PI, or the core admin on behalf of the customer/PI. Click the Create button. Click the Send file to Baylor College of Medicine. Click on the Invoices tab for this billing event. Click on the pdf icon. Click Save as a pdf, download & save the file Send the invoice to the appropriate person/accounts payable Here are the institutions that currently require invoices to be sent to accounts payable and where to send them:

o MD Anderson: mdaccap@mdanderson.org
o Texas Children’s: accountspayable@texaschildrens.org
o Houston Methodist Hospital: accountspayable@houstonmethodist.org

How do I create a refund?

Login to iLab. Click on my cores on the left-hand menu and select your core. On the core site, click on the View All Requests tab. Click on active requests at the top right & select all requests. Use the filters on the left to find the request that requires a refund. Click on the blue triangle next to request to expand it Click on the add service link. Find the service that needs to be refunded, enter a negative quantity, i.e. -1, & click the price button with the green plus sign. For the service that you just added, change the billing status to ‘Ready To Bill’ and change the work status to ‘Completed’. You can now create a billing event which will include this service.

How do I handle services that are red-flagged and require updated billing information?

These services have been red-flagged because they no longer have a valid charge source. Please contact the customer and PI to determine what charge source should be used. The customer or PI can login to iLab and update the charge source by clicking on the dollar sign next to the request, selecting the appropriate charge source from the drop-down menu, and clicking save. Core staff can also update the charge source on behalf of the customer or PI by following the same steps.

I created and sent a billing event, but it now states billing error. How can I fix this?

The billing error is caused by trying to send a billing file that contained red-flagged services. This can be resolved by following these steps:

Login to iLab. Click on my cores on the left-hand menu and select your core. On the core site, click on the Billing tab. Click on the Details link next to the billing event with errors. Click on the Billing Errors tab. This tab displays the invoices with errors. Click on the View Invoice button. Requests that have errors are denoted by red arrows. Typically these errors are due to an invalid charge source. Contact the customer and/or PI to determine what charge source should be used. The customer or PI can login to iLab and update the charge source by clicking on the dollar sign next to the request, selecting the appropriate charge source from the drop-down menu, and clicking save. Core staff can also update the charge source on behalf of the customer or PI by following the same steps. Once the charge source is updated, click the revalidate button. The billing event will then be resent to SAP overnight and the status of the billing event will be updated to file sent the next day.