Guides
Learn Axiospec, step by step
Short, practical guides for getting your equipment into Axiospec, logging calibrations, and producing audit-ready records. Whether you are setting up for the first time or training a new technician, start here.
Choosing calibration software
Compare the real options and pick the right fit before you commit.
Switching to Axiospec from Spreadsheets or Legacy Calibration Software
What actually moves when you switch: your instrument registry and calibration history come over by import or free white-glove migration, your auditor sees tamper-evident records from day one, and the price is one flat number per workspace. This guide walks the whole path, including how you leave if you ever want to.
Read guide · 6 minCloud Calibration Software: What It Is and When It Wins
What cloud calibration software is, the honest tradeoffs against on-premise (data residency, control, IT burden), who it suits, and what to look for. Where Axiospec fits: browser plus native apps, a real free tier, and records built to hold up in an audit.
Read guide · 5 minCalibration Software With a Mobile App: Logging at the Instrument
Why logging calibrations at the instrument beats retyping them at a desk, what a real mobile calibration app should do (scan to pull a record, log on the spot, voice input, printable labels), and how the scan-to-log flow works in Axiospec native iOS and Android apps.
Read guide · 5 minCalibration Software With an Audit Trail: What Assessors Actually Want
What an audit trail actually has to do in a calibration program, the three tests an assessor applies (attributable, timestamped, tamper-evident), why a spreadsheet fails them, and what tamper-evident really means. How a hash-chained ledger and one-click audit pack keep records defensible.
Read guide · 5 minHow to Track Calibration Due Dates in Software (and Stop Recalls Slipping)
How software computes next-due dates, surfaces due-soon and overdue instruments, and sends reminders so recalls stop slipping past an audit. Plus the at-a-glance readiness views (Due Calendar, due-soon and overdue counts) and how to keep the dates honest at the bench.
Read guide · 5 minGetting started
Set up your workspace and bring your equipment in.
Get your workspace set up
Walk through first-run setup: name your workspace, add your first instruments, understand calibration status, and invite your team.
Read guide · 7 minImport your asset registry
Bring your existing equipment list into Axiospec with the Bulk Import tool, from preparing a CSV through mapping, preview, and fixing rows.
Read guide · 7 minHow to migrate calibration data without losing history
A step-by-step plan for migrating calibration data from a spreadsheet or legacy system: export what you have, import your registry, bring calibration history and certificates over, and verify everything landed.
Read guide · 8 minDaily use
The everyday calibration workflow, at the bench and out on the floor.
Log a calibration
Record a calibration result, readings, reference standard, and certificate, then e-sign so the status and next-due date update automatically.
Read guide · 6 minUse the Axiospec mobile app
Install the iOS or Android app, scan an asset, and log calibrations with photos and e-signatures from the floor, even offline.
Read guide · 6 minCompliance and audits
Produce the records and packs an assessor expects to see.
ISO 17025 Accreditation vs Certification Explained
ISO/IEC 17025 is accredited by bodies like A2LA and UKAS, not certified like ISO 9001. This guide explains the difference, what accreditation actually involves, the surveillance cycle that keeps it honest, and what a 17025 traceable calibration certificate really tells you as a buyer.
Read guide · 8 minCalibration vs Verification: What Is the Difference?
Calibration and verification are two different jobs. Calibration measures an instrument against a reference and quantifies the error and uncertainty. Verification confirms the instrument meets a specified tolerance and is fit for use. This guide explains each, how they connect through as-found and as-left readings, when to use which, and how a calibration management system records both.
Read guide · 7 minAs-Found vs As-Left: What the Readings Mean
A plain explainer of as-found and as-left calibration readings: what each state means, why recording both matters for reverse traceability and impact analysis, how they drive pass, fail, and out-of-tolerance handling, and what auditors look for.
