Top Apps for Running a Profitable Assisted Living Business
May 16, 2025Running an assisted living business takes using smart tools. If you’re wondering what software you actually need to stay organized, compliant, and profitable… this guide is for you.
Let’s break down the best apps that can help you run your assisted living business more efficiently, without drowning in paperwork or chaos. π§ πͺ
Check out this video, too:
Why Tech Tools Matter in Assisted Living
Many small care homes rely on paper and memory—and that leads to burnout, missing documentation, and lost money.
π οΈ The right apps help you:
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Stay compliant with state requirements
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Track residents' care plans and progress
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Run payroll, bookkeeping, and groceries efficiently
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Save time for your staff (and yourself)
Let’s get into the must-have tools that can make your business smoother and more profitable.
π₯οΈ Step 1: Get an EHR System (Electronic Healthcare Record)
Ditch the paper forms! EHR and EMR systems let you:
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Track resident info, assessments, care plans
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Upload agreements and forms
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Share updates with your team instantly
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Integrate with your pharmacy
Top picks:
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ALIS – Assisted Living Intelligent Solutions. Easy to use, great support. We use this at my Idaho facility and love it!
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ECP – A budget-friendly option. We use this at our Colorado facility and have been very happy with it.
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ExaCare – Geared toward larger homes. Modern and growing fast.
- AccessEMR - The guys at AccessEMR are great to work with and looking into breaking into the US market (they're based in Canada), reach out and tell them I sent you!
π‘ Look for systems that are easy to use, pharmacy-friendly, and have strong support.
π΅ Step 2: Run Payroll Smoothly with Gusto
Payroll can be painful—unless you use a system like Gusto.
Brandon uses it for all his facilities.
Why it’s great:
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Handles payroll, taxes, benefits, and PTO
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Simple for new staff to learn
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Good customer service
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Bonus: $100 gift card if you sign up with my referral link
You only need a good payroll system, and Gusto delivers.
π½οΈ Step 3: Simplify Meal Planning with Grove Menus
Most people forget that planning meals is a big deal in assisted living.
That’s where Grove Menus comes in:
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Provides recipes and grocery lists
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Tracks dietary needs
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Keeps you compliant with state food requirements
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Pricing based on licensed beds
It helps your staff AND makes surveys easier. Huge win. π₯¦π₯©π
π Step 4: Get Groceries & Supplies Without Wasting Time
Buying in bulk saves you money—but driving around town doesn’t.
Here’s some recommendations:
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Walmart+ (used in Idaho): Easy online ordering and delivery
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Sam’s Club (used in Colorado): Bulk pricing
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Costco: Another solid option
Bonus Tips:
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Compare prices with local stores like Kroger or Albertsons
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For medical supplies, try McKesson
You can also try Sysco if you’re running a large facility or have several homes in your portfolio, but it may not be ideal if you just have one small home.
π Step 5: Track Your Finances with Bookkeeping Tools
Don’t skip this step. Clean books = smoother SBA funding and easier growth.
QuickBooks
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Easy to use
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Tons of tutorials and support
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Makes SBA reports and selling your business easier
Other options: Zoho Books or spreadsheets (if you’re disciplined). Or just hire a bookkeeper!
π If you're a bookkeeper reading this, comment below and let people know you’re available!
π³ Step 6: Get a Business Credit Card (and Use It Right)
Still using your personal credit card for business? Time to stop.
Brandon recommends:
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Chase Ink Unlimited
β No annual fees
β Bonus points
β Set spending limits for your team
β Track who buys what
This keeps your expenses organized and gives you more control across facilities.
Next Steps: Take Action Today!
π Want to launch your assisted living business in the next 12 months?
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Step 1: Download the Business Plan Checklist to start planning.
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Step 2: Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
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Step 3: Follow this guide, take action, and bring your vision to life!
