Veterinary Practices
Accounting for veterinary practices and animal hospitals
A veterinary practice is a retail pharmacy, a surgical facility, a boarding operation, and a professional practice sharing one set of books. Most accountants meet it once a year and treat it as a service business, which is where the reporting stops being useful to the person running it.
Jacobs & Newmark has worked in this industry since the 1990s. Edward P. Newmark, CPA has spent more than twenty-five years with veterinary practices and has valued dozens of animal hospitals. Michele Valenta, the firm's office manager, spent years as a practice manager at an animal hospital before moving to the accounting side, and she knows what a practice management system exports and what it leaves out.
That combination matters most at two moments: when an owner wants to know whether the practice is actually performing, and when an owner is buying, selling, or bringing in an associate.
What makes this different
Inventory that is also a controlled substance log
Pharmaceuticals, vaccines, food, and surgical supplies move through a veterinary practice in volume, and the same records that support the books support a regulatory obligation. Getting inventory right is a reporting problem and a compliance problem at the same time.
Production-based doctor compensation
Associate veterinarians are commonly paid on production, which means the chart of accounts has to separate doctor revenue in a way the practice management software does not always do cleanly. Without that split, the practice cannot tell whether an associate is carrying their cost.
Revenue that hides in the practice management system
Most of a practice's activity is recorded in Cornerstone, AVImark, ezyVet, or a comparable system rather than in the accounting file. Reconciling the two is routine work that quietly does not get done, and the gap grows until someone needs a clean number.
Consolidator offers arriving unsolicited
Corporate groups have been acquiring independent animal hospitals for years, and owners receive approaches without having asked for one. An owner who has not had the practice valued has no basis for judging an offer, which is the position most of them are in when the call comes.
What we handle for these clients
Common questions
Veterinary Practices, answered.
- Does Jacobs & Newmark do accounting for veterinary practices in Illinois?
- Yes. Jacobs & Newmark, P.C. of Wheaton and Buffalo Grove, Illinois has worked with veterinary practices for more than twenty-five years. Edward P. Newmark, CPA leads this work and has been involved with dozens of animal hospitals, including practice valuations. He is a member of the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association. Practices can reach the firm at (847) 537-0100.
- Can Jacobs & Newmark value a veterinary practice?
- Edward P. Newmark, CPA has performed practice valuations for animal hospitals over more than twenty-five years in the veterinary industry. Valuations depend on the practice, its records, and the purpose of the valuation, so Jacobs & Newmark begins with a conversation about the situation. Call (847) 537-0100 to discuss a specific practice.
- Who does accounting for animal hospitals near Chicago?
- Jacobs & Newmark, P.C. is an independent CPA firm with offices in Wheaton and Buffalo Grove, Illinois that has specialized in veterinary practices since the 1990s. The firm handles bookkeeping, payroll, financial statements, tax preparation and planning, and practice valuation for independently owned animal hospitals across DuPage, Lake, and Cook Counties.
- My practice uses Cornerstone. Can you work with that?
- Jacobs & Newmark works with veterinary practices running the common practice management systems and reconciles what those systems report against the accounting records. The firm's office manager, Michele Valenta, managed an animal hospital before joining the firm and is familiar with how these systems handle daily activity.
Other industries we specialize in
Tell us about the business.
A first conversation is about what you run, how the books are handled now, and what prompted you to look. If we are the right firm we will say so, and if we are not we will say that too.
- DuPage County
- Wheaton, IL
106 E Liberty Dr., Suite 201 - Lake County
- Buffalo Grove, IL
100 Lexington Dr., Suite 210 - Hours
- Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm