Switching veterinary practice management software: what to ask

Only one supplier here puts the term on the page

ezyVet states its contract shape openly: a six-month initial term with a three-month rolling contract thereafter, with implementation priced separately and scoped on the size and structure of the clinic. None of the other five states a minimum term on the pages we read. That is worth knowing before you compare monthly figures, because a low monthly price on a long term and a higher one on a short term are not the same offer.

What to establish about the data

1. Ask exactly which record types convert: clients, patients, clinical history, invoices, stock, purchase orders, insurance claims in flight, and repeat prescriptions. ezyVet states it aims to convert clients, suppliers, patients, medical history, invoices, and purchase and inventory orders, and will tell you ahead of time what it cannot convert. Ask every supplier for the same list in writing.
2. Ask what happens to attachments: radiographs, lab PDFs, consent forms and photographs are where migrations usually lose fidelity.
3. Ask whether historical clinical notes arrive as structured records or as one flat text blob per patient. The difference decides whether your history is searchable in five years.
4. Ask who does the work and who signs it off, and what the acceptance test looks like on go-live day.
5. Ask for the exit route before you sign the entry: what format your data comes out in, how long it takes, and what it costs.

Things that break on the day and nobody mentions

• Insurance claims in flight. If you submit through VetEnvoy or Vetsure, agree which system owns claims already submitted on the cutover date. Lupa describes claim statuses running from draft through submitted, processing and on to settled or declined; a claim mid-way through that sequence needs a home.
• Stock valuation. Batch numbers and expiry dates rarely migrate cleanly. Do a physical stock take on cutover weekend rather than trusting the conversion.
• Wholesaler links. Provet Cloud names MWI, NVS, Covetrus and VetCove; Lupa names NVS, Covetrus and MWI. Confirm your own wholesaler account reconnects, and who re-keys the price files if it does not.
• Reminders. Vaccination and health plan reminders are date-driven and duplicate easily. Agree which system sends during the overlap.
• The controlled drugs register. If yours is currently a bound book, it stays a bound book across a migration. If it is computerised, ask both suppliers, old and new, how two years of entries transfer and remain available for inspection.

Run the demo on your own worst day

Every PIMS demonstrates well on a booked consultation with one healthy dog. Ask instead for a walk through a busy branch morning: a walk-in emergency between two booked consults, a repeat prescription for a client who is not present, an insurance claim on a completed invoice, a stock take that finds a discrepancy, and a correction to a clinical note written by a colleague who has gone home. Those five journeys will separate the products faster than any feature grid, including this one.

Contract terms, integrations and features described in this guide were read on each supplier's own website on 15 August 2026 and are reproduced, not estimated. Suppliers change terms without notice, and none of this is legal advice on your contract.