Veterinary Practice Software
Practices run two systems that both hold financial information and rarely agree. The practice management system records what was done and charged. The accounting system records what was received and spent. Reporting problems almost always live in the gap between them.
What This Guide Covers
- The Clinical Side
- The Accounting Side
- Joining Them Up
- A Note on Claims of Integration
The Clinical Side
UK practices use a range of practice management and practice information management systems, including ezyVet, Provet Cloud, RoboVet, Merlin, RxWorks and VetIT. They differ substantially in reporting capability, stock handling and what they will export.
For accounting purposes, what matters is whether the system can produce a reliable daily or period income summary by category, a stock position, and a report of transactions by fee earner. Most can, though not all do it easily.
The Accounting Side
Xero and QuickBooks dominate for practices of this size, with Sage and FreeAgent also in use. Document capture through Dext, Hubdoc or AutoEntry handles the volume of wholesaler invoices, and bank feeds handle the rest.
The single change with the largest effect is the chart of accounts. The default chart that ships with any accounting package will produce accounts that balance and tell you nothing. A veterinary chart separating clinical income streams, medicines, laboratory, staffing by category and premises turns the same data into management information.
Joining Them Up
- Daily income journal
- A summary of takings by category posted to the accounting system, agreed to card settlements and bank receipts. Where a supported integration exists it does this automatically. Where it does not, a scheduled manual journal works perfectly well.
- Tracking categories
- Branch and department tracking set up in the accounting system so site level reporting does not need a spreadsheet.
- Stock
- Purchases in the accounting system, stock levels in the clinical system, reconciled periodically. This is the weakest link in most practices and the reason gross margin is often untrustworthy.
- Payables automation
- Wholesaler invoices captured on arrival, coded by rules, approved in software and paid in batches.
A Note on Claims of Integration
Vendors describe a range of things as integration, from a full two-way sync to a downloadable file. Before choosing on the strength of an integration claim, ask exactly what data moves, in which direction, how often, and what happens when it fails. We are not a reseller for any of these products and have no commission arrangement with any vendor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which accounting software is best for a veterinary practice?
Do we need to change practice management system to get better reporting?
Get Your Systems Talking to Each Other
Tell us what you run on the clinical and financial side and we will explain what a working set-up looks like.