What does one completed veterinary visit contribute?
Illustrative case · Owner-veterinarian outpatient clinic; no boarding, overnight hospital, grooming, aseptic surgery, anesthesia, dental suite, radiography or automated CBC/chemistry analyzer · California, United States; no city or premises selected
Explore this business · Unit economics and KPIs
The assumed mix invoices $243.47 per completed visit after discounts. At steady collections it contributes about $170.65 after materials, outside labs, bad debt and receipt-based card fees, before payroll/fixed costs. That supports an approximate 240-visit monthly EBITDA threshold and 258-visit threshold before tax after debt. These are mix-weighted planning thresholds; the monthly engine uses whole classes, the actual ramp and payment timing.
Define the unit and fee boundaries
The unit is a completed billed outpatient visit, not a booked slot, animal enrolled or test run. A pet may require multiple visits; that does not make every visit a new customer. Revenue follows invoices for completed visits. The base 94.0% completion assumption first reduces booked requests, then capacity can remove further visits. No income is assumed from no-shows.
The three classes have different role times and outside-lab costs. The licensed clinician chooses the case and referral; time estimates must be measured, and a complex animal cannot be reclassified merely to preserve an economic target.
| Class | Mix | Bundle | Vet minutes | RVT minutes | Room minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wellness | 45.0% | $160.00 | 20 | 15 | 30 |
| Illness | 40.0% | $290.00 | 30 | 25 | 45 |
| Extended, non-surgical | 15.0% | $420.00 | 45 | 40 | 65 |
From an invoice to contribution
| Step | Bound result | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled fee | $251.00 | Class price × class mix |
| Invoiced fee | $243.47 | Scheduled fee × realization |
| Expected collectible | $242.25 | Invoiced fee × (1 − bad-debt fraction) |
| Materials + outside labs | $66.25 | Separate class-level vendor costs |
| Contribution before roster/fixed costs | $170.65 | Collectible × (1 − card share × fee rate) − vendor cost |
| Contribution per clinician minute | $6.15 | Mix comparison only; no clinical selection advice |
Card fees use receipts in the monthly engine, so a delayed receivable changes both cash and fee timing. Payroll is fixed paid time and is deducted once from total contribution. Do not subtract loaded staff time per visit again from modeled EBITDA. Use time-based cost allocation for service comparisons, then reconcile it to the same paid roster.
Which resource actually limits the case?
| Resource | Available usable minutes | Mix minutes per visit | Implication |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner-veterinarian | 7,920 | 27.8 | Clinical allocation: 6 hours/day |
| Technician | 6,760 | 22.8 | Only 65.0% of paid time assigned to these visit tasks |
| Two exam rooms | 15,840 | 41.2 | Includes turnover/idle allowance |
| Binding mixed-visit result | 285 | Whole-visit allocation rechecked | Clinician limit; separate assistant/front pools also checked |
The engine allocates whole visits by the planned mix and checks veterinarian, technician, room, assistant and front-desk minutes separately. It reduces the count if rounding would overload any pool. A longer-care scenario reduces throughput without purchasing another room. At the base mix, the EBITDA threshold sits below capacity, but there is little room for a larger paid roster unless demand, fees or task design changes.
Which weekly measurements belong in the plan?
Track booked requests, completed visits, no-shows, referrals and visits lost to capacity separately. Record clinician and technician active minutes by case class, room occupancy/cleaning and documentation backlog. Compare invoiced versus received money, unpaid balances and external-test purchases with the same period. A full diary can coexist with poor collections or a costly mix.
A delay-only test moves ten percentage points of invoices from current to next-month receipts, while keeping demand and invoiced revenue unchanged. Minimum cash falls from $37,795 to $31,941, a $5,855 difference. It is an AR/fee-timing sensitivity, not a price or profit-growth forecast. Collect supplier credit and client payment evidence before replacing the cash assumptions.
Use the monthly and annual profitability case to reconcile these measures to the paid owner, debt and cash balance.
Sources and scope
- Declared veterinary-clinic planning case · Checked 2026-10-05 · Case methodology; every local price, service duration, demand, rent, trade budget and financing input is an explicit hypothesis, not a quotation or operating record.
- South Pasadena Animal Hospital published pricing · Checked 2026-10-05 · One Alhambra, California practice, Rev 12.31.25; retail-client exam/test prices, not a national average, wholesale laboratory fee or this case’s bundled bill.