How to choose veterinary practice management software

A practice management system holds most of what a veterinary practice runs on, from the appointment diary and clinical records to invoices, stock and client details. Replacing one later means a data migration and retraining the whole team, so the choice deserves time. Below we look at what veterinary practice management software does and how a UK practice can compare systems, then explain where an AI scribe such as Vetz sits next to the system you pick.

What veterinary practice management software does

Veterinary practice management software, usually shortened to PMS, is the system a practice uses to run its day. You will also see it called veterinary practice software or vet clinic software, and the terms describe the same kind of system. A typical PMS covers:

clinical records for each patient, with consultation notes and treatment history
the appointment diary for consultations and nurse clinics
client and patient details, from contact information to species and breed
invoices and payments
stock and dispensing, including the drugs and consumables used in each case
reports on turnover and outstanding debt

Some systems add client reminders or online booking on top of this. Whether those come built in or through a separate tool varies from vendor to vendor, which is one reason the integrations deserve as much attention as the feature list.

What to evaluate when comparing systems

A demo shows each system on its own terms, so go in with a list of the areas your team uses most and ask to see each one working with realistic cases.

Clinical records

The clinical record is the part of the system that vets and nurses use in every consultation. Ask to see a full consultation written up during the demo, and look at how the history reads for a patient with years of visits behind it. Check how templates are set up and whether attachments such as lab results and images sit with the consultation they belong to.

Appointment diary

The diary decides how smoothly reception runs on a busy morning. Look at how appointment types and lengths are set and how the diary copes with several vets working across more than one site. Our guide to veterinary appointment systems covers the booking side in more detail.

Invoicing and payments

Charges should move from the clinical record to the invoice without anyone typing them twice. Ask how the system handles estimates and insurance claims, and how VAT is shown on each invoice.

Stock control

Stock control links what is dispensed in the consulting room with what is ordered from the wholesaler. Ask whether stock is reduced automatically when an item is charged, and how the system flags items that are close to their expiry date.

Reporting

Practice owners and managers need figures they can trust without exporting everything to a spreadsheet first. Check which reports come as standard and whether you can build your own.

Hosting and support

A cloud system runs in the browser and is updated by the vendor, while an on-premise system runs on a server that the practice looks after. Ask which of the two the vendor offers and what happens to the diary when the internet connection drops. If you provide out-of-hours emergency cover, check that support is staffed at those times as well as during UK working hours.

Integrations and what to check

Practices often connect other tools to their PMS, such as laboratory analysers, card terminals, client reminder services, online booking and AI tools for clinical notes. Each of those connections depends on what the PMS allows other software to do. Ask whether the system offers an API that other software can use, and whether a connected tool can write data back as well as read it.

Read access lets a tool see the day's bookings. Write access lets it send something back into the record, such as a finished clinical note, so nobody has to copy it across by hand.

Vetz shows what this looks like for an AI scribe. It integrates with Provet Cloud, Vettigo and MHK FileMaker, so the practice's bookings appear in Vetz automatically and the finished clinical note is sent back to the PMS without a manual step. Vetz connects through the APIs or the export and import functions of the practice's current system, and the integration is encrypted and handled in line with GDPR. For a system it does not support yet, Vetz can build an integration to most practice management systems. The article on how Vetz integrates with your PMS explains the technical side.

Data and migration questions for the vendor

Moving to a new PMS means moving years of clinical records with it, and the contract decides what happens to that data if you ever leave. Before signing, ask each vendor:

how clinical history and client records are moved across from your current system, and who checks the result
what format you can export your data in if you leave, and whether there is a charge for the export
where the data is stored and which subprocessors handle it
how long records are kept after a client leaves the practice, and whether the practice can set its own retention period
how long your old system stays readable after the new one goes live

The RCVS supporting guidance on clinical and client records does not give a fixed period. It says clinical records should be retained for as long as is necessary, taking into consideration legal and regulatory responsibilities such as the record keeping obligations for veterinary medicinal products, and notes that professional indemnity insurance policies may specify minimum retention periods. Whichever period your practice settles on, check that the new system can keep records for that long and still make them easy to find.

Under Article 28 of UK GDPR, a supplier that processes personal data on the practice's behalf has to work under a contract that sets out the subject matter and duration of the processing, its nature and purpose, the type of personal data, the categories of people it concerns, and the practice's obligations and rights. The contract must also require the supplier to act only on the practice's documented instructions and to keep the data secure, and it sets the conditions for bringing in sub-processors. When the service ends, the supplier has to delete or return the personal data, at the practice's choice, so ask each vendor for this contract before you sign.

Questions to ask every PMS vendor in a demo

Take the same list into every demo and ask for the answers in writing, which makes it easier to compare vendors on the same points afterwards.

Is the price per user or per site, and do the quoted prices include VAT?
How long is the contract, and how much notice is needed to leave?
What training is included at go-live, and what does further training cost?
Who runs the data migration, and how much time should the practice set aside for testing it?
Which integrations are live today, and can a connected tool write data back into the clinical record?
Who owns the practice's data, and how is it handed over at the end of the contract?
What uptime does the vendor commit to in the contract, and how are outages reported to the practice?

Where an AI scribe sits alongside your PMS

The clinical record lives in the PMS, and someone still has to write each note after the consultation. Vetz takes on that part of the work. It listens during the consultation with the owner and drafts a structured clinical note using the practice's own templates. The vet reads the draft and changes anything that needs changing, by hand or with AI. Once the note is approved, Vetz transfers it to the practice management system with one click.

Alongside the note, Vetz offers:

suggested diagnosis codes based on what the note records
discharge advice for the owner, generated from the clinical record
billing suggestions drawn from the content of the note, which lowers the risk of a missed charge
a knowledge search across evidence-based veterinary sources for harder cases
dictation for vets who would rather speak a note than type it
support for more than 10 languages, for teams that work in more than one

Vetz runs in the browser with nothing to install, and there is also an app for iPhone and Android. The full list is on the features page. Vetz recommends telling owners that AI is used to support the clinical note, and can provide wording for the practice to use.

Vetz works on top of the practice management system you choose. The diary and the permanent clinical record stay in the PMS, while Vetz reads the bookings from it and sends approved notes back. Practices that add Vetz keep their PMS, so the two decisions can be made separately.

How clinical notes should shape your PMS choice

If writing up consultations takes a large share of your vets' day, look at each PMS with that in mind as well. Ask whether notes written in another tool can be transferred into the right fields of the clinical record, and whether the vendor already works with an AI scribe. If you plan to use one, check that it supports the PMS you are leaning towards before you sign, or ask whether an integration can be built.

The page on the AI veterinary management system explains the AI layer that sits on top of a PMS in more detail. For the notes themselves, see our guides to AI note taking for vets and to common mistakes in vet record keeping. The data questions you put to a PMS vendor apply to an AI scribe as well, and the Vetz security page is the place to start for Vetz.

More about Vetz

If you are choosing a new practice management system and want to see how Vetz would work alongside it, book a demo and we will show you how bookings come in from your PMS and how approved notes go back. You can also try Vetz free for 14 days without entering card details.