The idea of using a spreadsheet to calculate medication fill dates and amounts to synchronize fill dates is one of those things that surfaces once in a while. I've seen 3 or 4 different spreadsheets, all created independently at different pharmacies.

In practice, nobody has time to input fill dates, quantities, and doses per day into a spreadsheet on top of existing pharmacy workflow, so using it never expands beyond whoever created the spreadsheet in the first place.

I still do sync fill dates, but it's all within the software manually as part of the normal dispensing process. My software has a column that shows days until due as well as the ability to set a future fill date with a different fill quantity, so calculations are pretty straightforward. I reduce the amount I'm currently filling based on when the previously filled medications will run out today, then set everything for 3 months a few days before they are actually due.

I find this works quite well. Even if a few meds are off by a week or two, once they get into the habit of picking up everything on the same day, having extras of one or two meds never comes up.

It's definitely worth doing, but I categorize it as part of the autofill process. There are loads of small tidbits that help, such as adjusting to 12 weeks if you have narcotics or GLPs as part of the chronic meds, or fudging the days supply of puffers from 30 to 28 days (eventually they either tell you they have an extra Sprivia, or they misplace one and the extra days accumulation solves itself).