Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about OpenInstrument. Can't find what you're looking for? Contact us.
Getting Started
OpenInstrument is a scheduling and management platform built for research labs. It helps labs manage shared scientific instruments — controlling who has access, when instruments are available, and providing a central place to book time and track usage.
Labs can manage multiple instruments, invite members with different roles, set scheduling rules, and get detailed usage analytics.
Labs are invitation-only. A lab admin or owner needs to invite you by email from the lab's Members page. You'll receive an email with an invitation link — click it to accept and create your account if you don't have one already.
If you believe you should have access to a lab but haven't received an invitation, contact your lab administrator directly.
There are three lab-level roles:
- Owner — Full control of the lab, including billing, settings, and member management. There can only be one owner.
- Admin — Can manage instruments, members, reservations, and approve or reject booking requests.
- Member — Can view instruments, request access to specific instruments, and make reservations on instruments they've been granted access to.
Individual instruments also have their own access control — being a lab member doesn't automatically grant access to every instrument.
Yes. A single account can belong to multiple labs. Use the lab switcher in the top-left corner of the sidebar to switch between labs. Each lab has its own instruments, members, and settings.
Reservations
Navigate to the instrument you want to book and open the Schedule tab. Click and drag on the calendar to select your desired time slot, then fill in any optional details (title, notes) and confirm.
On mobile, tap the "New Reservation" button above the calendar to open the booking form with a suggested start time.
Some instruments are configured to require admin approval before a reservation is confirmed. When this is the case, your booking will show as "Pending" on the calendar and you'll receive an email confirming your request was received.
A lab admin will review your request and either approve or reject it. You'll receive an email notification either way.
Click on your reservation in the instrument's calendar — a confirmation dialog will appear asking you to confirm the cancellation. You can only cancel future reservations. Lab admins can cancel any reservation and the affected user will be notified by email.
Yes. When creating a reservation, check the "Repeat this booking" option. You can choose weekly or bi-weekly recurrence, and set up to 12 occurrences. All occurrences are validated up front — if any conflict with existing bookings or blackout periods, the whole series will be rejected with details of which occurrences failed.
Blackout periods are blocks of time during which an instrument cannot be booked — for example, scheduled maintenance, calibration, or a conference. They appear as shaded red blocks on the calendar. Users with access to the instrument are notified by email when a blackout period is created.
Instrument Access
Navigate to the instrument page and click "Request Access". You can include an optional message to the admin explaining why you need access. The lab admin will be notified and can grant or deny your request from the instrument's Users tab.
Once approved, you'll be able to view the instrument calendar and make reservations.
Instruments can be set to require individual access approval. If you don't have access to an instrument, you'll see a prompt to request it. Once a lab admin approves your request, you'll gain access to the calendar and can start making reservations.
Calendar & Notifications
On the instrument's Schedule tab, click "Subscribe to Calendar". Copy the subscription URL and add it to Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook as a webcal/iCal subscription. The calendar updates automatically as reservations are made or cancelled.
Yes. Go to Settings → Notifications to control which emails you receive. You can individually toggle reservation confirmations, pending approval notices, blackout period alerts, and access request notifications.
Cancellation notices and lab invitations are always delivered and cannot be disabled.
Billing
If a subscription lapses, the lab reverts to the Starter plan limits. Existing data is never deleted — instruments, reservations, and members remain intact. Upgrading restores full access immediately.
A Department License covers unlimited labs under a single subscription, managed at the department level. It's ideal for core facilities or departments that oversee multiple research groups. Billing is centralised and all labs under the license get full feature access without separate subscriptions.