Does anyone use a specialized software to input data from lab tests?

Does anyone use a specialized software to input data from lab tests? I'm trying to decide if building my own spreadsheets in excel is just as good as getting a software that costs thousands of dollars. Thanks!

We use Google sheets and it does the trick

Nothing special for me and the 9 different facilities I monitor and trend lab data for through FSNS.  They have an online portal that can spit out some interesting graphs on the fly, but I live in their raw data downloads.  Throw the data into an Excel table each month, then use separate sheets with pivot charts and timelines and whatnot to filter one sheet for our listeria results and another to check the APC from post-sanitation verifications.  I do have to clean up the APC results in the main table each month:  make sure they'll all 'numbers' in Excel's mind, remove the < and > signs and the Est. on occasion, but it only takes a few minutes to clean the data.

Nope.  Some excel-fu turns the data into charts and heatmaps sufficient to do trend analysis.

You need to make sure they are compliant with Part 11 if you are within the scope of the regulation.  https://www.ecfr.gov...apter-A/part-11

If it is a closed system, then you need to have audit trails, operational system checks, etc.  This is why software you use for data needs to be Part 11-compliant.