CCA Labs / every floor, every room
All-in-one lab management software
CCA Labs runs the whole lab in one system, from the budget down to the bench: the electronic lab notebook, inventory and samples, ordering, instruments and the audit trail. This page lists everything in it, one floor at a time.
At a glance / the short version
CCA Labs at a glance
| What it is | One web app that runs a lab's science and its operations together: the notebook, inventory and samples, ordering and budgets, instruments and the audit trail. |
|---|---|
| Built for | Cell culture and biotech labs, academic groups, biotech incubators and CROs |
| Plans | Teams, self sign-on, from £110 per seat per month. Enterprise, a custom package for biotech incubators, CROs and organisations with several teams. |
| Setting up | Zero-cost and done yourself: create your lab, upload your protocols and spreadsheets, and the AI drafts your workflows and inventory in minutes for you to review. |
| Hardware | Optional. Pebble sensors are available, Tessera (an incubator microscope) is in early access, and dALI (an automation platform) is in development. |
| Compliance | An append-only audit trail and electronic signatures, built to support 21 CFR Part 11 / SOC 2 controls |
| Your data | CSV and Excel export, and read-only API keys |
| Made by | CCA Bio (Cell Culture Automation Ltd), Cambridge, UK |
Replaces / one system instead of several
What does CCA Labs replace?
Most labs run on a patchwork of tools with no link between them. Each of these jobs moves onto a floor of CCA Labs.
| What you use now | What takes its place | Where |
|---|---|---|
| The budget workbook for each grant | A fund for each grant, allocated across projects, with spent, reserved and runway | Leadership |
| A separate ordering tool such as Quartzy | Purchase orders against a project budget, received line by line into stock | Operations |
| Instrument booking sheets and paper logbooks | Bookings, calibration and service records on the lab's floor plan | Facility |
| Readings copied off the incubator by hand | Pebble sensors reporting CO₂, O₂, temperature and humidity, with alarms | Facility |
| A standalone ELN such as Benchling, LabArchives or SciNote | Protocols as versioned workflows, experiments run step by step, signed batch records | Lab |
| The freezer and stock spreadsheets | Samples on a shelf with a QR label, stock by lot and expiry | Lab |
Compare / an ELN, a LIMS, spreadsheets
How does it compare with an ELN, a LIMS or spreadsheets?
An ELN or a LIMS does one or two of a lab's jobs well. CCA Labs does all six, one on each floor, and links them, so a result traces back to the order and the budget behind it.
| The job | Spreadsheets | ELN | LIMS | Inventory app | CCA Labs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budgets and funds | Partly | No | No | Partly | Yes |
| Ordering and stock | Partly | Partly | Partly | Yes | Yes |
| Instruments and monitoring | Partly | No | Partly | No | Yes |
| Protocols and experiments | Partly | Yes | Partly | No | Yes |
| Samples and cell lines | Partly | Partly | Yes | Partly | Yes |
| Audit trail and signatures | No | Yes | Yes | Partly | Yes |
| A result traced back to the budget that paid for it | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Yes means built in. Partly means possible, but by hand, with an add-on module, or only in some products. No means it isn't what that kind of tool is for. Products vary, so treat every Partly as a question for the vendor. The all-in-one guide breaks each job down need by need.
The building / top to bottom
What's in CCA Labs, floor by floor
CCA Labs is laid out like the organisation it runs. Leadership plans and funds the work, operations keeps the lab stocked, the facility runs the rooms and instruments, and the bench does the science. The record runs through every floor. 44 capabilities in all.
01LeadershipPrograms, goals, budgets
Floor 01 / Plan and fund
Programs, goals and budgets
Set the plan, fund it, and see what it costs while the work happens.
