How to Choose a Lab Setup

This guide explains the different Forensic Group setups available on the CTS Portal. You can do a simple set up with no groups or more complex setups with Groups and Master Groups. An overview of the different options is presented below with more detailed information including work flow examples provided in the specific guides.

[View PDF of this Guide and all the Forensic Group setups available]

No Groups - Analyst Focus

This is the simplest setup on the CTS Portal. Each individual analyst registers his or her own account, claims, enters, and submits their Data Entry to CTS. There are no permissions to set or additional setups to do.

Review or Submission Groups only, no Master Group

In this option, each review Group is separate; no Master Group oversees or controls the groups. This option is appropriate for laboratories who would like a more formal review process, or to control the permissions of their analysts without needing the oversight or bulk powers found within a Master Group. You can create and organize multiple review Groups based on the workflow within your laboratory. Most commonly, we see review Groups separated by discipline or laboratory location in multi-lab organizations. If your laboratory is utilizing multiple groups, or the features of a Master Group may be important to your laboratory in the future, it is advised to create a Master Group from the start as consolidating review Groups under a Master Group at a later time can be difficult.

Master Group and Sub-Groups (Review or Submission Groups)

In this option, a Master Group oversees the groups. This option is appropriate for labs who want to have a single location for Management (Quality Manager) to be able to oversee and have additional bulk powers over the tests within the sub-groups. The sub-groups may be focused on review, or may be used for organization and additional control over the users within. 

A Master Group has several features that the sub-groups do not. It can assign tests to individual analysts, as well as list all active tests and display notifications for each test. It can also complete several bulk actions, such as sending an e-mail containing tests in a PDF format, submitting tests, retracting tests, forwarding to groups, and retracting from groups.

Similar to the Groups only option, more than one review/submission group can be used depending on your needs. Set up one Master Group and add as many individual groups as necessary.