# IncidentKit vs paper and spreadsheets: honest comparison > How IncidentKit and Paper and spreadsheets differ on intake, corrective actions, compliance packets, pricing and fit. Sources and dates included. Source: https://incidentkit.ai/compare/paper-and-spreadsheets ยท Updated Oct 5, 2026 **Paper and spreadsheets**: Paper variance forms, a binder, a shared drive and an Excel log. Most small facilities and many plants start with paper incident forms, a binder or filing cabinet, and a spreadsheet log. It costs nothing in software. It works until volume, turnover or a survey exposes the gaps. Forms get filled in days later, from memory. Incidents never reach the right person. Corrective actions have no owner. Staff scramble to assemble evidence. **Best for:** Very small sites with few incidents and one person who owns the process. ## Pricing - **Model:** No software cost; staff time - **Published:** yes - The real cost is staff hours: rebuilding incidents, chasing owners and building survey and audit packets. ## Feature comparison | Feature | IncidentKit | Paper and spreadsheets | | --- | --- | --- | | Self-serve start | Yes: Start free and report your first incident the same day. | Yes: Nothing to buy or set up. | | Public pricing | Yes: Free Open plan; Regulated listed per site per month; Network by quote. | Yes: No licence fee. | | Free plan | Yes: Open plan: unlimited reporters, 50 incidents a month, for non-patient incidents. | Yes: No software cost. | | AI-assisted intake | Yes: Lauren asks follow-ups and drafts the report; a person always reviews and signs. | No: A person types or writes everything. | | Voice reporting | Rolling out: Voice intake is rolling out. | No: Not available. | | Mobile and QR reporting | Yes: Installable web app, QR quick report, offline queue for quick reports. | Partial: Photos of paper forms and shared drive files on a phone, with no workflow. | | Investigation and RCA tools | Partial: Contributing factors and five whys today; fishbone and fault-tree templates rolling out. | Partial: Worksheets can be printed. Nothing links them to the incident. | | Corrective action (CAPA) workflow | Yes: Owner, due date, evidence, effectiveness check; closure requires verification. | Partial: Possible in a spreadsheet. Owners, reminders and verification depend on discipline. | | QAPI and accreditation reporting | Yes: QAPI summary and per-incident packets; survey packets rolling out. | Partial: Possible by hand in a binder; assembling it is manual. | | OSHA 300, 300A, 301 support | Rolling out: OSHA 300, 300A and 301 outputs are rolling out. | Partial: OSHA publishes blank 300, 300A and 301 forms. Completing them is manual. | | Multi-site and roles | Yes: Organizations, facilities, six roles, SSO. | No: Each site keeps its own files. Roll ups are manual. | | Open API | Partial: Read API and signed webhooks; write API on the roadmap. | No: Not applicable. | | HIPAA BAA available | Yes: BAA included on Regulated and Network plans. | Not stated publicly: Not applicable. Paper and shared drives carry their own privacy risks. | "Not stated publicly" means the vendor does not say either way. It is not the same as no. Verified Oct 5, 2026. ## Paper and spreadsheets strengths - Zero licence cost and no setup time. - Everyone already knows a form and a pen. - Works with no signal and no login. - A fair stopgap for a very small site with a handful of incidents a year. ## Trade-offs to weigh - Forms are often filled in hours or days later, from memory, so details are lost. - No routing: a serious incident reaches the right person only if someone walks it over. - Corrective actions have no owner, date or check unless someone builds that habit. - Trends stay hidden until someone retypes the data into a spreadsheet. - Survey and audit prep means gathering evidence by hand, usually under time pressure. ## Choose Paper and spreadsheets if - You are a very small site with a few incidents a year and one owner who reviews each. - You need a stopgap this week and will revisit tools next quarter. ## Choose IncidentKit if - Staff report late, skip near misses, or hand the form to a supervisor to file. - You cannot say which corrective actions are open, overdue or verified without asking around. - Survey or audit season means a week of binder building. - You run more than one site and want one standard. ## Switching - Reporting takes seconds on a phone, not a desk later. - Severity routes the incident to the right person at once. - Packets, logs and trends come from one record, so nothing is retyped. Import past incidents from your spreadsheet with the CSV wizard, or send us the file and we will map and load it. Scanned paper logs can be keyed in or extracted. Keep the binder until the new records cover a full survey cycle. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is paper incident reporting compliant? Paper can meet the requirement. Regulators care that incidents are recorded, investigated and acted on, not whether the record is paper. The risk is gaps, delays and missing evidence. See [replacing paper incident forms](https://incidentkit.ai/use-cases/replace-paper-incident-forms). ### What does paper actually cost? There is no licence fee. The cost is staff time: completing forms, retyping logs, chasing corrective actions and assembling survey or OSHA evidence. Teams often miss it because the hours are spread across many people. ### When should a facility move off spreadsheets? Common triggers are a second site, a missed reporting deadline, a survey or audit scramble, a recurring incident nobody connected, or staff avoiding the form. Any one is a fair reason to move. ### Can we keep our spreadsheet during the transition? Yes. Many teams run both for a few weeks, import the history, and retire the spreadsheet once reporting has moved. ## Sources - [OSHA: Recordkeeping forms (300, 300A, 301)](https://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/forms) - [OSHA: Injury and illness recordkeeping and reporting requirements](https://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping) Spot an error? Email hello@incidentkit.ai and we will correct it.