User Manual

1) Connection

If you used the previous version of the EQAS, you will need to have connection information for LIAISON specifically. If you have not received it please contact customer support. Your old connection information will not work on LIAISON.
If you experience any issue when trying to connect to LIAISON, please contact customer support too.
If you have never logged into LIAISON you will need to have an account set up for you by one of our team members.
If you are an account manager and would like to have an account set up for someone in your team, please contact customer support.

2) Client Home

The "Home" button allows you to view news and basic information about your organization's customer account.

3) About

The "About" button takes you directly to the CTQ website, the laboratory responsible for the External Quality Assessment Scheme (EQAS).
The "Calendar" allows you to view important dates related to the various EQAS.
The "Participant Guide" provides all the information you need to know about EQAS and participation in our programs.

4) User Management

In the user management tab, the account managers have the possibility of changing or modifying the information and the roles of the members of their team.

Roles

There are four possible roles in LIAISON.

Account Manager

The account manager is the role for the person responsible for the client account. It is also the role with the highest permission.

Scheme Manager

The scheme manager role is responsible for the client subscription to a scheme.

Laboratory Staff

The laboratory staff role represents all the persons that are allowed to enter results for the different scheme rounds.

Accounting Staff

The accounting staff role represents all the persons that have access to LIAISON in read only mode.

Roles	User Management	Billing	Subscription & Shipping	Addresses	Results	Downloads
Account Manager	Write	Read	Write	Write	Write	Read
Scheme Manager	Read	Read	Write	Write	Write	Read
Laboratory staff	Read	Read	Read	Read	Write	Read
Accounting staff	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read

5) Billing

To access the billing section, select "Billing" from the top menu and click "Billing" in the options.

If you have a payment to make, the link to the payment site is displayed under "Payment."
If you need bank details to make a bank transfer, they are available under "Bank Details."
The currency you selected for the invoice is displayed at the top of the page.
Links to the "Payment" and "Bank Details" sections are also provided.
You can also find your invoice history in LIAISON.
By clicking the PDF file icon, you can view the selected invoice.

6) Subscriptions and Shipping

In the subscription and shipping tab, you can see all the subscriptions linked to your client account.

Subscription

On the line of the subscription number that you want to see, you have two options: Details and Shipping Info

Details

In this section you can verify which PTM groups you are subscribed to, the number of sets of tubes you requested and the PTMs included in each round. The Details section is read only.

Shipping info

In this section there are three tabs that the account and the scheme managers can edit:

Info from subscriptions: In this tab, the family of units that you want to use to provide the results may be selected (if available).
Billing Address: In this section you have to make sure that you entered the information for the person who is responsible for the reception of the packages containing the material to be tested. It is important that a phone number and an email address is present for package tracking purposes. In this section you can select the information for the address that is entered in the 'Addresses' tab on the top menu.
Shipping Address: In this section is entered the information for the person who is receiving the invoices for the participation to the EQAS. If you want to use your carrier to handle packages, you can click on the 'Client shipping account?' checkbox. Then, you have to select the carrier and you must enter the client account number you have with your selected carrier. You can also select the address we will send the material to be tested from the drop-down list.

The addresses presents in the drop-down lists need to be entered in the "Addresses" tab previously.

7) Addresses

On this page you are able to see the addresses linked to your account. Only account and scheme managers can enter or modify addresses.

When you click on 'Edit' you can select or enter a short identifier for the address, like 'billing' or 'laboratory'. This identifier will be used for the selection that is done in the 'Suscription and Shipping' section.

8) Results

The results tab is where the information for each round has to be entered.

Select the year, the scheme group, the subscription, the round and the PTM group for which you want to enter results. The selection appears as green buttons.

Deadline for Results Submission

The deadline for the results submission is displayed. The date indicated is included in the deadline. The time displayed corresponds to midnight Quebec's time. You can change your results as many times as you want until that time.

After that time the page will become in read-only mode and you will not be able to make any modification to it.

If you are encountering any issue, please contact customer support as soon as possible.

Results and Methods

Before entering the results themselves, all participants must specify some specific information about the method that was used to obtain those results. Starting by entering the method specifications will help you when entering the results.

8.1) Methods tab

The benefits of entering a method are the selection of the units you want to use to reports the concentrations for the analytes and the possible reuse of a method in a subsequent round.

For entering a new method:

Start by clicking on the button 'Create a new method'.
Type in a name for the method that will be signification for your team, and click on the button to save it.
Click on the 'Select a method' button, and select the name of the method you created. Click on 'Create' to select it.
You now see the name of the method that you are using and the matrix of the PTMs.
You also see all the analytes presents in the PTMs.
Click on the icon beside the analyte, a form pop-ups.
Select, from the drop-down list, the units you want to use to report the result. If available, you can select the family of units 'international' or 'conventional' in which you want to report the results. This can be done in the 'Subscription and Shipping' tab under 'Shipping info'.
In the units selected, enter the limit of detection (LD), the limit of quantification (LQ) and the linearity limit (LL) of the method.
Depending on the scheme, we ask you to enter information for different parameters like the 'Instrumentation' and the 'calibration'. Select the correct information from the drop-down lists.
Once completed, click on the 'Create' button to save the infomation.
Repeat the steps 6 to 10 for all the analytes that you want to provide results for.

For selecting a previously entered method:

If a method has already been entered in LIAISON you can select it by :

Clicking on the button 'Select another method'.
Selecting the method from the drop-down list and clicking 'Save'.
The selected method is then applied and may be verified by looking at the "Method used" followed by the name of the selected method.

8.2) Results tab

After entering a method, the results may be entered. To do so, click on the 'Results' tab. At the top you can see the name of the method used, and the matrix of the PTMs. You can also see all the analytes presents in the PTMs, the names of the PTMs on top of the columns. There are two columns for each PTM, the first one for the concentration and a second one for the units of the concentration. There is also a column for the identifier of the person who entered the result.

Units

If no method was selected, the units displayed are going to be the default units for the reports.
When a method is selected, the units displayed are the ones that are present in your method.
Units do not have to be the same for all the PTMs for an analyte. For example, you can select 'pg/L' for the first PTM and ng/L for the second PTM.
The units you see on the results tab are the ones that are going to be used for result submission.

Results (Concentration)

For all the analyte in the "Result" column, we ask you to either :

Enter a number with the maximum number of significant figures, the minimum being three significant figures or the precision level dictated by the method used. The decimal symbol maybe the comma (,) or the dot (.). Only numerical results are taken into account in the statistical treatment of the data submitted.
Enter an annotation like lower than the limit of detection (<LD), lower than the limit of quantification (<LQ) higher than the limit of linearity (>LL).
Leave the field empty if you do not wish to report a result. All unreported results will not lead to a penalty regarding the issuance of participation certificates.

After entering something in the result column and exiting the cell, you will see a message telling you that LIAISON is saving the information you entered.

Comment Box

At the bottom of the 'Results' tab, there is a comment box that may be used to enter information, questions or comments. Since there is one box per PTM group for a round, make to enter the name of the PTM or analyte to which the comment applies.

9) Downloads

In the download section, you have access to the following sections:

Certificates

When participation certificates are ready, they will be available in this section.

Round Reports

As a LIAISON user, you have access to the round reports for all the scheme groups. Just select the year and the scheme group to have a list of the available reports in French or English. By clicking on the PDF icon, you can visualize the corresponding round report.

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