Start with how stock actually leaves the shelf
In a laboratory, reagents are not sold; they are consumed by tests. A system that only records deliveries and manual counts will always drift from reality. Ask whether stock can be deducted automatically from the tests you log, using the quantity each test really uses.
If it cannot, someone has to reconcile usage by hand, and that someone is usually a technician who has better things to do.
Batch and expiry control, oldest first
Reagents carry batch numbers and expiry dates, and the oldest usable batch should be used first. Look for batch-level records, expiry alerts that arrive early enough to act on, and a clear way to quarantine a batch that is recalled.
A record you can defend to an auditor
Every adjustment, receipt and deduction should be attributable to a person and a time, and the record should be hard to alter silently. Ask how the audit trail is protected, not only whether one exists.
Procurement that follows the stock
Low stock should lead to a purchase request, an approval and a received delivery without re-typing. Check that approvals can follow your own thresholds and that suppliers can be compared on delivery performance.
Fit for your regulator and your country
Accreditation bodies, medicines regulators and data-protection law differ by country. Prefer software that tracks the registrations and checklists your regulator expects, rather than a generic template.
Common questions
For a very small bench it can work, but it cannot deduct stock from tests, warn about expiry, or give an auditor a tamper-evident record. The risk grows with every test volume increase.
How stock is deducted. If usage is not captured from the tests themselves, the counts will not stay accurate.