6 capabilities
Notes from this floor
| Capability | What it does |
|---|---|
| Programs and goals | Research programs with goals and milestones. Each goal shows its progress, overdue and blocked milestones, and the experiments behind it, and is marked on track, at risk or off track. |
| Funds and project budgets | A fund for each grant or funding source, allocated across projects. The budget shows where the money sits: spent, reserved for open orders and scheduled work, unspent, and not yet allocated.How it works |
| Burn rate, runway and forecast | Monthly spend as a trailing three-month average, months of runway and the month the money runs out, each fund's spend against a straight line to its end date, and a forecast from how often each protocol will run. |
| Overspend approval | A purchase that would take a project over its allocation is blocked until a budget admin approves an overspend, with the amount and the reason on the record.How it works |
| Project roadmap | Every project on one timeline against its baseline, with slip in days, decisions waiting, deliverables due in the next 30 days and how loaded each owner is. |
| Cost per experiment | Each run adds up the materials it used and the bench time it took at each person's labour rate, so the same cost shows on the experiment, the project and the program. |
02OperationsInventory, orders, documents
Floor 02 / Run the lab
Inventory, ordering and documents
Know what's on the shelf, what's on order and who asked for it.
5 capabilities
| Capability | What it does |
|---|---|
| Lab inventory management | Reagents, media and consumables tracked by lot, each with its quantity, expiry, QC release and shelf. Stock is reserved when an experiment is scheduled, drawn down first-expiry-first-out when a step starts, and flagged when it falls to the reorder level.How it works |
| Procurement and purchase orders | Requests queue up, become one purchase order per supplier against a project budget, and are received line by line. Receiving a line creates the inventory lot and posts the cost.How it works |
| Supplier tracking | Supplier profiles with account numbers and contacts, reused across inventory and orders, with catalogue numbers, average cost and the lead time each supplier actually delivers in. |
| Lab calendar | Experiments, instrument bookings and deadlines on one calendar, for you or the whole lab, with a feed for your own calendar app. |
| Documents and SOPs | SOPs and protocols written in a shared editor, several people at once, with version history, tags and a release state. |
03FacilityFloor plan, instruments, Pebble
Floor 03 / The facility
Instruments, bookings and monitoring
The whole lab on one floor plan, with the equipment in it booked, maintained and watched.
6 capabilities
Notes from this floor
| Capability | What it does |
|---|---|
| Virtual lab | Every room, bench, cabinet and instrument on one floor plan drawn to scale, with a version history of the layout. Samples and stock are filed on its shelves. |
| Instrument booking | Book instruments by hand, or let an experiment book the incubator or hood its steps need when it is scheduled. |
| Equipment calibration and maintenance | Calibration, qualification and service tracked for each instrument. When a check lapses, the instrument stops taking bookings until it is back in order. |
| Instrument utilisation | Booked hours, idle capacity and bookings for each instrument. |
| Environmental monitoring | Pebble sensors report CO₂, O₂, temperature and humidity from incubators and storage in real time, with thresholds and alarms. |
| Sample storage conditions | Each sample shows the live conditions of the place it is stored, from the sensor watching it. |
04LabNotebook, protocols, samples
Floor 04 / At the bench
Electronic lab notebook and protocols
Design a protocol once, run it step by step, and keep the record as you go.
5 capabilities
| Capability | What it does |
|---|---|
| Protocol and workflow builder | Build protocols as step-by-step workflows, keep every version and compare two side by side. Each workflow shows what a run costs, and every experiment records the version it ran. |
| Experiments | Run a protocol as an experiment, step by step, recording what was done, what was used and what came out. Each experiment is tied to a project and milestone and shows its cost against the estimate. |
| Batch records | The full record of each run, with timestamped steps, data entries and materials, finalised and signed as a locked snapshot. |
| Bench board | The team's tasks for today, this week and later, with overdue and blocked work flagged and each task linked to the SOP, order, sample or run it is about. |
| Bench calculators | Dilution and serial dilution, mass and molarity, mastermix, DNA and RNA quantification, cell counting, seeding density and doubling time, plate assay standard curves, assay statistics, qPCR ΔΔCt, protein parameters, and finance tools from margin and VAT to runway and rNPV. |
Floor 04 / Samples and cell lines
Sample tracking and cell line management
Every vial has a place, a history and a label you can scan.
7 capabilities
| Capability | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sample tracking | Samples with an ID, form, amount, QC assays, expiry and freeze-thaw limit, filed on a shelf in the virtual lab and split into aliquots.How it works |
| Labels and QR scanning | Print tube labels and scan the QR code to open the sample or stock lot at the bench.How it works |
| Chain of custody | Who received, moved, handed over, returned or destroyed each sample, when, and on whose authority. |
| Corrections on the record | A wrong identity or form is corrected with the reason recorded, never overwritten, so the history shows what was believed and when. |
| Cell line registry | Every cell line with its passage number, passage policy and banks. |
| Cell line identity testing | Each authentication result recorded against the material that was tested and the reference it was judged against. |
| Sample lineage | Trace any result back through the samples, reagents, instruments and people that produced it. |
RThe recordAudit trail, signatures, your data
The record / Compliance and data
Audit trail, signatures and your data
Every change on the record, and the data yours to take anywhere.
