Striking a balance between what is fair compensation for employees and what is reasonable for your veterinary practice can be a challenge.  A doctor’s reluctance to negotiate financial matters, either for themselves or for their practice, can compound the problem. As a result, doctors or staff can be significantly over- or underpaid for their services, and benefit packages can vary widely from practice to practice.

We have worked with many veterinary hospitals to help both employers and employees negotiate compensation issues. Our experience can help you understand trends in the profession as well as design packages that will motivate behavior consistent with your core values. We can also help you deal with income and payroll tax rules surrounding compensation and benefits, which will keep the practice’s bottom line healthy.

Along the way, we can help you answer questions like these:

• What are the pros and cons of paying doctors a straight salary, straight production, or a pro-sal combination of both?
• Should all your doctors be paid under the same method?
• Should long-term team members continue to get raises when they are doing the same job as when they started?
• What’s the “normal” percentage of production that specialists are paid in today’s environment?
• How are practices dealing with health insurance and retirement plan costs?
• Is there a bonus system that allows receptionists, veterinary technicians, and assistants to share in the practice’s growth and success?
• How do you get from your current compensation system to one that is fairer to all parties?

The best time to plan is today.

Get started now by contacting Summit Veterinary Advisors.

Every business needs help maintaining and managing “the books” at one time or another. Summit is here to fill that role on a temporary basis when you are between bookkeepers, or on an ongoing basis when you want another set of eyes to review the numbers.

Because we work with practices at every stage of the practice ownership lifecycle, we know where to look and what to watch to ensure accuracy and completeness. At Summit, we will work collaboratively with you to ensure you have the best financial information to manage your practice.

We can help your practice with:

• Reconciliation of bank accounts and credit cards
• Month-end review of income and expenses
• Payroll transaction entries

Veterinary practices transition to new business ownership every day. In addition, there is a growing trend within the veterinary profession of merging and consolidating practices and resources. Summit Veterinary Advisors has direct, hands-on experience assisting practices before, during and after a business restructure, merger or acquisition. From strategic planning, operations, merging teams, human resources, internal systems, protocols and even redefining the practice’s culture, Summit Veterinary Advisors can play a vital role in making your merger, acquisition or ownership transition a success.

Whether you are starting a practice, expanding your facility, adding an associate, buying new equipment or contemplating other changes, there is no substitute for advance planning. Fortunately, planning doesn’t have to be time consuming or expensive.

We know that it can be challenging to step back from day-to-day responsibilities of veterinary practice ownership to take stock of personal and practice needs. For decades we have helped veterinarians avoid unpleasant surprises by focusing on objectives, identifying the steps needed to reach your goals, and recognizing the resources required.

Want more information? Call us today.

As the owner or manager of a veterinary practice, do you know where your clients come from?

Summit’s sophisticated mapping software can give you a visual representation of where your clients live. You provide us with an address list and we create a detailed map to determine how many clients are within specific distances from the veterinary hospital or geographic areas you define for us.

Possible benefits from client mapping include:

• Non-compete range determination: our maps can help you determine the number of clients within the proposed non-compete radius or area, or define where 90% of your clients live.
• Relocation/expansion: perhaps your lease will soon run out and you are searching for a new location, or maybe you are considering a second business location.  Our maps can help you determine how many of your existing clients are within the geographic areas under consideration.
• Mailing lists: if you want to do a target mailing to clients in a particular area, we can determine which clients are within that area and can create a mailing list of those clients for you.

Custom uses: if there are any other reasons why you wish to have a list of clients within any particular geographic area for your veterinary practice, we can tailor a mapping solution just for you.

Business-savvy owners and managers know that regular review of key numbers helps to keep a veterinary practice on track and identify problems before they become critical. The challenge is knowing which numbers are the most important and developing a method to efficiently collect, understand and analyze the data.

We can help.

Summit’s Key Figures Summary is an easy-to-use, customized tool designed to track the critical numbers and key performance indicators that drive the bottom line in your veterinary practice. We can help you get at-a-glance comparisons of production statistics by doctor, along with important financial figures and graphs that help you make decisions today, tomorrow and in the future.

Contact us today to get started.

Are you using QuickBooks to your fullest advantage, or could your finances benefit from a little fine-tuning?

