Should You Set Up a Standing Order? A Practical Guide for Research Labs
In research labs, standing orders provide more advantages than just easy ordering. Standing orders can help managers, project leads, and lab staff reduce cognitive load, streamline procurement, and protect against the hidden costs of uncertainty, especially when working with high-turnover items like whole blood, urine, saliva, and other biofluid samples.
In this post, we will guide you through determining if a standing order is the right strategic purchasing decision for your lab and how to create one in a way that safeguards your time and budget.
What Is a Standing Order?
A standing order is a recurring fulfillment agreement between your lab and your supplier.
It’s like a subscription in that both involve recurring shipments of materials you use regularly, often on a set schedule. Both help ensure that supplies arrive without needing to reorder each time, but subscriptions don’t provide the flexibility and level of customization that research-specific procurement needs.
Unlike everyday subscriptions, standing orders are strategically tailored to your research schedule, usage patterns, and storage limit. You will receive guided setup and support from a dedicated representative who understands your research goals and helps make the process easier.
How do you know if a standing order is right for you?
Standing orders are typically best if:
• You regularly order large volumes of the same materials
• Your workflows are time-sensitive or regulated
• Your team is short on time or admin support
• You’re working within a fixed budget or funding cycle
• You need dependable delivery and streamlined procurement
Let’s compare two real-world ordering scenarios, one with predictable needs and another with more variability.
Innovative Research is currently running a sale on urine and saliva sample types for the next 2 months, and two lab managers from different institutions are curious if implementing a standing order could help them save time and make the most out of their budget.
Lab Manager A is from a mid-sized toxicology lab that orders 1L of pooled human urine monthly, and their current study runs for another 18 months.
Lab Manager B runs a teaching lab at a local university and occasionally orders a few 5mL post-COVID human pooled saliva samples for coursework, but doesn’t know their schedule until the semester begins. Their cold storage is limited, and student enrollment varies.
For the sake of illustration, we’ve estimated staff time at $50/hour (including benefits). At that rate, each order adds roughly 1 hour in hidden labor costs, which includes time spent reviewing inventory, requesting quotes, and following up on logistics.
With this information, each lab manager can use the Economic Cost Formula:
Economic Cost =Tangible Cost + Intangible Cost
This quantifies not only their spending but also the value of their time.
If Lab Manager A sets up a standing order for a total of 18 one-liter urine samples, delivered as one shipment each month for 18 months, they can take full advantage of the ongoing sale. This approach allows them to complete everything in one transaction, freeing up 17 hours for other tasks. Setting up a standing order now saves Lab Manager A over $8,000 compared to manually placing individual orders as needed or waiting to order their samples until after the sale ends.
Lab Manager B, on the other hand, has variable needs and low predictability. With limited storage and no clear timeline, a standing order could create more risk than value. For now, they’re better off ordering on demand.
A Smarter Way to Plan Ahead
Standing orders aren’t just about saving money; they’re about saving time, reducing risk, and making your lab run more efficiently. For teams with recurring needs, the impact is tangible: fewer last-minute orders, more predictable costs, and time for your staff to focus on research, not paperwork.
For over 25 years, Innovative Research has supported laboratories and can help you assess your ordering habits to create a standing order tailored to your actual needs.
Standing orders for select urine and saliva samples qualify for discounted pricing through September 15th, 2025.
Contact us to set up a standing order quickly, save this post, or forward it to your lab manager, because the right plan now can save you stress (and budget) later.
