Why amend, not edit

A mistake is found in a report that has already been issued to the customer. Instinct says

"open it, fix it, resend". The LIMS won't allow it — and not out of stubbornness.

Why not a simple edit

The issued report is already out in the world: the customer may have submitted it to an

inspection, used it in a transaction, made decisions based on it. If the lab changes it

"silently", then two different documents with the same number exist — and nobody can prove

which one was valid when. In an accreditation audit that's a finding; in a customer dispute,

a credibility problem.

That's why the standard (§7.8.8) requires: any change to an issued report must be **clearly

identified, with the reason included where appropriate, and made only as a further

document** that explicitly states it amends the original.

How the LIMS does it

1. Before approval (Draft/Reviewed): edit freely — nothing has been issued yet.
2. After approval: the analysis locks. No silent changes — not even by the lab director.
3. Need a change? → Amendment, with a mandatory reason:

• the analysis moves to Amended status (unlocks for the correction),
• the original report version stays frozen as a prior Report Version (v1) — never deleted,
• on re-approval a new version (v2+) is frozen as an addition to — never a replacement

of — v1, and the customer is notified,

• everything is recorded in the history (who, when, why).

At a glance

The practical rule

Before approval: edit. After issue: amend — a further document, with a reason, with the

old version frozen. What has left the lab is never "unwritten"; it is superseded.