Summit’s QuickBooks Tune-Up is a great way for you to get the financial information you need and improve the way you work in QuickBooks.

We have years of experience with QuickBooks, and we know some of the best kept secrets for getting the reports you need to manage your business.

Our customized QuickBooks Tune-Up will help you:

Save time

Reduce time spent on bookkeeping with our shortcuts and tips to make QuickBooks easier to use. We’ll verify that your file is set up for optimum ease-of-use and identify training issues where you may not be using QuickBooks as effectively as you could.

Get better management information

Financial statements can help you identify your practice’s strengths and weaknesses, but you have to know what to look for. We’ll help you get the most information from the reports you use right now, and modify them as needed to give you even better management information. We’ll show you the most useful comparisons and identify reports that provide important information to monitor.

Stay on top of payroll

As your single largest expense, payroll should be tracked carefully. If you use QuickBooks payroll services, we’ll verify that it is set up to give you the information you need to control payroll costs. If you process payroll in-house or through a different vendor, we’ll teach you the fastest way to record your payroll.

Save money on accounting and tax preparation fees

When your QuickBooks file is in top shape, your accountant won’t need to correct bookkeeping missteps at year end. We’ll alert you to anything out of the ordinary that deserves follow-up by you or your accountant. Not only does this provide you a more accurate view of your practice’s finances, it can also improve communication between you and your accountant, save time and lower your tax preparation fees.

Want more information? Contact us today.

Do you have enough money to buy the anesthesia monitor you have had your eye on?

Can you afford to give your staff a raise?

Are your associate doctors producing appropriately to pay for themselves?

If you have asked yourself any or all of these questions, it’s time for an outside look at practice profitability.

Summit’s Profitability Assessment includes a review of revenue sources, key expenses such as drug and supply costs, staff salaries, and rent, plus an evaluation of each doctor’s production compared to their compensation.

Why do we look at production by doctor?

Because revenue generation per veterinarian is a significant predictor of practice profitability, meaning practices with higher revenue per veterinarian are generally more profitable.

While doctor production is important, it isn’t the only key to profitability.  We take a comprehensive look at all the numbers to identify the practice’s strong points, where you can make quick adjustments and those areas that will improve over time with the proper attention.

Improving the profitability of your practice is one of the surest ways to increase the value when you are ready to sell all or a portion of your business. Whether your practice is very profitable, not profitable at all or somewhere in between, we’ll give you specific recommendations for improvement.

At Summit Veterinary Advisors, we don’t take a cookie cutter approach to your business. Our recommendations are based on practical experience and are tailored to suit your veterinary practice.

Questions? Call or Click here to get started now.

For many people, the word “budget” brings to mind strict spending limits, and concern for the future. At Summit, we believe that budgets are less about restricting spending and more about investing wisely to promote business growth.

A well-planned budget is a powerful planning tool. Think of it as a master spending plan or your practice’s customized decision-making guide. A budget helps you see future commitments so you know whether you can spend that “extra” cash now, or keep it to cover upcoming expenses.

A budget is also a great way to open a discussion among business partners about practice goals and what it will take to achieve them. Without a budget, you run the risk of overspending or failing to invest enough to grow your practice.

Summit will help you create a budget to:

• Align your spending with industry standards, where appropriate;
• Define goals and measure progress toward achieving them;
• Keep the right amount of cash on hand;
• Build up an emergency fund;
• Plan for short-term borrowing, if needed;
• Identify and address potential problems before they arise.

Learn more by contacting us today.

Are you contemplating the sale of your business? Whether you hope to sell a portion of your veterinary practice to an current associate or you’d like to exit the practice, Summit is ideally positioned to help you through this process.

Our in-depth analysis of your business will help you understand the current value of your veterinary practice. If the value is not where you would like it to be, we can help you understand how to make changes to meet your valuation goals.

The unbiased nature of our analysis combined with the expertise and credentials of our analysts and the completeness and transparency of our report conclusions will give you a result that both you and a potential buyer can trust.  This is critical, because the value of a business is ultimately decided in the market.  The money you invest in analysis will help you establish a fair asking price, which means that you can reasonably plan for your future.

Questions? Call or Click here to get started now.