Thirty-Five Bags, One Calculated Total
The total weight calculation in this template sums individual weights for up to 35 rice bags of geological samples, then converts the aggregate pounds figure to kilograms. The formula is not complex — it's a literal sum of all 35 bag weight fields multiplied by 0.454 — but it eliminates the field calculation that occurs at every sample preparation station where a technician adds weights on a calculator and transcribes the total onto a shipment form that subsequently becomes illegible after four hours in a dusty drill site.
Each bag gets its own tag number and individual weight in pounds. Tag number tied to weight is the chain-of-custody record for that specific bag through to laboratory receipt. When a lab reports a discrepancy between the number of samples received and the number shipped, the individual bag tag records are the reconciliation tool.
What the PO Number and Hole ID Actually Link
PO Number and Hole ID together establish the project context for every shipment. The Hole ID connects the physical samples back to the specific borehole or trench from which they were collected — RC chip, diamond core, or channel sample — and therefore to the entire geological record for that intersection. A shipment without a Hole ID is a set of bags with no provenance. It may arrive at the lab, get analysed, and return assay data that nobody can locate in the project database because the spatial context was lost at dispatch.
The geologist and technician fields establish who collected and who prepared. These are not ceremonial entries. When an assay result is anomalous — either unexpectedly high-grade or suspiciously clean for a mineralised zone — the first question is whether sample preparation followed protocol. The technician field is the starting point for that investigation.
Rush, Analysis, and the Lab Record
The Rush boolean triggers premium handling at the lab. On a drilling program where the next day's targets depend on the results from holes drilled yesterday, rush assaying is an operational tool rather than an exception. The cost differential is real — often double the standard rate — and flagging Rush in the record creates an auditable justification for that cost in the project accounting.
The Analysis field records what suite was requested: standard 48-element ICP, fire assay for gold with gravimetric finish, specific multi-acid digestion for refractory ores. The lab needs this at intake. The project geologist needs it at data reconciliation. Having it in the shipment record rather than in a separate email chain means the information doesn't get lost when the field geologist rotates off the project mid-programme.
Sample prefix and start/end range for two batch types, with auto-calculated subtotals and a total sample count, give the dispatch record the completeness check the lab will perform independently when the samples arrive: if you shipped 143 samples and only 141 bags arrive, the discrepancy is findable immediately rather than two weeks later when the assay report is due.