Lab workflows
Managing tasks
Tasks are the daily and weekly to-do items that keep your tissue culture lab running — media preps, subcultures, cleaning runs, monitoring checks. xPlant gives you five ways to view and manage them so nothing slips through.
Five views
Pick the view that fits how you work
Switch between views using the tab bar above the task list. Your tasks stay the same — only the layout changes.
The default view. See every upcoming, overdue, and completed task in a flat list. Filter by category, mark items done with one click, and add new tasks from the top-right button.
A Kanban-style board with five columns: Critical (>48 h overdue), Overdue, Today, This Week, and Upcoming. Drag a card to a new column to automatically reschedule the task.
A month-at-a-glance calendar. Tasks appear on their due date. Click any date or time slot to open the task form pre-filled with that date — useful for planning around your culture schedule.
Charts and numbers: completion rate, tasks by category, overdue count, and a critical-overdue alert when anything has slipped past 48 hours. A red badge on the Insights tab tells you the overdue count at a glance.
All your recurring tasks in one place. A recurring task becomes a template once you set a repeat frequency. Use this view to review, edit, or create templates for routine lab work.
Adding a task
Click Add task in the top-right corner of the tasks page, or click any date on the Calendar view. The calendar pre-fills the due date so you can plan directly from the schedule.
Example: It is Monday. Your Begonia rex cultures need subcultured by Friday. Click Friday on the Calendar, name the task "Subculture Begonia rex — Multiplication stage", set category to Subculture, and save. The task appears on Friday in the calendar and in the List view with a "This week" indicator.
Board view
Drag cards to reschedule
The Board view organises tasks into columns by urgency. Drag a card left or right to move it to a different time window — xPlant updates the due date automatically.
| Column | When tasks appear here | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | >48 h overdue | Tasks past due by more than two days. These are read-only — drag them out by fixing the due date in the edit form. |
| Overdue | < 48 h overdue | Due yesterday or earlier. Drag to Today or This Week to quickly reschedule. |
| Today | Due today | Tasks due today. Drag here to reschedule any card to today's date. |
| This Week | Due this week | Due in the next 7 days (excluding today). Drag here to push a card to this week. |
| Upcoming | Due later | Everything beyond this week. Drag here to move a task further into the future. |
Tip: Critical cards cannot be dragged into because the Critical column is computed — a task lands there automatically when it is more than 48 hours overdue. To clear a Critical card, open the task, change the due date, and save.
Templates
Recurring tasks you only set up once
A template is a task with a repeat frequency set. Once created, the task appears on each due date without you having to recreate it. The Templates tab lists every recurring task so you can review what is scheduled and when.
Example: Your MS medium needs preparing every two weeks. Create a task called "Prepare MS medium — 1 L batch", set the category to Media Prep, pick a due date, and set Repeat to Bi-weekly. xPlant generates the next occurrence automatically each time you complete the current one.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Title | Describe what needs doing — e.g. 'Prepare MS medium 1 L' |
| Category | Media Prep, Subculture, Cleaning, Monitoring, or Other |
| Due date | The first occurrence; future dates are generated from the repeat rule |
| Repeat | Daily, Weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly, or Custom interval |
| Notes | Step hints, links to SOPs, or material requirements |
Insights
Understanding your lab's task health
Completion rate
The percentage of all tasks that have been marked done. A rising rate means work is getting finished on schedule.
Overdue count
Tasks past their due date that are still open. The number next to the Insights tab shows this at a glance — no need to open the view.
Tasks by category
A bar chart showing how tasks are distributed across Media Prep, Subculture, Cleaning, Monitoring, and Other. Use it to spot if one area is piling up.
Critical alert
When one or more tasks are overdue by more than 48 hours, a red alert appears at the top of the page and in the Insights panel. These need immediate attention.
Reminders
Automatic notifications so nothing slips
xPlant checks your tasks daily and sends reminders for anything due soon or overdue. Reminders appear in the notification bell in the app header and, if you have email notifications enabled, in your inbox.
Email reminders: Reminder emails are sent once per task per due date — you will not receive the same reminder twice on the same day. To manage notification preferences, go to Settings → Notifications.
| Trigger | Reminder type | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Due within 24 hours | Due soon | In-app notification + email — sent once per task per due date |
| Past the due date | Overdue | In-app notification + email — sent once per task per due date |
A full weekly workflow
- 1On Monday, open the Calendar and click the coming Saturday. Add a task: 'Prepare B5 medium — 500 mL' with category Media Prep.
- 2Add a second task for Sunday: 'Subculture Monstera deliciosa — Multiplication' with category Subculture.
- 3A weekly recurring 'Clean transfer hood' template fires automatically — it was set up once and reappears every Monday.
- 4On Friday, the Insights tab badge turns red showing 1 overdue task from last week. Open Insights to see which one slipped.
- 5You receive an email reminder at 7 a.m. Saturday for the media prep task. After finishing it, mark it done in the List view.