Custodial Departments and Shipping Locations

•	Transfer (between internal Departments).
•	Take Custody.
•	Operations involving one user who belongs to more than one Custodial Department (such as Check Out and Check In).

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A complex set of rules and validations restrict certain operations based on the Custodial Departments to which the User and Trackable Item belong. Every attempt has been made to describe these rules in the relevant areas of this documentation.

Storage Locations are enumerated as logical Physical Stores, where one physical Freezer may have more than one logical Physical Store. This allows one physical Freezer to be apportioned to multiple Custodial Departments. Every logical Physical Store exists within one (and only one) Custodial Department.

Users who are assigned to a Custodial Department are "members" of the Custodial Department. Each User has a default Custodial Department, and can be a member of more than one Custodial Department. A "Custodian" is a member of a Custodial Department who has custody of Samples in that Custodial Department.

LabVantage models Custodial Departments and Shipping Locations as Department SDCs. However, the user interface distinctly refers to these as "Custodial Departments" and "Shipping Locations". Internally, a flag segregates these different data types within the Department SDC.

Shipping Location

A "Shipping Location" defines an area to which Packages and Trackable Items are sent (or from which they are received).

There are two types of Shipping Locations:

Type	Description
Internal	The Shipping Location is a Custodial Department (meaning it is inside of your organization).
External	The Shipping Location is outside of your organization (such as another company).

Comparing Custodial Departments to Shipping Locations

Custodial Department	Shipping Location
Functional area within an organization (such as department, laboratory, and repository).	Area to which Packages and Trackable Items are sent (or from which they are received).
Custodial Departments are always within your organization.	Shipping Locations are most typically outside of your organization (such as another company). An option is provided for defining Shipping Locations within your organization (as defined above), but this is provided solely for maximum flexibility in configurations.
All Custodial Departments act as Shipping Locations.	Some Shipping Locations are Custodial Departments.
Users are assigned as "members" of a Custodial Department. In a Custodial Department, what Trackable Items and Users can do depend on their membership within certain other Custodial Departments.	Contacts are assigned to Shipping Locations. Contacts cannot perform any operations on the Samples in the Shipping Location.
Every Trackable Item must have a default Custodial Department.	Only Trackable Items that will be "shipped" have Shipping Locations.
Trackable Items can be transferred between Custodial Departments.	Trackable Items cannot be transferred between Shipping Locations. However, they can be transferred between a Shipping Location and a Custodial Department.
Between Custodial Departments, Trackable Items need not always be transferred in Packages. They can also be transferred in Boxes.	Between a Shipping Location and a Custodial Department, Trackable Items are always transferred in a Package.
Each Custodial Department has an administrator who maintains the Custodial Department.	An administrator is not needed for a Shipping Location if it is an "External" Shipping Location.
LabVantage Users are members of a Custodial Department.	Members of a Shipping Location are known as Contacts.
The transfer of Trackable Items between Custodial Departments is called "Transfer".	The transfer of Trackable Items between a Custodial Department and Shipping Location is called "Shipment".

Custodial Departments

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Custodial Department Maintenance Form

Create Custodial Department at the Lab Admin → Certifications & Resources → Custodial Departments tramstop. This opens the Custodial Department List page:

Click "Add" and provide this information:

Field	Description
Custodial Department	System-generated identifier for the Custodial Department.
Name	Unique name for Custodial Department.
Department Administrator	User who acts as Administrator for the Custodial Department.
GLP	When checked, this Custodial Department is GLP-compliant. The GLP flag can then be retained by Samples moving into this Custodial Department.
Repository	When checked, the Custodial Department is a Repository.
Is Shipping Location	When checked, the Custodial Department is a Shipping Location.
Is Testing Lab	Indicates that this Department is where Samples will be tested. In the Test Method Maintenance page, the "Responsible Laboratory" lookup show only Departments that have "Is Testing Lab" checked.
Can Receive Bulletin	Indicates that the Department can receive Bulletins. When creating Bulletins, the Department dropdown shows only Departments that have "Can Receive Bulletin" checked.
Can Have Custody	Indicates that members of the Department can have custody of Samples.
Can Be Assigned Work	Indicates that the Department can be assigned work. For examples of this, see Creating Worksheets, Managing Data Sets, Tests, and Worksheets, CAPA Workorders, and Stability Workorders.
Can Take Ownership	Indicates that the Department can own SDIs (as shown in the Departmental Security Configuration example).
Retain Department Access	Used only with Departmental Security. This indicates that the Custodial Department will retain membership access to the SDI (Sample) when Departmental Access Control is enabled for the primary SDC. When the primary Security Department loses custody of the SDI, the value in the SecurityDepartment column of the primary SDC is copied to the SDISecurityDepartment table.
Current Custodian Security Set	Used only with SDI Security. This is the Global Security Set to associate with the SDI when the Department takes custody of the SDI (Sample). This inserts a new row in the SDISecuritySet table when this Department takes custody of the SDI.
Relinquish Custody Security Set	Used only with SDI Security. This is the Global Security Set to associate with the SDI when the Department releases custody of the SDI (Sample). This inserts a new row in the SDISecuritySet table when this Department loses custody of the SDI.
Notes	Provided only to record informative text.

For information regarding the concepts of membership and ownership within a Department, see Concepts of Security (Departmental Security and SDC Access, Job Types, and SDI Security).

Custodial Department Maintenance Details

After saving the Maintenance Form, these details are available:

Detail	Lets you add and remove...
Custodial Department Addresses	Addresses associated with the Custodial Department (note that Addresses are the basis for Contacts).
Non-User Contacts	Internal Contacts associated with the Custodial Department.
Custodial Department Members	Users who will be "members" of the Custodial Department.

Transit Department Maintenance

A special Custodial Department called "Transit" is preconfigured OOB. Rules regarding the "Transit" Custodial Department:

•	Samples can never be placed directly into it.
•	Users can not be assigned to it.
•	No other Physical Store classes can be assigned to it.
•	Users can not modify it.

Physical Stores assigned to the "Transit" Custodial Department allow Package transfer and/or Custodial Department "Transfers". During Physical Store creation, Physical Stores with a storage class of "Transit" are associated with the "Transit" Custodial Department.

User Default Custodial Department Assignment

At any time, users can modify their default Custodial Department, provided they belong to at least one Custodial Department. Users set a default Custodial Department in a Maintenance page. This default appears in dropdown lists where users select a Custodial Department. The user is assigned to a default Custodial Department during user creation.

Be advised that having a default Custodial Department does not necessarily confer membership in that Custodial Department.

After selecting a Custodial Department and clicking "Save", the default is saved in the Custodial Department column in the User SDC. Settings can be modified only for the currently logged-in user.

Shipping Locations

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At the LIMS → Packages → Shipping Locations tramstop, Users with the Roles "SMS Administrator" and "Contact Manager" can add and edit Shipping Locations from the Shipping Location List page:

Click "Add" and provide this information:

Attribute	Description
Shipping Location	System-generated identifier for the Shipping Location.
Name	Unique name for the Shipping Location.
Retain Department Access	When checked, this Shipping Location is available to Users during subsequent operations.
Current Custodian Security Set	Used only with SDI Security. This is the Global Security Set to associate with this Storage Location when the Department releases custody of the SDI (Sample). This inserts a new row in the SDISecuritySet table when this Department takes custody of the SDI.
Relinquish Custody Security Set	Used only with SDI Security. This is the Global Security Set to associate with the SDI when the Department releases custody of the SDI (Sample). This inserts a new row in the SDISecuritySet table when this Department takes custody of the SDI.

Contacts

Select an External Contact to associate with this Shipping Location.