Indiana University School of Medicine uses iLab as the enterprise-wide core facility management system for all research service cores and shared resources. The migration from Core Ordering and Reporting Enterprise System (CORES) to iLab started in early 2020 and was completed in December 2020.
iLab is a web-based management service designed to provide a unique platform for core facilities to efficiently support the management of service requests, equipment scheduling, project tracking, communication, billing, and reporting. Another benefit of iLab is the ability for the research community to access core facilities through one centralized portal that is easy to navigate and is accessible from anywhere investigators work.
Need iLab Support?
Solutions for many iLab inquiries may be found in the Frequently Asked Questions section below. Should further assistance be needed, contact iLab support at ilab-support@agilent.com. The Agilent iLab Help Resources Hub is also a useful page.
For a step-by-step guide (including visuals from the iLab system), access the Agilent iLab Help Site.
iLab system registration, a high-level overview:
Log into the iLab system with your Indiana University credentials.
Once authenticated, choose the PI that you work with or your institution’s administrator will be notified for registration approval. Once your registration is approved, you will receive access to iLab and the site you wish to utilize.
Enter your personal information.
-First name
-Last name
-Phone number
-Affiliated institution (Indiana University)
-Primary role at institution
Indicate the Lab/Research Group with which you are affiliated (enter the group name, PI name, or financial approver for the lab).
Your registration is complete and will be completed momentarily. In some cases, registration may take up to 24 hours.
Note: Non-IU, external iLab users register for an iLab account via their institution by indicating their organization’s lab as the group in which to affiliate.
In this situation, please contact the research cores team at ilab-support@agilent.com for assistance.
All members of a lab or research group be active registrants with the iLab system. Both PIs and individuals designated a lab/research group manager can actively manage the lab/research group. For detailed information regarding the management of a lab/research group within iLab, access the iLab Help Site.
Once your registration is submitted you will receive a “Welcome to iLab” email from Agilent. You can check the status of your request to join your PI’s lab by going to “My Groups” in the left-hand side menu.
If more than 24 hours have passed since you submitted your registration and you have not received the “Welcome to iLab” email please contact the research cores team at ilab-support@agilent.com for assistance.
Yes, every iLab user can be a member of multiple labs/research groups. Please note, membership in a lab/research group does require approval from the PI or a designated lab/research group manager.
In this situation, please notify the PI (outside of the iLab system, preferably via email) that your request was made in error and should be declined. View a step-by-step guide for declining your request on the Agilent iLab Help Site.
If you are accepted into the lab/research group in error, you can be removed from the lab/research group by the PI or a designated lab/research group manager. View a step-by-step guide for deleting a member on the Agilent iLab Help Site.
Additionally, System Administrators can initiate your removal from the lab/research group. If you require assistance from one of our system administrators, please email your request to ilab-support@agilent.com.
No, it is not necessary to have a charging account before registering for an iLab account.
For a step-by-step guide to registration (including visuals from the iLab system), access the Agilent iLab Help Site.
Log in to iLab with your Indiana University credentials.
Once authenticated, choose the PI that you work with or your institution’s administrator will be notified for registration approval. Once your registration is approved, you will receive access to iLab and the site you wish to utilize.
Enter your personal information:
-First name
-Last name
-Phone number
-Affiliated institution (Indiana University)
-Primary role at institution
Indicate the lab/research group with which you are affiliated (enter the group name, PI name, or financial approver for the lab).
Your registration is complete and will be completed momentarily. In some cases, registration may take up to 24 hours.
It is not possible to be billed through iLab without first creating an iLab account. However, once your account is set up it is necessary to actively utilize the system – as long as you have billing accounts associated with your lab in iLab a core can bill you for services provided through the charge entry feature in iLab.
Adding or removing account numbers for each of your lab/research group members can be done in the Manage Fund Numbers section of the Membership Requests & Fund Numbers tab. For a step-by-step guide, including visuals from the iLab system, access the Agilent iLab Help Site.
Adding or removing account numbers for each of your lab/research group members can be done in the Manage Fund Numbers section of the Membership Requests & Fund Numbers tab. For a step-by-step guide, including visuals from the iLab system, access the Agilent iLab Help Site.
Adding or removing account numbers for lab/research group members is the primary responsibility of the PI of the lab or their assigned lab/financial manager. This can be done in the Manage Fund Numbers section of the Membership Requests & Fund Numbers tab. For a step-by-step guide, including visuals from the iLab system, access the Agilent iLab Help Site.
If the PI or their lab/financial manager is unable to manage the account access for their lab, requests can be sent to ilab-support@agilent.com.
In this situation, the lab/research group to which you belong must request the ability to utilize the account number that needs to be charged. The account number must be manually added, and will require approval from the account owner. At Indiana University, the account owner for all sponsored program accounts is the PI and the account owner for all non-sponsored program accounts is the Fiscal Officer. Access a step-by-step guide to manually adding a fund number on the Agilent iLab Help Site.
