GenQA Sample Distribution EQA User Guide v1.doc 1/8

User Guide © GenQA

Sample Distribution EQA

User Guide

Access

Navigation

Reporting

GENQA IS A MEMBER OF THE

CONSORTIUM

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User Guide © GenQA

This EQA User Guide covers all aspects of EQA access, navigation and result submissions for GenQA Sample Distribution EQAs. Please note: These instructions were compiled using Google Chrome, the optimal browser for the Online EQA Interface. Functionality may vary with other browsers (Firefox and Internet Explorer9+).

Index:

Topic Page 1. Accessing the EQA 3 2. Reporting/Result Submission 6

Appendix Submission of results – what is required by the Scheme 8 How to create a PDF document 8

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1. Accessing the EQA Go to login page of GenQA website (http://www.genqa.org), select ‘Login’ and enter your login details

When you are in the main menu please select either ‘Beta Site’ to access the new interface or ‘Schemes’ to continue with the current interface.

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If you selected ‘Beta Site’ you will get the Diary Overview. Any EQA that has a ‘live’ activity will show up as either AMBER - if the activity is open or RED if the activity is about to close. GREEN denotes that there is no current activity for this EQA. To navigate to the EQA you wish to work on scroll down the page and click on the name.

If you selected ’Schemes’ you can either find the EQA you wish to work on by scrollling through the list and clicking on ‘Details’ (1) next to the EQA in question or enter the name of the EQA in the Search box (2) and click ‘Search’ (3).

(3)

(2))

(1)

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Click on the ‘Details’ link next to the EQA scheme you wish to access

To access the supporting documentation such as

EQA instructions,

Ticklists,

Referral cards,

Additional information

Pevious year’s summary reports scroll down the page and click on the relevant links to the documents.

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2. Reporting/Result Submission Click on ‘EQA results submission’ link to access the interface that allows you to upload your reports. The system will only accept pdf documents. Instructions on exact requirements and how to generate PDF documents are given in sections 3 and 4 of this User Guide.

The following pop up box appears which allows you to upload your results in a pdf format. Please note: If you are not submitting in the English language then please select the language you are submitting in from the drop down menu (1). Submission languages vary and are also given in the EQA instructions. You can either ‘Drag and Drop’ your file into the respective window (2) or upload your file the conventional way by clicking on the ‘Upload’ button (3) and selecting the document from your computer.

(1)

(2)

(3)

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Only the primary laboratory contact or nominated user has the system authorisation to submit the results on the website. The Scheme Office can enable other laboratory contacts to submit results – this will only be done on request from the primary contact. Once your report has been uploaded you will see the document icon and name on the screen. You can review the uploaded document to check that the report and format is correct (PDF) by clicking on the document name. A green square will appear next to the case successfully submitted.

Once you have submitted all your results, and closed the online EQA window, a green tick will appear against the EQA case on the scheme details page indicating that you have completed the case. Please note that you may have to refresh the webpage.

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Appendix:

Submission of results - what is required by the Scheme

Laboratories can prepare their reports in the usual way, using whichever word processing software they conventionally use. They are then asked to anonymise their reports (take out any information that could identify their laboratory, such as address, names etc.) and generate standard PDF (ideally PDF/A) by using an appropriate tool. The resulting PDF document should be uploaded as described under 1.3 and 2.2.

How to generate PDF/A Files Many office tools support the direct creation of PDF/A files. Alternatively, a PDF file printer can be installed. Microsoft Office 2007 introduced support for the direct creation of PDF/A files through the Save as PDF option. Open Office introduced support for PDF/A in release 2.4 (in early 2008). There are many PDF printer drivers available for Windows. These are installed on the computer and allow any program (such as MS Word and Excel) to create a PDF via the print facility. Such a driver is available as a part of Adobe Acrobat XI Pro. There are also freely available PDF print drivers which generate PDF/A. One of these is PDF Creator, available from pdfforge (http://www.pdfforge.org/).