Honest comparison
Care Wizard vs a Spreadsheet for Florida APD Compliance
The short answer
A spreadsheet is fine at holding dates and hopeless at three things: telling you a date is coming, telling you the RULE changed, and proving what you did to an inspector. If you have a handful of staff in one home and you check the sheet weekly, it is genuinely adequate. The gap opens with a second home.
Almost every Florida APD provider starts with a spreadsheet, and it is a perfectly sensible place to start. It is free, it is familiar, and for a while it works.
This page is an honest account of where it stops working — including the cases where it does not, because a comparison that finds nothing good to say about the alternative is an advert, not a comparison.
Side by side
| A spreadsheet | Care Wizard | |
|---|---|---|
| Holding dates | Good. A column of expiry dates is a column of expiry dates. | Same information, entered once per completion. |
| Telling you a date is coming | Only if you open it. The sheet never contacts you. | Email and push reminders before something lapses, to you and to the staff member. |
| Knowing the RULE changed | No. A spreadsheet cannot know APD amended 27 rules in March 2026. | The official sources are re-read daily; a confirmed change is reported with a link to the original. |
| Who a change affects | You work it out by hand, per person. | A change says which of your staff it reaches, by name. |
| Knowing WHY a date is the date | Whatever the person who built it believed at the time. | Each requirement cites the statute or rule it comes from, with the date a person last checked it. |
| New requirement appears | Somebody has to notice, then add a column to every sheet. | It appears in the catalog, already cited, applied only to the staff it fits. |
| Proving it at an inspection | Print the sheet and hope the certificates are findable. | A one-click package of status plus the actual certificates, organised and dated. |
| Two people editing | Two versions, and a conversation about which is right. | One record, updated live. |
| Cost | Free. | $25 a month per home. Real money, and worth naming plainly. |
What Care Wizard deliberately does not do
- · Care Wizard holds no client records, no service notes and no billing. Staff and facility compliance is the whole job.
- · Care Wizard covers Florida APD. Outside Florida, or outside APD, the rulebook does not apply and we will not pretend it does.
When Care Wizard is
- · A second home. The number of dates roughly doubles and the mental model stops fitting in one head.
- · Staff turnover. Every new hire restarts a clock you now have to remember for them individually.
- · Rule changes. This is the one a spreadsheet structurally cannot do — nothing in a file tells you the state amended the rule underneath it.
- · An inspection with short notice, where the difference is whether the evidence is already organised.
Common questions
Can I track Florida APD compliance in a spreadsheet?
Yes, and many providers do. A spreadsheet holds dates well. What it cannot do is remind you before a date passes, tell you when APD amends the underlying rule, or assemble evidence for an inspection.
When is a spreadsheet no longer enough for a group home?
Usually at the second home, or with regular staff turnover. The number of dates roughly doubles per home, and each new hire starts individual clocks that have to be tracked per person rather than per home.
What does a spreadsheet miss that matters most?
Rule changes. On 26 March 2026 Florida APD amended 27 rules, including a new insulin credential. Nothing in a spreadsheet can tell you the rule underneath your dates has moved.
How much does Care Wizard cost compared to a spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet is free. Care Wizard is $25 per month per home with unlimited staff, after a 30-day free trial with no card required.
Other comparisons
We compare against approaches rather than named products, because we have not used competitors' software and will not publish claims about it we cannot verify. Nothing here is legal advice.