Navigate to the Membership Requests & Fund Numbers page.
On this page, scroll down to the “Manually add a new Fund Number” header.
Type the requested account number in the blank cell and click the “add” button.
This request must route, via the iLab system, to the designated account owner. Once the request is approved by the account owner, the requestor will receive notification via email.
Once approval is granted, the requestor must assign the ability to use this account to its group members.
Core policies may vary, but in general it is not necessary to contact the core prior to requesting services through iLab. As long as the core has services listed in the Request Services tab in iLab a service request may be initiated through iLab without first contacting the core. For a step-by-step guide to requesting services, including visuals from the iLab system, access the Agilent iLab Help Site.
The status a service request can be viewed in either the “View Requests” dashboard, which can be accessed in the left-hand side menu under the “Core” sections, or within the “View My Requests” tab of a specific core’s page. View step-by-step guides to viewing requests via the “View Requests” or “View My Requests” options.
If you have made a reservation with a core it can be viewed under “My Reservations” in the left-hand side menu. For a step-by-step guide, including visuals from the iLab system, access the Agilent iLab Help Site.
Reserving Equipment
For a step-by-step guide, including visuals from the iLab system, access the Agilent iLab Help Site.
Core policies may prevent or limit a user’s ability to modify an instrument reservation. If you are unable to reschedule an instrument reservation using the instructions below, please contact the core directly.
To change a reservation, first find it on the calendar. You have multiple options to change the reservation:
Click on the reservation to bring up the edit mini-menu to the left. Then, click on the bottom event icon to open up the reservation detail window, as discussed in the Create a Reservation section.
Drag the top of the reservation (title with reservation times) to move the entire reservation to another time slot (either on the same or even another day).
Double-click on the reservation to open up the reservation detail window, as discussed in the Create a Reservation section.
Drag the bottom of the reservation (white handle bar) up or down to extend/reduce the length of the reservation. Note that you can only change the end time by dragging in this way.
View additional reservation information by hovering over the reservation.
Billing
In this situation, the lab/research group to which you belong must request the ability to utilize the account number that needs to be charged. The account number must be manually added, and will require approval from the account owner. At Indiana University, the account owner for all sponsored program accounts is the PI and the account owner for all non-sponsored program accounts is the Fiscal Officer. Access a step-by-step guide to manually adding a fund number on the Agilent iLab Help Site.
Navigate to the Membership Requests & Fund Numbers page.
On this page, scroll down to the “Manually add a new Fund Number” header.
Type the requested account number in the blank cell and click the “add” button.
This request must route, via the iLab system, to the designated account owner. Once the request is approved by the account owner, the requestor will receive notification via email.
Once approval is granted, the requestor must assign the ability to use this account to its group members.
Yes, payment for a service can be split between two account numbers. When setting payment information select the + Split Charge option, choose the appropriate accounts, and assign the percentage to be allocated to each account.
An external user may provide any information they would like in the Purchase Order free text field. However, External users will not be billed through the iLab system. Information used in the iLab system will be used to create KFS Customer Invoices, which will then be mailed or emailed to the external user for payment. Any reference information provided in iLab (PO number, account number, etc.) can be included on the KFS invoice.
An estimate cannot be generated for a user through iLab unless they have first registered for an iLab account. If you need to send an estimate to a user who is not registered in iLab it will need to be calculated and sent outside of the system.
Please review the Overview of Billing article on the Agilent iLab Help Site for detailed information on billing.
Go to the Billing tab within the core’s page in iLab and click the “New Billing Event” button.
Select the end date for the charges. This will pull any charges that have not yet been part of a billing event, are marked as “Ready to Bill,” and have a purchase date prior to or the same as the end date selected.
Enter an appropriate event name.
Select to include all, internal only, or external only charges, as appropriate.
Note: External charges should be included in billing events to mark them as billed in iLab. However, only internal charges will be included in the file transferred to KFS. External charges will need to be entered as Customer Invoices in KFS and sent manually to the external customer contact.
Click the “Load Charges” button.
Review the list of billable charges. Look for the following:
A red flag under the Status column. This indicated an issue that will prevent this charge from being included in the file sent to KFS. Often this indicates there is no payment information for this charge. To correct, click the symbol under the Payment Information column, select the appropriate account, and click save.
A yellow flag under the Status column. This indicates that a charge is not billable. These should be included in the billing event, but the customer will not be charged.
If a charge needs to be excluded from the billing event you can do so by clicking the down-arrow symbol next to the charge.
To view charges excluded from the billing event expand the “Excluded Charges” section. Any charges that are available to be included in the billing event can be added by clicking the up-arrow symbol.
