For Principal Investigators

Who has your samples,
under which agreement?

Material Transfer Agreements create legal obligations — but most labs track them informally. Vial Tracker Free gives you a documented record of what left your lab, when, to whom, and under what conditions.

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MTAReady trail
"We had the MTA paperwork but no record of what was actually transferred or when. The dispute took eight months to settle."
— The situation Vial Tracker Free prevents
The problem

MTA disputes are impossible to resolve without contemporaneous records

You shared a cell line with a collaborating lab three years ago. You believe it was shared under a non-commercial MTA. They believe it was an unrestricted transfer. The sample has now been used in a commercial application.

Without a contemporaneous record — what was transferred, when, under which agreement, and by which researcher — this dispute cannot be resolved in your favour, regardless of what actually happened.

Material transfer tracking is almost universally done through email threads and verbal agreements. Vial Tracker Free gives you a structured, timestamped alternative that costs nothing to maintain.

What goes untracked without a system
MTA disputes without records default to ambiguity — not your favour
Informal email trails are not adequate legal documentation
Researchers who left take their memory of transfers with them
IP disputes over shared material can take years to resolve
What you get

Built for the real-world lab

Transfer documentation
Log every outgoing and incoming transfer with date, recipient, agreement reference, and responsible researcher. The record builds automatically as samples move.
Agreement linkage
Each sample transfer can reference the MTA that governs it — creating a direct link between the physical material and the legal framework.
Full chain of custody
When samples change hands between your researchers or move to collaborating labs, Vial Tracker Free documents every step.
Zero overhead
No new system, no IT requirement. The time to log a transfer is under two minutes. The time to reconstruct one from memory is unbounded.
How it works

Up and running in an afternoon

1
Download the file
No installation, no account. Open it in Excel today.
2
Log each transfer at point of transfer
Record what moved, where, when, and under which agreement. Two minutes per transfer.
3
Reference when needed
In any dispute, audit, or compliance review, your transfer history is searchable, dated, and complete.
Also on this site

Other challenges Vial Tracker Free solves for PIs

Post-Doc Departure
Keep your lab's institutional memory intact when a researcher moves on.
Biosafety & Audit Compliance
Build an audit-ready sample inventory so the next inspection is never a scramble.
Freezer Failure & Recovery
Know exactly what was lost — and prove it to your institution — when a freezer fails.
Grant Resource Documentation
Answer reviewers' questions about your lab's biological resources with a single export.
PhD Student Handover
When your student submits, their sample knowledge shouldn't leave with them.
Publication Traceability
Trace every published result back to the exact vial it came from, on demand.

Sample transfers without records
are legal liabilities

Download Vial Tracker Free today. Every transfer gets a record. Every agreement gets a trail.

Download Vial Tracker Free — it's free
Works in Excel
No account required
Works alongside any LIMS
Made in Singapore