Profitable or not? A new online tool tells you

Schaumburg, Ill. — A new online Profitability Estimator tool from the National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues (NCVEI) and the national consulting group VetPartners lets practice owners fill in the blanks of their financials to get a look at their practice's financial success or trouble.

"Improved profitability is instrumental in improving cash flow and a practice's ability to offer good, quality medicine," says NCVEI's CEO, Karen Felsted, DVM, CPA, MS, CVPM. "The Profitability Estimator gives you the information you need to make intelligent business decisions."

The NCVEI and VetPartners collaborated on the new free tool, spurred to action by the sudden increase in practices of low or no value in the past few years. "Appraisers were seeing low values in practices where you'd never normally expect to," says Christine Merle, DVM, MBA, CVPM, executive director of VetPartners. "This low value was driven primarily by a lack of profitability and, to make matters worse, most owners of these low-profit practices were not even aware of their poor financial situation."

For access to the tools at NCVEI.org, someone at the user's practice must be a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association or the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA).