Validate lab results

This guide walks you through validating the results on a Lab Report: reviewing each Lab Result, recording the validated qualifier, and promoting the report to Validated. You validate results once a report has been reviewed and accepted, to record the data reviewer's opinions on top of what the laboratory reported.

A validation never overwrites the lab's reported values. It is a separate record that sits alongside the result, so the lab's facts and the reviewer's judgments stay distinct.

Before you start

• Role required: validating project data requires both a Data Steward global role (Administrator or Data Manager) and Editor-or-higher membership on the Project. See Permissions and scoping.
• Prerequisites: the report's Status must be Approved. A report reaches Approved through review on the report itself — see Lab reports. Only field-Sample results are validated; laboratory quality-control (QC) results are not.

Steps

1. Go to Data Management → Projects, then select the Project that owns the report.

2. In the Project's left subnav, select Lab Reports, then select the report you want to validate.

3. In the report's left subnav, select Validation. The grid lists every field-sample result on the report. A progress widget at the top shows how many results are validated (for example, "12 of 40 results validated").

4. Review the results. Each row shows the lab's reported Result, Unit, dilution factor (DF), method detection limit (MDL), method reporting limit (MRL), Fraction, Basis, Lab Qual, detection state, and reportable state — plus indicators for a rejected or estimated disposition — so you can judge the value against its limits. A row already validated shows a check in the Validated column.

5. To validate or amend one result, select Validate on its row (the button reads Edit for a result that already carries a validation). The edit form opens, pre-filled with the row's current validation.

6. Complete the validation fields. Validated By and Validation Level are required; the rest are optional review intent. The override fields replace the lab's value only when review changes it: Validated Result is a numeric override, while Validated Detected and Validated Reportable are chosen from the same detection and reportable value lists used elsewhere for lab results — leave any of them blank to keep the lab's reported value.

   Field	What to enter
   Validated By	The reviewer's name. Required.
   Validation Level	Select the review stage or kind from the list (Stage 1, Stage 2A, Stage 2B, Stage 3, Stage 4, Reviewed, Project Specific, Other, or Legacy). Required.
   Validation Date	The date of review. Left blank, it defaults to today.
   Validated Qualifier	The reviewer's qualifier code (for example, J for estimated, R for rejected). Pick a defined code from the list, or type any value — labs report variants the catalog may not yet hold. The result's disposition — rejected, estimated, tentatively identified, biased — is derived from this code through the Qualifiers reference data, so there is nothing else to set by hand.
   Reason Code	The code that explains the qualifier.
   Validated Result, Validated Detected, Validated Reportable	Override the lab's value, detection state, or reportable state.
   Use MRL as Validated Result	Substitutes the row's own MRL for the validated value — a shortcut for setting a non-detect to its reporting limit.
   Validation Comment	Free-text notes on the review.

7. Select Save. Saving uses full-replace semantics: every field on the form lands on the validation row, and a blank field clears that value. Erde may surface advisory warnings (for example, a qualifier set without a reason code) — these confirm but do not block the save. If you enter a Validated Qualifier that is not a defined code or alias in the Qualifiers reference data, the save still succeeds with the warning "'XY' isn't a defined qualifier; no disposition will be derived from it." — add the code to Qualifiers if you want a disposition derived from it.

8. Repeat for each result. When every result is validated, return to the top of the Validation page and select Mark report validated, then confirm with Mark validated. This advances the report's Status to Validated.

info

The Validation grid shows raw result values exactly as the laboratory reported them, with no significant-figure rounding. Significant figures are applied only on the reporting and analysis surfaces (Crosstab, Data Explorer, and the result detail panel), not on management or validation grids.

How disposition is derived

You record one thing on each result — the Validated Qualifier. Everything Erde infers about the result's standing follows from that code. Whether the result is rejected, estimated, tentatively identified, or biased is looked up in the Qualifiers reference data, where each code's meaning is defined once for the whole application. There are no separate rejected or estimated checkboxes to keep in step with the qualifier.

Two consequences follow:

• Rejected results are excluded by default. When a result's validated qualifier maps to a rejected code, analysis and screening leave it out unless you opt it back in (the Data Explorer can include rejected results).
• An unknown qualifier conveys nothing. If you enter a code that is not defined in Qualifiers (and matches no alias), the save succeeds but no disposition is derived from it, and Erde warns you. Add the code to the Qualifiers reference data so future entries are understood.

Validating many results at once

For a large report, export the worksheet instead of editing row by row:

1. Select Export Worksheet to download every result.
2. Fill in the validation columns offline.
3. Select Import Worksheet to upload it.

Rows are matched by their result identifier, and only the validation columns are read on import — the lab's reported columns are ignored. A row is left untouched only when all of its validation columns are blank. If you fill in even one validation column on a row, saving uses full-replace semantics for that row, so any other validation column you leave blank clears that value. To change one field without disturbing the others, re-export first so every column carries its current value, then edit only what you intend to change. To remove a validation entirely, use the per-row Clear validation action.

Result

Each validated result shows a check in the Validated column, and its disposition follows from the validated qualifier you recorded: a result whose qualifier maps to a rejected code reads as rejected, one that maps to an estimated code reads as estimated, and so on. You do not set those flags by hand — Erde derives them from the Qualifiers reference data. The validated values you entered travel alongside the lab's reported values, and downstream screening and analysis use the validated value where one exists — a validated result value or detected flag supersedes any EMPC substitution that would otherwise apply. The Validated Qualifier you record is also the qualifier shown beside the result on the analysis and screening surfaces (Crosstab, Map, Time Series, and screening); until a result is validated, those surfaces show no qualifier for it, and only its < limit or ND notation conveys non-detect status. Rejected results are excluded from analysis and screening by default. Once you mark the report validated, its Status badge reads Validated and the per-result actions become read-only.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Resolution
"Lab results can only be validated while the report is Approved."	The report's Status is not Approved (it is Draft, Preliminary, Rejected, or already Validated).	Set the report to Approved first on the report itself. See Lab reports. To amend an already-validated report, roll its status back to Approved.
A result you expect is missing from the Validation grid	The grid lists field-sample results only; laboratory QC results (method blanks, spikes, duplicates) are never validated.	Confirm the result belongs to a field sample. QC results have no validation workflow.
Mark report validated is not shown	The report is not Approved, or you lack edit permission, or the report is locked. The page shows "Approve the report to mark it validated" until the status is Approved.	Approve the report and confirm your membership role.
"Cannot use MRL as validated value: this result has no method reporting limit."	Use MRL as Validated Result is selected, but the row has no MRL.	Clear the checkbox and enter an explicit Validated Result, or leave the value blank.
The Validate button is disabled	The report is not Approved (the button shows "Approve the report before its results can be validated"), you lack the role to validate project data, or the Project is locked.	Approve the report first; otherwise see Permissions and scoping.

Related

• Lab reports — the status lifecycle and how a report reaches Approved.
• Lab analyses and results — the results you are validating.
• Qualifiers — the reference data that defines what each validated qualifier code means.
• Permissions and scoping — who may validate project data.
• Laboratory Data overview