6 capabilities
| Capability | What it does |
|---|---|
| Audit trail | An append-only, server-timestamped history on every regulated record: who changed what, when and why. |
| Electronic signatures | Signatures tied to the signer's identity, with a fresh sign-in at each signature and a stated meaning: authored, reviewed, approved or witnessed. The owner decides which actions need one. |
| Roles and permissions | Owner, Admin, Member and Viewer roles, permissions for each part of the lab, and access limited to the programs a person works on. |
| Multi-factor authentication | A second step at sign-in, which the organisation can require for everyone. |
| Data capture templates | Typed, versioned templates for the data your experiments record, in a spreadsheet grid with Excel-compatible formulas and Excel import and export. |
| API and export | Read-only API keys for pulling experiment, sample and inventory data into notebooks, dashboards or your own tools, and CSV and Excel export. The data is yours, with no lock-in. |
GGrowthBiotech incubators and CROs
Growth / For biotech incubators and CROs
Workspaces, clients and shared facilities
Many companies or clients on one system, each kept apart, with the facility running the shared parts. Part of the Enterprise package.
7 capabilities
| Capability | What it does |
|---|---|
| Workspaces | A workspace for each company, team or client, with its own experiments, samples and records kept apart from everyone else. |
| Management console | The whole portfolio in one place: workspaces, access, shared equipment, shared inventory, orders and reports. |
| Shared equipment and stores | The facility decides what it shares, such as instruments, stores, suppliers and floor plans, pooled or kept separate. |
| Charging for shared resources | Time on shared instruments and shared costs charged to the company that used them. |
| Customers, quotes and sales orders | Customers, sales orders, service contracts and study requests for labs that do work for clients. |
| Facility issue reports | Resident companies and clients report an equipment fault or a service request to the facility, with the room, a photo and whether anyone was hurt. Staff assign it, reply and resolve it, and a repair goes on the instrument's service history. |
| Client portal | Clients request work, follow their orders and receive deliverables with an evidence pack, and see nothing else in the building. |
LLobbyGetting started, questions
Lobby / Getting started
Set up in minutes
Onboarding costs nothing, and you do it yourself.
2 capabilities
Notes from this floor
| Capability | What it does |
|---|---|
| AI onboarding | Upload your protocols and spreadsheets. The AI reads them and drafts your workflows and inventory in minutes, and you review everything before it is saved. |
| Self sign-on | Create a lab at lab.cca.bio and start the same day. Teams is from £110 per seat per month. |
Lobby / questions
Common questions
Each answer is tagged with the floors it is about.
- What is all-in-one lab management software?
- One system that runs a lab's science and its operations together: the notebook, inventory and samples, ordering and budgets, instruments and the audit trail. CCA Labs is built this way, so the experiment, the sample it used, the order that bought it and the money it cost stay linked.
- What does CCA Labs replace?
- A standalone ELN such as Benchling, LabArchives or SciNote, inventory and sample spreadsheets, ordering tools such as Quartzy, budget workbooks, and paper booking sheets and logbooks. They become one platform instead of several tools that don't talk to each other.
- Is CCA Labs a LIMS?
- It covers what most labs want from a LIMS: sample and cell line tracking, storage locations, chain of custody, lineage and an audit trail. It does that alongside the electronic lab notebook and the lab's budgets and orders, which a LIMS usually leaves out.
- Can a small lab use it?
- Yes. Teams is self sign-on for biotech labs and academic groups, from £110 per seat per month. Upload your protocols and spreadsheets and the AI sets up your lab in minutes, at zero cost.
- Does it work for biotech incubators and CROs?
- Yes. The Enterprise package gives each company or client its own workspace, a console across the whole portfolio, shared equipment charged to whoever used it, and a portal where clients follow their work.
Run the whole lab in one system
Start with one team. Add workspaces as the work grows.