Once you have finished reviewing and updating the charges, click the “Save as Draft” button. This will add the billing event to the list under the Billing tab.
Click the “Edit” button next to the billing event to reopen the billing event.
If additional charges need to be included in the billing event, click the “Load Additional Charges” button.
If all charges and ready to be billed and all red flags have been cleared click the “Create Billing File and Invoices” button. This will update the status of the billing event to “Billing Initialized.”
From Billing tab click the “Summary” button and then click “Send File to Indiana.” This will mark the billing event as ready to be included in the next scheduled data transfer from iLab to KFS. The billing event status will be updated to “Ready to Send.”
The billing event file will process overnight and the billing event will then be marked as “File sent.” At this point all charges have been posted to the account in KFS. The customer accounts have been billed and the income has been received in the core’s auxiliary account. Charges will show “Not Yet Paid” in iLab unless manually marked as paid, but the transaction has already been completed in KFS.
To refund a charge open the menu in the top-left corner and go to “Invoice” under the Core Facilities section.
Find the invoice that needs to be refunded in the list and check the Status column. Only invoices marked as “Paid” can be refunded. If the status is “Not Yet Paid” click the “mark as paid” button.
Once the charged is marked “Paid” click the magnifying glass to open the invoice.
Hover over the dollar amount of the charge that needs to be refunded. The “Initiate Refund” button will appear – click to initiate the refund.
In the pop-up box select the reason for the refund from the dropdown, enter the quantity to be refunded, and click the “Initiate Refund” button.
The refund will automatically be marked as “Ready to Bill” and will be available to add to the next billing event.
Select “Sign in using Indiana University credentials.”
You will be redirected to IU’s CAS Login page. Sign in using your IU credentials.
You will be redirected to a page to verify your contact information and choose the iLab lab/group you would like to join. The correct lab will depend on your role:
If you will be requesting services on behalf of a PI please select that PI’s lab/group. If you do not see your PI listed, select the AAA Default (IU) lab and email ilab-support@agilent.com with the name of your PI.
If you will be requesting services on your own behalf (you are the PI of your own accounts) please select the lab/group under your name. If you do not see a lab/group listed under your name select the AAA Default (IU) lab and email ilab-support@agilent.com to request a new lab under your name.
If you are a department administrator who will not be working in the system under a specific PI please choose the Staff (IU) Lab and email ilab-support@agilent.com with a brief description of your role in the system.
Once your registration has been submitted, your PI will receive a notification that you have requested membership.
iLab Navigation is through the menu button in the top left corner of the iLab site. Please review the Agilent iLab Help Site for detailed information on overall navigation.
Communications: View iLab notifications
My Cores: Will only appear for core administrators. Hover to view a list of cores for which you are an administrator.
Equipment Kiosk: Will only appear for core administrators. Hover to view of list of cores using the iLab Equipment Kiosk functionality.
View Requests: Click to view services requests submitted by labs you manage.
View Funds: Click to review fund requests needing your approval.
My Centers: Will only appear for center administrators.
Invoices: View invoices billed to labs you manage.
Reporting: Click to access the reporting dashboard and run reports for labs you manage.
My Groups: Hover to view a list of your groups (labs).
My Departments: Will only appear for department administrators. Hover to view a list of your departments.
My Cores: Will only appear for core administrators. Hover to view a list of your core facilities.
People Search: Click to search for iLab users.
You may access your groups and request access to additional groups by navigating to "My Groups" in the iLab menu. Please review the Agilent iLab Help Site for detailed information on overview of managing a group.
To request access to a group, click the Request Group Access button, choose the Institution “Indiana University,” start typing the PI name or group name and select the appropriate group, then click the Request Access button.
After navigating the lab/group page you will see the following tabs:
Membership Requests and Accounts: Approve group membership, manage access to funds, request access to funds. Find more details on the iLab Help Site.
Members: Set financial auto-approval thresholds, adds group members, manage current memberships. Find more details on the iLab Help Site.
Roles: PI, Lab Manager (yellow) – similar rights to the PI, financial contact ($ symbol) – receives emails for financial approval requests.
Note: If this lab is part of a department the Department managers will show in a separate section under the Lab members and settings table.
Budgets: Track spending by core members. Find more details on the iLab Help Site.
Bulletin Board: Post comments and send messages to lab members. Find more details on the iLab Help Site.
Group Settings: Set group preferences and primary contact. Find more details on the iLab Help Site.
You may access service requests submitted to your lab by navigating to “View Requests” in the iLab menu, Please review the Agilent iLab Help Site for detailed information on service requests.
From here you can click the blue arrow next to the charge to view additional details, update payment information, add comments, and view the service request history.
You may view invoices billed to your labs by navigating to “Invoices” in the iLab menu. Please review the Agilent iLab Help Site for detailed information on invoices.
