Comparison
Excel for a clinical lab: how far it holds up
Most small laboratories in Mexico run on a spreadsheet, a notebook and WhatsApp. That is not stupidity: it works, it is already paid for, and nobody had to be trained on it. Here is the honest comparison, including where Excel is still the right answer.
Point by point
| What you do | On Excel and a notebook | On Itzli |
|---|---|---|
| Get the result off the analyzer | You read it on the instrument’s screen and type it in. A digit typed wrong is a digit nobody catches. | It arrives from the instrument on its own, matched to the order by folio (the order number) — if it is one of the tested models, or one of the protocol-compatible ones we test with you. |
| Know who validated a result | You remember, or you ask whoever was on shift that day. | The signer’s name and professional license number, stored exactly as they stood that day, on every report. |
| Balance the cash drawer | You add it up at close and hope it comes out. Whatever does not match, you hunt for by hand. | Cash-drawer close by branch and by employee, counted separately by payment method, and a blind close. |
| Find a result from three months ago | You dig through folders, the WhatsApp thread, or the filing cabinet. | You search the folio and it is there, with its PDF and its history. |
| Know which reagent is about to run out | You find out once it has already run out. | Coverage measured against your real working pace, with expiry warnings and cost per test. |
| Reprint a receipt | If you did not keep a copy, you make it again. | A receipt history you can reprint, on a thermal ticket or on a full letter-size sheet. |
| Correct a result you already handed over | You fix the file and what it used to say is gone. | The history stays: what it said, what it says now, who changed it and why. |
| Get new patients through the door | Word of mouth, and whoever walks past. | The same, plus the comparison tool — if you decide to publish prices. Do not expect miracles: it is the youngest part of the product. |
| Cost of the software | Zero, plus the hours that go into retyping. | From MXN $990 a month, with migration included. |
| Work without internet | Excel opens either way. What you typed there still is not an order, a payment, or a result. | The field screens write with no signal: you draw the specimen, take payment and sign at the ranch, and it uploads on its own when the line comes back — stamped with the time it actually happened, not the time it synced. Not the whole system: the day away from the front desk. The bridge also queues to disk. |
When to stay on Excel
Those cases are real and there is no point pretending otherwise.
- If you run very few tests a month, the monthly fee will cost you more than it saves you.
- If you work alone, with nobody else entering results, knowing who did what buys you very little.
- If your connection is bad at the front desk and all day long, not just when you go out to the field. Field mode covers the day away from the lab; the daily counter operation does want a network.
- If you are about to close or sell the laboratory, this is not the moment to change systems.
When Excel has started costing you
These are the signs laboratories have described to us.
- More than one person is entering results and the versions of the file fight each other.
- A result went out with a mistyped value and somebody had to go correct it.
- You closed the month without really knowing what you made.
- You opened a second branch, or you are about to.
- You bought a new analyzer and somebody is typing in what the instrument already calculated.
And about the other lab systems: there are several in Mexico and not all of them are bad. What makes Itzli different is not a longer list of modules — it is that it reads your analyzers from the entry plan, and that the catalog you operate on can bring you patients. If a competitor solves that better for you, buy it from them.
Compare it against your own month
Bring your spreadsheet to the demo. We load your catalog, enter one real day of work, and you compare: how long it used to take you and how long it takes now.
- We migrate your catalog, at no cost
- 30-day trial on your real operation
- If your cash drawer does not balance in 60 days, you do not pay