Veterinary Pro Forma Template

Start with the Assumptions sheet — this is where the entire model is built. Enter your planned DVM headcount, exam rooms, target daily visit volume, and average transaction values for each service category. If you're projecting an existing practice, use last year's financials as your baseline; if you're starting from scratch, use industry benchmarks from AVMA or VetPartners data as your starting point. Most users spend 20–30 minutes in this sheet getting inputs right, and the rest of the model fills itself in.

Once your assumptions are in, review the Revenue Projections and Expense Projections sheets to make sure the outputs look realistic. Pay particular attention to COGS as a percentage of revenue — for a veterinary practice it should run 22–26% — and total labor as a percentage of revenue, which typically runs 40–50% when you include all staff and benefits. If either number looks off, adjust the corresponding Assumptions inputs rather than editing the projection sheets directly.

The last step before sharing with a bank or investor is reviewing the Cash Flow Projection and Dashboard. Enter your loan details in the Assumptions sheet to generate the amortization schedule and see how debt service affects your monthly cash position. Check the break-even month — most lenders want to see that a new practice reaches cash-flow breakeven within 12–18 months. The Dashboard gives you a clean one-page summary of your 5-year projection that you can print directly or drop into a bank loan package or investor presentation.

Veterinary practice financing has specific requirements that generic pro forma templates don't address. SBA loans are the most common funding source for new practice startups and acquisitions, and SBA lenders expect to see revenue modeled by service category — they want to understand your surgical vs. wellness mix, your pharmacy margin assumptions, and your DVM productivity targets. A pro forma that lumps all revenue into one line won't satisfy underwriting. The same is true for acquisition financing: when you're buying a practice at 0.6–0.8x gross revenue, you need to show the lender how you'll maintain or grow the revenue base under new ownership.

The financial structure of a veterinary practice is different from most small businesses. Gross margins look high on paper — 74–78% is typical — but labor costs consume 40–50% of revenue, which compresses net margins to 10–15% for a well-run practice. Equipment-heavy specialties like surgery and radiology require significant upfront capital and ongoing maintenance costs. Pharmacy revenue has strong margins but depends on prescription volume from your exam and surgery services. Understanding these interdependencies — and modeling them properly — is what separates a credible pro forma from a spreadsheet that looks good but can't survive a lender's review.

The most valuable use of a veterinary pro forma isn't getting the loan — it's managing the practice once you're open. Build your projection before you sign the lease, then come back to it quarterly and compare actuals against it. A new practice that's tracking 15% below its projected visit volume by month 6 needs to either increase its marketing spend or cut hours before it runs through its working capital. A practice that's running pharmacy COGS at 30% instead of the projected 22% has a medication markup problem that won't fix itself. The pro forma is a diagnostic tool, not just a financing document.