From here you can add comments to the invoice by clicking the text bubble icon and view the invoice details by clicking the magnifying glass icon (for more on the invoice details page see the Agilent iLab Help Site). You may also click the “Bulk Actions” button to download PDF or CSV files with the invoice details.
Note: The email icon and “mark as paid” button is only available to core administrators.
Note: The Status column will likely show the invoice as “Not Yet Paid.” However, invoices are paid as soon as a billing event is successfully transmitted from KFS to iLab. Invoices have to be manually marked as paid in iLab by the core staff, but the funding account in KFS has in fact already been charged.
Access the reporting dashboard by navigating to "Reports" in the iLab menu. From here you can run spending reports on any of your labs.
Please review the Agilent iLab Help Site for detailed information on running the lab spending reports.
Note: Core-level reporting accessible only to core administrators and institute-level reporting is accessible only to institution administrators.
Labs/groups can be organized into departments in iLab. This allows department managers to manage and provide financial approval for labs within the department, without needing to become a member of each lab. If you are a manager of a department, you can access your department by navigating to "My Departments" in the iLab menu. Please review the Agilent iLab Help Site for detailed information.
From the Departments menu you can view the departments for which you are a manager, the groups within those departments, and the current department managers. To edit the department, click the “View” button.
With the department page you may do the following:
Add or remove department managers:
To add a manager, type their name in the search box and click the Search button
To remove a manager, click the red X next to their name.
Add or remove groups/labs from the department:
To add a group, scroll to the bottom of the Groups tab, enter the PI name in the search box, and click the Go button to search. Click the + Add button next to the appropriate group.
To remove a group, click the red X in the Actions column next to the group name.
View Pending Lab Access Requests:
Requests to join any labs within the department. Department managers are able to view and approve these requests on behalf of the PI.
Manage the department settings:
Go to settings tab within the department and check the boxes that are applicable.
When a lab requests access to a fund the request will route to the iLab fund owner for approval. The iLab fund owner is the KFS account manager for C&G accounts (usually the PI) and the KFS fiscal officer for non-C&G accounts. The fund owner will receive an email from iLab with a direct link to view and approve/disapprove the request. Requests can also be viewed by navigating to "View Funds" in the iLab menu. Please review the Agilent iLab Help Site for detailed information on viewing requests.
From here you can view any pending fund requests and choose to approve or reject the request. Please review the Agilent iLab Help Site for detailed information on managing access requests.
Common emails include:
Subject: [External] iLab: NAME has requested access to Account: XXXXXXX
You will receive this email if you are the fund owner of an account number that has been requested in a lab. You can also view the request from the View Funds link in the iLab menu.
Note. The name is listed in the subject line is the name of the person who submitted the request, not the name of the lab the account is being added to. To view the details of the lab needing access click the link in the email to view the request and approve or reject.
Subject: [External] iLab: Your Account access request has been approved (or rejected).
You will receive this email if you submitted a request to add an account to a lab. The email will have a direct link to the accounts page of the lab so you can then assign the fund to lab members.
Subject: [External] NAME is requesting access to Lab Name in iLab
You will receive this email if you are a PI, Lab Manager, or Department Manager of lab and a user is requesting to join the lab. The email will have a link to view and approve the request. You can also view the request from the lab or department page in iLab.
Subject: [External] ACTION REQUIRED: Please provide financial approval for a request made by NAME from CORE
You will receive this email if you are a PI, financial manager, or department manager for a group and a service request has exceeded the auto-approval threshold. The email will provide a link to view the service request and provide financial approval.
[External] NOTIFICATION: NAME The Service request SERVICE ID has been completed
You will receive this notification when a service request has been completed and is ready to bill for a lab for which you are the PI, financial manager, or department manager. You can click the link to view the completed service.
[External] NOTIFICATION: A service request made by NAME from CORE has gone over the agreed cost
You will receive this notification if you are a PI, financial manager, or department manager for a group/lab and a service being billed to that lab has gone over the agreed upon cost. If the total cost is still under the auto-approval threshold this email will be a notification only. If the total cost is over the auto-approval threshold then the project will need financial approval before it can proceed.
Benefits of iLab
iLab provides unlimited support directly to end users.
PI’s and financial managers can easily manage what budgets their lab members have access to.
Users can easily track the status of service requests orders and reserve time on instrumentation.
Billing is automatic and is integrated with the reservation/usage tracking system giving real-time usage metrics and budgeting capabilities.
Safeguards prevent users from reserving time on (or using) equipment that requires training.
Research service cores moving to a new management software called iLab
iLab Core Facility Management software was recently chosen as the enterprise-wide core facility management system for all research service cores. The new software allows the research community to access core facilities through one centralized portal that is easy to navigate and is accessible from anywhere investigators work.
