I want to either find a simple and inexpensive commercial lab management
program or to develop one myself using Excel. In the latter case, I am
interested in any insight or tip anyone has to offer, particularly as to the
general architecture (i.e. basic strategy). You don't have to be a programmer
to offer insight in this area, just have experience or insight as to overall
strategy. I am an experienced (amateur) VBA programmer. Information follows:

Background:
This has to do with lab tests conducted on geotechnical samples (soils) and
construction materials (concrete and asphalt mainly) and possibly, in the
future, environmental samples (contaminated soils mainly). Testing is
currently done only on a sporatic basis.

Needs:
1) To easily create electronic work orders for the lab tests. The WO forms
need to be specialized. The one-size-fits-all approach is impractical.
2) To have access to the work orders by all computers.
3) To easily change the "Action Status" of test samples - i.e. whether the
status is "Hold", "Go ahead", "Stop Work", "Completed" etc.
4) To track whether samples are still being held or have been disposed.
5) To track whether tests have been billed.
6) To select the appropriate lab worksheet for each of the tests and to
print it with all the correct information already entered (Job number,
project name etc.).
7) To create a list of samples that exceed their "Hold to" date and can be
thrown.
6) To track sample age (received date to current date) in order to bill for
storage for samples that exceed a given grace period.
7) To password protect some fields

For such issues as Action Status, whether samples have been thrown, billed
etc., my current thoughts are to use a technique that uses the
SelectionChange event to toggle a checkmark in cells (the letter "a" in
Marlett) instead of using actual check box controls. Otherwise, the
accumulation of controls would produce a huge file size and maintenance
nightmare.

Management is reluctant to make the change and getting a consensus on
anything is difficult. This needs to be either slick or simple and
inexpensive if a commercial program is the option.

All responses much appreciated.

Greg