Read guide · 8 minGage R&R and measurement systems analysis (MSA), explained
What measurement systems analysis is, the difference between Gage R&R, bias and linearity, and attribute agreement studies, what %GRR and NDC thresholds mean, when to run each study, and how MSA relates to calibration.
Read guide · 8 minHow to Choose Calibration Management Software: A Buyer's Guide
A vendor-neutral buyer's guide to choosing calibration management software: the capabilities that matter, the questions to ask any vendor, how pricing really works, how to migrate your data without losing history, and where standards fit.
Read guide · 9 minExport an audit-ready pack
Generate a Calibration Audit Report PDF and manifest CSV from the Audit Center, plus per-asset certificates, to produce records for an audit.
Read guide · 6 minCalibration requirements by ISO standard
What each major quality standard asks for calibration, from ISO 9001 clause 7.1.5 to ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 13485 clause 7.6, compared in one place.
Read guide · 9 minHow to set calibration intervals
How to determine and justify a calibration interval: manufacturer guidance, risk and usage, reliability from your own as-found history, and what auditors look for.
Read guide · 8 minMetrological traceability, explained
What metrological traceability means, how the calibration chain to NIST and the SI works, and what "NIST traceable" really proves.
Read guide · 8 minCalibration certificate requirements: what a certificate must contain
The required elements of a calibration certificate under ISO/IEC 17025 clause 7.8, what as-found and as-left readings and uncertainty mean, and how to read one you receive.
Read guide · 8 minThe calibration audit prep checklist
A working checklist for anyone who owns a calibration program. Fifty questions phrased the way an auditor tends to ask them, each with a one line picture of what a good answer looks like. Six universal sections plus supplements for ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 17025, AS9100, ISO 13485, and IATF 16949.
Read guide · 12 minGuard Banding in Calibration Explained
A guard band narrows your acceptance limits by a share of the measurement uncertainty so a borderline reading cannot be falsely passed. Plain definition, the common methods, how it connects to TUR and ISO/IEC 17025 decision rules, and a worked example you can check with our free calculator.
Read guide · 7 minApproving a calibration supplier and keeping an approved supplier list
How to evaluate, approve and re-approve an external calibration lab, what to check on the scope of accreditation, and what an approved supplier list needs to carry for a calibration provider.
Read guide · 13 minTolerance Stack-Up Analysis: Worst Case and RSS
How to run a linear tolerance stack-up. Closing the loop, rebasing unequal tolerances, the worst case and root sum square methods, what RSS actually assumes, and how far wrong it goes when those assumptions fail.
Read guide · 11 minPress Fit Tolerance, Transition Fit and Clearance Fit
How to choose a fit from what the joint has to do, rather than by picking something that looks about right off a table. Clearance, transition and interference, why bearing seats follow the bearing catalogue instead of the fits system, and what gauge uncertainty does to the accept or reject decision.
Read guide · 15 minISO/IEC 17025 & AS9100 calibration documentation for aerospace and automotive suppliers
What ISO/IEC 17025, AS9100, and IATF 16949 require in your calibration records, and exactly which fields Axiospec captures and prints per standard, with the honest limits stated.
Read guideDecision rules, guard banding, TUR and calibration intervals
A practitioner guide to ISO/IEC 17025 decision rules: test uncertainty ratio (TUR), the 4:1 rule, guard banding per ILAC-G8, consumer vs producer risk, worked examples, and risk-based calibration intervals.
Read guideThe US accredited calibration lab landscape, 2026
Counts of accredited US calibration laboratories across A2LA, ANAB, NVLAP, PJLA and IAS, built from each body's own public directory, with the 1,743-row dataset as a free CSV, the counting method shown, and the source defects disclosed rather than corrected.
Read guideAdministration
Manage sites, users, access, and your plan.
Ready to put these guides to work?
Set up your workspace, hand us your registry and we load it for you, and start logging audit-ready calibrations.
Got a gage list? Send it over and we load it for you, usually in a couple of business days. Free on every plan.