Traditionally, the accounting methods of individual veterinary practices are as diverse as the owners themselves. Times are changing...and for the better. Through a partnership, led by AAHA, Veterinary Management Groups (VMG), the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), VetPartners, and the Veterinary Hospital Manager’s Association (VHMA), veterinary professionals now have access to a free, powerful finance tool.

Working with VMG, AAHA’s previously member’s only Chart of Accounts was revised and expanded. The AAHA/VMG Chart of Accounts is now available and free to all veterinary professionals on the AAHA website.

“We are thrilled to provide the AAHA/VMG Chart of Accounts for free as a benefit to the veterinary profession,” said AAHA Chief Executive Officer, Michael Cavanaugh, DVM, DABVP (C/F) Emeritus. “By using an apple-to-apples comparison of productivity, costs, and profitability, veterinarians can better assess the financial health of individual hospitals and the industry as a whole.”

The human dental and medical professions have long recognized that a lack of standardization in their practitioners’ charts of accounts, diagnostic codes and procedures served as an impediment to success, individual and professional.

“Standardization of the veterinary chart of accounts is crucial in gathering data essential to strengthening practice profitability, individual financial wellbeing and enhancing the veterinary workforce as a whole,” said Link Welborn, DVM, DABVP, CCRT, the former chair of the AVMA’s Veterinary Economic Strategy Committee (VESC), past president of AAHA and president of VMG .

As a high-value financial-management resource, AAHA/VMG Chart of Accounts is the cornerstone of the broader economic initiative. It is the first of many new resources to come from this collaboration.

The AVMA, VetPartners, and the VHMA have endorsed AAHA/VMG Chart of Accounts as the industry standard for classifying revenue, expense, and balance sheet accounts in the small-animal veterinary practice. They will allow practitioners to better organize their practice’s finances in line with generally accepted accounting principles. Additionally, AAHA recommends all accounting firms working with veterinary practices adopt the standardized codes.