By Martin Traub-Werner, VetBooks Owning a veterinary practice—or preparing to—comes with both opportunity and challenge. While financial performance is an essential component of ownership, the
As a veterinary practice owner, you may wonder if you are making the right financial business decisions. You may also wonder how you compare with your competitors. Financial benchmarking can provide the hard numbers you want to make sense of hospital performance, but those figures may be less valuable than you think.
The VetBooks team encourages veterinary hospitals to view benchmarks as only one aspect of a larger financial goal-setting and planning strategy. Here’s how to get the most out of benchmarking in veterinary practice.
Veterinary medicine has shifted dramatically over the past five years. Although consolidators own around a quarter of veterinary practices, consolidated practices represent almost half of the industry’s revenues. But, thanks to recent changes in market conditions, technological advances, and industry support from organizations like the IVPA, independent practice ownership is more attainable than ever.
Independent veterinary practice ownership is often considered an elusive goal, an impossible pipe dream for veterinarians working in an increasingly corporate world. However, the dream of practice ownership is more attainable now than in recent years, owing to the perfect storm of market conditions and an explosion of support networks in the veterinary community, such as veterinary-specific bookkeeping provided by our VetBooks team.
VMX 2025 was one for the books, with a record-breaking 30,000 people in attendance. While there, I met with several current and prospective clients one-on-one. These individuals trust us with their financials, and it was truly special to see them in person, shake their hands, and hear all about their businesses, hopes, and dreams. These interactions constantly remind me that the veterinary industry cares deeply about people, and I am humbled to play a part in this world.
Financial performance and profitability are top of mind for most veterinary practice owners and leaders. Tracking ins and outs through spotless bookkeeping provides a look at monthly and annual spending, but how do you know if you’re on track? A budget is critical for allocating hospital funds, setting goals, and guiding day-to-day and long-term growth strategies.
Veterinary professionals excel at providing medical care to pets, but understanding and caring about finances is equally important for a successful practice. In our previous blog post, we talked about bookkeeping methods, expressing our appreciation for the accrual system. In this blog, we discuss why and how you should file a cash tax return based on those accrual books and when you should ask for professional help.
Veterinary practice finances are more complex than many practice owners and leaders realize, but they can be tracked in more ways than one. Most practices use cash-based accounting, which is simple and approachable, but may be holding you back. Our team recommends accrual-based accounting, which works well for veterinary practices, but requires specialized knowledge and skill.
Veterinary employees work in a physically and emotionally exhausting environment. As end-of-year and the holidays approach, the chaos often worsens. Most practices host holiday parties and offer team members gifts to combat chronic overwhelm by showing appreciation. Gifts seem like a no-brainer, but how you present them to your employees can profoundly impact your payroll taxes.
You may feel that 2024 has only just begun, but year-end is sneaking up quickly. Veterinary practices should focus on their financial health not only in December but also throughout the year to facilitate a smooth, painless year-end process. Veterinary bookkeepers can help with financial preparations by staying on top of basic tasks monthly or quarterly to ensure a clean and accurate financial record.
