Veterinary Valuation Template

Start with the Practice Inputs sheet. Pull your trailing twelve-month revenue by service category from your practice management software — most systems (Avimark, Cornerstone, eVetPractice) have production and revenue summary reports that break this out by service type. You'll need the full expense structure from your P&L, owner compensation including any draws or personal expenses through the practice, and operational data: active client count (seen within 24 months), average client transaction for the last 12 months, number of DVMs as full-time equivalents, exam room count, and whether you offer emergency or specialty services. If your books don't clearly separate pharmaceutical COGS from general supplies, pull those from your inventory reports — medications and supplies together typically run 20–28% of revenue in a general practice, and buyers scrutinize this number closely as a proxy for operational efficiency.

Work through the Revenue Multiple and EBITDA Multiple sheets together, then score the Value Drivers Scorecard. The EBITDA normalization requires you to honestly account for all owner compensation — not just the base salary but any additional draws, production bonuses, profit distributions, vehicle, CE, and personal expenses that run as business costs. The associate replacement wage defaults to $120,000 in the model, which is a reasonable midpoint for a full-time associate DVM in general practice; adjust this to reflect your regional market, since veterinarian compensation varies meaningfully by geography and specialty. The Value Drivers Scorecard is where practices earn or lose their premium within the range: revenue per DVM FTE and DVM dependency are the two metrics consolidators focus on first, and the scorecard shows exactly how each factor moves your multiple.

Review the Valuation Summary before any conversation with a veterinary broker, consolidator acquisition team, or individual buyer. The consolidator comparison section is particularly important if your practice produces $700,000 or more in annual revenue with two or more DVMs — corporate buyers in the veterinary consolidation space pay materially higher multiples for practices that fit their acquisition criteria, and understanding both paths before you engage either one puts you in a much stronger negotiating position. The sensitivity table shows the full valuation range so you understand the spread between a conservative private-buyer offer and a consolidator offer at the high end. Most practice owners run the model at two or three revenue scenarios to see how improving ACT, adding a DVM, or growing the active client base affects the exit value before committing to a sale timeline.

Veterinary practice valuations have changed significantly since the consolidation wave began in earnest around 2015. The entry of large corporate buyers — Mars Veterinary Health, National Veterinary Associates, Pathway Vet Alliance, and dozens of private equity-backed regional groups — has pushed multiples well above historical norms for qualifying practices, while solo general practices selling to individual buyers still trade in a much narrower range. Most general veterinary practices have historically sold at 0.8–1.0x annual revenue or 4.0–6.0x normalized EBITDA in private-buyer transactions; consolidator acquisitions for practices that fit their growth strategy have reached 1.0–1.5x revenue or 7.0–12.0x EBITDA. The gap between private and corporate pricing is the first thing a selling veterinarian needs to understand, because the right path depends entirely on your practice profile.

The most important operational factors in a veterinary valuation are revenue per DVM, average client transaction, and DVM dependency. Revenue per DVM FTE measures how efficiently your doctors generate production — high-production practices exceeding $800,000 per DVM are demonstrably more valuable than those running at $450,000–$500,000 per DVM with the same headcount, because buyers are acquiring earning capacity per doctor slot, not just current revenue. Average client transaction, or ACT, is a proxy for the practice's clinical thoroughness and client compliance: a practice with ACT above $350 is capturing diagnostics, dentistry, and multi-item wellness visits that a practice with ACT of $200 is leaving on the table, and that difference compounds into materially different EBITDA margins. DVM dependency is the risk factor: if 70% of active clients are loyal specifically to the selling DVM rather than the practice, staff, and location, buyers price a transition risk premium that depresses the multiple.

Understanding the consolidation market and whether your practice fits it is the single most valuable preparation a selling veterinarian can do before engaging any buyer. Corporate consolidators are looking for practices with at least one to two DVMs (or a facility that can support a second DVM without a major buildout), clean books and normalized EBITDA above roughly $200,000, a retained active client base, and a location in a growing or stable suburban or urban market. Practices that fit this profile have leverage to run a competitive process between private buyers and consolidators, which is how sellers achieve the best outcomes. Practices that do not fit — single-DVM rural clinics, practices with very high DVM dependency, or practices with declining active client counts — are priced almost exclusively on private-buyer multiples, which are lower. This template is designed to show you both scenarios side by side before you commit to any process.