Got questions? Drop them in the comments below! β¬οΈ
Show full transcript π
Transcript
00:00:03
hey friend it is Brandon Gustafson with Assisted Living investing I am excited to have you here at Assisted Living investing I help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months so excited to jump in uh into this topic with you today uh for our live what we're going to be talking about is some of the best apps um the best tools that are out there for you to effectively run your Assisted Living business so I've been getting a lot of conversations and uh comments and things
00:00:30
about you know what type of tools do you use and and how do you actually make this uh be profitable and and run a business successfully so we wanted to talk with you about that uh here in today's video uh before we get started though I want to remind you and there will be a ticker going down below here uh go to Assisted Living investing. netb checklist get your free business plan checklist and help you uh get on the path of of creating a solid business plan that is going to allow you to to get the funding that you need um to to
00:01:01
make some success and and really move things along on your journey to launching that Assisted Living business so uh excited to to get in there for you there uh let me grab this link and we're going to put on the Facebook group and then I will share my screen we'll get started um post all righty the other thing that I'm going to note um to you is I'm going to be talking about a few different Tools in here and there will be referral links um on YouTube so I will put those in there
00:01:29
on on YouTube I'm not going to put on Facebook just because I don't want to mess with anything with with Facebook they don't like me putting links on there um so if you want um some of these uh things that I'm talking about then go ahead and go to YouTube there will be referral links they'll give you discounts they'll give me a little bit of a kickback as well uh so just want to make sure that that's you know I'm being transparent with that but uh gives you I'll talk through some of the the things
00:01:52
on there but anytime I get updated links and things that are going to help you out I will be putting them um Below in descriptions on YouTube so let's go a and add the screen here um all righty so we are talking about the best applications for running an assisted living business for those of you who don't know who I am my name is Brandon gustofson I own and operate two assisted living facilities and I do that out of state I live in Utah have one of my facilities in Colorado one is in Idaho um and I've
00:02:21
been doing this since 2020 uh so I have a lot of experience there I have over a decade of experience in the healthcare industry as well uh so just working in analytics government programs a lot of background in the healthcare industry uh can answer a lot of questions for you uh in that in that phase I've also secured over one and a half million in SBA funding um so understand the SBA process what it takes to to get there building a solid business Foundation which is why we give away the business plan checklist
00:02:48
so that you can uh get the funding that you need and and help you get to that point so um that's my the background on me um now let's get into a little bit here about uh just kind of the the different tools that we're going to talk about we're going to talk about a different a few different families of tools um that I found to be really helpful um so I'm going to dive into each of these try to be as comprehensive um but quick as I can in each of these but as I go through it um a couple
00:03:16
things that I want you to comment number one if you're new type in newbie down below I would love to to see if you're new here and if there is a specific software or specific tool that you would like me to dive a little bit deeper in um on then go ahead and type that tool in the comments down below so I'll have these up here on on the the slides as I go through things if you're like I want to know a little bit more about Alice or ECP or um any of those types of things go ahead and type that in I'll either
00:03:45
have a video for you that I can tag you in or um we'll be able to add it to my queue of of videos um to to give you some overview of of exactly what these look like okay housekeeping out of the way let's get into this um so we're talking about electonic Healthcare records um EHR uh you might hear about that EMR is another um common one that stands for electronic medical record but basically what an EHR system does is allows you to um track things electronically uh things that historically have been done on paper and
00:04:18
especially in the Assisted Living World for small residential facilities a lot of people will lean on paper um and and doing things there and it is not the most efficient use of your time or use of of what you're trying to do there um putting this all into an electronic system um can turn into a CRM for you to track all of your leads can um help out with uh your nursing team getting in and doing assessments and tracking all that all the intake paperwork the assessment paperwork um agreements that you have
00:04:50
with residents you can have that in there you also can build in things like the the care um the care plan that you have for the residents with the daily cares that you are going to do and how you going to track those specifically so um this is what an EHR system is is used for and there are costs associated with it um typically there's going to be an upfront fee um couple thousand dollars um to to get things up and running and then you'll pay a monthly fee which is also typically going to be based off of
00:05:20
the bed count that you have $10 to $20 per bed uh is kind of what I see um in in the industry uh so those are that's kind of how these work I'm going to talk to you about three here that I have personal experience with um but just know that there are many others out there um and I I talk with EHR vendors somewhat regularly as well because um they're relatively easy to create from a software um perspective there's there's not a lot that goes into it um and and so a lot of people will put them out
00:05:54
there and so you really want to vet something and make sure it will integrate with your Pharmacy and uh some of the other tools that you want to to maybe use um or create so the ones that that I want to really point out the ones I have experience with um number one is Alice so Alis stands for assisted living something something I don't remember what the ISS stands for um but uh it is specifically for assisted living uh it's actually one that we are just shifting over to at our Idaho facility right now
00:06:24
um we are shifting away from ECP at that specific facility um and there's there's a few reasons there largely because our new administrator really likes Alice highly recommended it and and asked to to shift over there and we were fine with that move um very comprehensive very userfriendly easy to get in easy to use easy to set up um they have great customer service from my experience with them to this point um I haven't used them a ton uh so we're still in the early stages but I have heard a lot of
00:06:56
good things from multiple people that I have worked with that I'll assist a great system I'm working on actually a referral link there to see if I can get everybody a deal on that one so on YouTube um keep an eye out for that and I will put something down below there if I'm able to get something for you um next is ECP and I cannot remember I can't remember what these acronyms stand for but ECP uh it's electronic client portal maybe um something customer portal something like that um they are
00:07:26
they're very lowc cost um they're a budget option for a lot of places and they work really well if you take the time to set it up they have pretty good resources they will help you do the onboarding help you get things in in place um so we actually use them in our Colorado facility and continue to use it there so I I I can speak very highly of ECP the login piece of it can be a littleit you have to use two passwords and and things like that can take a second to get in but it is for security
00:07:55
purposes um and and so I I totally understand it I again you can build in um care plans for for residents um and and track everything interface with your Pharmacy um all the things that you would like to see out of an electronic Healthcare record you get with ECP uh so you know I I recommend them for sure uh xare is another one they're they're pretty new I actually know the the founder of the organization uh we use them for a brief time in doing some testing and things them a really cool
00:08:26
software they're a little more geared towards larger facilities um so much the smaller ones but they are kind of up and coming have a lot of really cool features that are getting built into their system uh fun team to work with uh really enjoy working with hex care I actually might have a link for them as well so I will put that down in the comments below and then there's like I mentioned there's so many other opportunities out there um so many different um people and and places for
00:08:53
you to to get in and and just start playing around in this world uh and and find one what you really want to do make sure it can interface with things like your Pharmacy make sure it's very userfriendly and intuitive um so you will actually use it and then make sure that you uh feel comfortable with the level of support that you are getting from the from the vendor um so that if there are issues or you have questions you know and feel confident that you will get those questions answered so you
00:09:22
can move things forward so that's what you want to look at with an electronic Healthcare record and also as I'm going through this I want to remind people if you have questions we'll have time for Q&A at the end uh so go ahead and and type in whatever questions you know related to this topic or any anything else happy to get into anything else uh to help you out and give you some guidance there um all right let's get into running payroll so Gusto is who we use and I have links for for this one
00:09:50
for sure Down Below in in Utah in in YouTube and it'll get you a $100 gift card as well if you sign out for Gusto and then run uh payroll with them you'll get a $100 gift card uh we really like Gusto really good and userfriendly for small businesses I actually have some videos on the channel that go over how to do things in Gusto so um really a pretty beneficial uh tool there to help you get your get your payroll up and running the interface with the state uh run taxes you can do benefit packages um
00:10:23
PTO you can run health health insurance through it um it's a pretty comprehensive Tool uh very user friendly um we have had to train multiple um staff members on how to use Gusto and we have never had an issue it's very straightforward um I highly recommend working with gusto uh for payroll they're the only one that I'm going to put on here because they're the one that I use I can't recommend them highly enough we've never had a bad experience with them uh customer support is good
00:10:52
they're very helpful answering questions uh things like that sometimes if you send an email for assistance can take a while but if you call them um you'll you can get a response and um and you can work through things they're they're pretty good to work with so that is payroll uh let's talk about meal planning so this is actually a really big one and and something that a lot of people they don't um think of when they um when when they're thinking about getting into assisted living um and
00:11:19
running that business it's not something that you typically think of you don't realize that oh crap I've got to you know you think about food you think about buying food but you don't think about planning it how are you going to to control that budget and know exactly what you're going to buy and meet the dietary needs of all of your residents so Grove menus is a great tool for that uh it's typically priced at a per resident um like a per license um you you say hey we're an assisted living
00:11:48
facility we're licensed for 10 beds so you pay um based off of how many beds you're licensed for um but it's it's pretty inexpensive you know fif probably around $50 bucks a month is all that you're going to pay and it helps you have better control over your um budget for buying groceries gives you specific grocery list for the different recipes that you're going to do gives you the recipes for it um lets you put in any dietary restrictions um all the things that you would hope you could have there
00:12:18
um you can find in Grove menus uh they don't do any referral things but I would uh so I can't get any deals I've checked with them before they don't do anything like that but I I very highly recommend growth menus I think you will benefit from using them and uh it really helps out your residence as well um and the other thing that's really nice about it is it lets you track those things in a way that if State comes back and says you know we need to see um your your meal planning things uh from a survey
00:12:49
perspective you're able to have all that documented and very easily hand that off to the state in the event that you have a survey and they need um you know they need to see that information so Grove menu is very uh just a great piece of software there for you all right let's get into groceries and other supplies so we use Walmart plus um in idahome and we use Sam's Club in Colorado is who we use there uh and then we also have Costco cards that we we use um and when you're buying in bulk like
00:13:25
this Sams Club Costco those types of places are really good Walmart plus is really nice because you can order it online and have it delivered uh which is a huge timesaver for for your staff especially if you're in a small facility um so all of those things are are really good tools and can help you out quite a bit um I also suggest if you are kind of in sometimes uh those places uh you can get better prices on like meat or some of the other big things you might need to buy at other small local retailers
00:13:57
Kroger Albertson's wico um there's a lot of different grocery chains out there that you can get better prices on certain things so if you want to try to save a little bit of money then you might want to bounce around and and do a little bit of shopping at multiple different grocery stores but if you want to simplify things for yourself I recommend using Walmart plus Costco Sam's Club um if you feel like you have enough volume you could do something with uh somebody like Cisco um on getting food um but for small
00:14:28
residential facility probably doesn't make a ton of sense because you just don't have the volume for it um but you can look at those types of uh of places to help you get your groceries from a supplies perspective you can still do Costco Sams Walmart but uh we are actually just starting to to build a relationship with messen uh which is specifically for medical supplies um that you need for the residents so we're working on building that contract if I have any other details we'll put links
00:14:55
Down Below on that and how you can potentially partner with Messin um but they they very much specialize in those medical supplies for assisted living type facilities or just healthare facilities in general um so for uh just getting things that you might need for your residents um to to make sure that they are cared for uh from a health care perspective you know bandages um those those types of things uh diapers um you can get a lot of that from Messin and if you're buying in big enough volume uh
00:15:29
ends up saving you quite a bit of money just because they can contract that out and they get they get really good rates so those are some some options for you to look out for groceries and supplies that can save you some money and um make things a little bit more efficient for you which is uh as a small business owner what you really need to do is find ways to be a little bit more efficient so this is going to help you out quite a bit there now let's talk about bookkeeping um so I will have a referral
00:15:54
link for this down below and it will get you 75% off the first six months of using QuickBooks so that's what we use I highly recommend QuickBooks they are kind of the gold standard when it comes to bookkeeping uh and I highly suggest that you use some kind of a bookkeeping software I use Zoho books um as well in in some of my areas you can do this in a spreadsheet if if you feel like you are going to be able to stay on top of it um like there's a few different softwares and things like that but when you're
00:16:22
running a big business and you have different budget items and especially if you are doing something like having multiple facilities or you have a facility and then you own the real estate keeping your books separate and and doing all that is is going to be pretty key and QuickBooks is a great software to help you out with that very intuitive there's a lot of support um online uh YouTube videos uh professionals that can help you out with QuickBooks uh and make sure things are are running correctly um or you know the
00:16:50
other thing you could do is is hire a bookkeeper um so uh if if there's anybody here that's watching that is a bookkeeper I'd love to hear that so comment book keeper down below uh so people can go ahead and reach out to you uh but something that you want to make sure your finances are in place and uh bookkeeping software or finding a bookkeeper is going to be the best way to do that and then it lets you run reports um you're going to have to if you're doing the SBA you're going to
00:17:16
have to give annual Financial reports it's good for you to review those anyways on a regular basis monthly or quarterly um if you ever are going to sell you want to have clean books um it is very important for you to spend the time and the the money to get this piece in place in QuickBooks is um probably the best way for you to do that so that is for bookkeeping oops sorry um and then I want to talk to you about business credit cards as well so this is something a lot of people I talk to um
00:17:44
I'll ask you hey where are you at in the process and um a lot of people they come back and they say you know I I set up my LLC um and I I open a business bank account and you know that's that's good um it's good it's it's action that you're taking towards um trying to open this business there's so many things that you need to do before you get to that point um including business bank account and uh like a credit card for the business what you um what you really need to be focusing on is building your
00:18:16
business Foundation first business plan underwriting make sure you feel confident um market research uh so if you need help with that go check out the business planning guide because it's cheap course let you see how to do all of those things and get to a really good spot where you feel confident in what you're doing so check that out Assisted Living investing. net BPG but uh as you get a little bit deeper into this you are running the facility now you really want to have that business credit card
00:18:43
so you're not doing this on your personal stuff um two that I that I recommend and I I use both of these I'll have links down below one is the American Express Blue business Plus card and both of these excuse me both of these do not um have Annual fees on them as well so they give you good point good bonuses but um they don't have any extra Annual fees um which is which is a plus so the American Express Blue business Plus card and the chase Inc unlimited card are two that I I highly recommend
00:19:14
uh have good have had good experience with both of them uh again I will have referral links down below that give you um extra points when you sign up if you spend a certain amount of money within the first three to six months um they'll have all the details for you online but doing that is going to allow you to um to get something that you can um also create different create get different cards for different people at at your facilities so uh as an ownership group uh each person in that ownership group
00:19:43
has their own card you give one to the administrator so they can um get the purchase do the purchasing that they need to do for groceries for um just other things that come up you know having an electrician come out or um people that are doing maintenance on the yard maintenance in the fac faity those types of things you're going to have to pay those people and so uh what you really want to do is um have the ability to have them have a card so that you don't get bogged down and have to um pay
00:20:10
for everything and you can also set up rules um with with both of these cards where you go in and you say spending limits are here uh they need approval to do this um lets you kind of track who is making what purchases so if you see something that seems nefarious you can reach out and and ask where you can put stop payments on things cancel specific cards gives you a little bit of control there um and both of these cards will allow you to do that so highly recommend them uh to just help you make the the
00:20:41
purchases that you need okay now as we get into this uh let's go to questions but also if there is any other software that you're wondering about or you feel like I missed those uh comment those down below so that I can get back to you on exactly what what we use for those or you know maybe it's something I've not even thought of and I can tell you why we don't use it um or maybe it opens my eyes up and we need to start using something else that's new um and while people are typing in questions want to
00:21:09
remind you to like the video subscribe and ring the bell as well so you get notified every time we go live on Tuesdays and uh when we put out our content on Thursday so you can get access to all that stuff make sure you join the Facebook group we'll have links Down Below in Facebook for that and then if you join our newsletter we also have a link to get to the Facebook group from there um and uh yeah just go check out all that stuff and make sure you're checking out uh if you need some help and guidance as
00:21:36
you're going through the process of launching your Assisted Living business I help people launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months and I do that through my Mastermind program so go check that out at Alim mastermind.com application quick application lets me get a feel for your goals where you're at in the process and see if I have anything that can help you out um and if I can then cool I'll send you all the details for it uh and if not then that's fine too um keep keep
00:22:01
watching YouTube liking the videos and subscribing so you get access to everything I'm putting out there um so yeah just wanted to make sure that's out there I don't see that I have any questions but I'll give people just another second in case there are questions out there that people need answers to um otherwise just want to thank you for watching uh and remind you to go over to Assisted Living investing. BP checklist to get access to that free business plan checklist um that's going
00:22:28
to help you build your business plan in a way that's going to allow you to get the funding that you need to launch your Assisted Living business um and jacine very helpful was nothing thinking about the menu part yes um it is it is Grove menus is a huge timesaver Lifesaver it will save you a ton of money it is well worth it um and something that a lot of people just kind of Overlook because you get so caught up in all of the other things that you got to do uh in order to launch that business so
00:22:59
uh yes it's a good one thanks uh thanks for commenting there um well cool uh I want to thank everybody again for watching does residential Assisted Living sound interesting to you but you don't know how to get started at Assisted Living investing. net I help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months we do that through our Mastermind program go check that out at Alim mastermind.com application um and I would love to see if I can help you out uh otherwise
00:23:24
thanks for watching thanks for being here and remember it doesn't take a lot just a little bit keep going keep making progress step by step by step and I promise you that if you do and you're consistent and persistent you're going to be successful thanks for watching and have a great day
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