Veterinary P&L Template

Download the .xlsx file and open it in Excel or Google Sheets. Start with the Monthly P&L tab: review the pre-loaded service categories and expense line items and adjust them to match your practice's chart of accounts. Most clinics keep the structure as-is and add or rename a few lines — for example, separating feline and canine surgery if you track those independently, or adding a line for specialty referral revenue if you have in-house specialists. Initial setup takes about 15 minutes, and you'll only do it once.

Once the categories look right, pull your revenue figures from your practice management software — Avimark, Cornerstone, Impromed, eVetPractice, or whichever system you use. Most generate a revenue-by-category report that maps directly to the service lines in the Monthly P&L tab. Enter COGS from your pharmacy and supply invoices or your inventory system. Then enter operating expenses from your accounting software or bank statements. The sheet calculates gross margin, COGS percentage, and net income automatically. Fill in the DVM Productivity sheet using the provider production reports your PM software generates.

The template's value compounds month over month. Close each month within 10 business days of month-end and check two things first: your COGS percentage (creeping above 26% often means a pharmacy pricing or shrinkage problem) and your total staff payroll percentage (rising above 45% is the most common early sign of scheduling inefficiency or overstaffing relative to patient volume). Review the Service Mix Analysis sheet quarterly to see whether your revenue mix is shifting — a practice that's been growing surgery revenue is in a different position than one that's growing primarily in pharmacy, and the staffing and equipment implications are different. Most practice owners who run this monthly review say it takes 30–45 minutes and catches problems before they show up as a year-end surprise.

Veterinary practices have a financial structure that generic P&L templates handle poorly. Revenue comes from multiple service lines — exams, surgery, pharmacy, diagnostics, dentistry — with dramatically different cost profiles. A wellness exam generates 85–90% gross margin; pharmacy dispensing generates 40–55%; a surgical procedure sits somewhere in between depending on supply costs and anesthesia. If your P&L shows only total revenue and total COGS, you have no way of knowing whether your practice's gross margin is where it should be or why it's moving. A 74–78% gross margin is typical for a well-run general practice, but the same number could mean your exam volume is strong and your pharmacy margins are healthy, or it could mean you're over-relying on high-margin exams while undercharging for surgery. The service mix view changes what you can act on.

On the cost side, the two numbers that matter most to veterinary practice profitability are COGS as a percentage of revenue and staff payroll as a percentage of revenue. COGS covers medications, vaccines, supplies, and outside lab fees — the benchmark is 22–26% for most small animal practices, with mixed or large animal practices running somewhat higher due to drug and supply volumes. Staff payroll typically runs 40–45% for a full-service small animal clinic. Together, these two categories represent roughly 65–70% of revenue, leaving about 30–35% to cover rent, equipment, software, insurance, and net income. When practices struggle financially, it's almost always because one or both of these ratios have crept up — and without monthly tracking, the drift is invisible until it's compounded into a serious problem.

The most actionable use of a veterinary P&L isn't looking back — it's using last month's numbers to adjust the next 30 days. If your COGS percentage rose because a pharmaceutical supplier increased prices, you have a decision: adjust your dispensing fees, switch suppliers, or accept a temporary margin dip. If your DVM productivity sheet shows one doctor's average client transaction running $60 below the practice average, that's a conversation about case acceptance and recommendation patterns, not a punitive review. This template is built to surface those specific, actionable signals — not just to produce a monthly number to file away.