Case Study: Veterinary Network Automates Supply Ordering

A veterinary hospital network with nine clinics across three counties was spending more on supplies than it should have been—and running out of critical items more often than it could afford. Each clinic managed its own ordering independently, placing orders with whichever vendor was most convenient, at whatever price was listed that day, without visibility into what other clinics were ordering or what the network's aggregate purchasing power could negotiate. The result was overspending, inconsistent inventory, and a procurement process that consumed veterinarian and technician time that should have been spent on patient care.

This case study documents how the network automated its multi-location supply ordering with centralized budget controls and vendor management, and the financial and operational improvements that followed.

The Challenge

Veterinary practices depend on a complex supply chain: pharmaceuticals, surgical supplies, diagnostic reagents, vaccines, pet food, and general medical consumables. This network's nine clinics collectively managed over 1,800 unique SKUs from 23 different vendors. Each clinic's office manager or lead technician was responsible for monitoring stock levels, placing orders, receiving deliveries, and reconciling invoices—tasks that added up to 6 to 8 hours per week at each location, on top of their primary clinical responsibilities.

The decentralized approach created compounding problems:

• No volume pricing leverage. Each clinic placed orders independently, typically in small quantities. The network was collectively purchasing enough from its top five vendors to qualify for significant volume discounts, but because orders were fragmented across nine locations, those thresholds were never reached
• Stockouts occurred at an average of 3.4 per clinic per month, forcing emergency orders at premium pricing, procedure rescheduling, and in some cases, referral of patients to other practices. Each stockout was estimated to cost $180 to $450 in direct and indirect expenses
• Budget visibility was nonexistent. The network's management had no real-time view of supply spending by clinic, category, or vendor. Budget overruns were discovered only during monthly financial reviews—weeks after the spending had occurred
• Duplicate orders and overstock. Without cross-clinic visibility, clinics frequently over-ordered items they feared running out of, tying up capital in excess inventory that sometimes expired before use. An estimated 4.2% of pharmaceutical inventory expired on shelves annually
• Invoice reconciliation was a monthly nightmare. Each clinic received invoices from its individual vendor orders, which had to be manually matched to purchase orders and receipts, then forwarded to the central accounting team for entry into QuickBooks. Discrepancies took days to resolve

The network was spending approximately $2.1 million annually on supplies. Management estimated that at least $460,000 of that amount was attributable to inefficiencies: missed volume discounts, emergency order premiums, expired inventory waste, and the labor cost of the decentralized manual process.

The Solution

The network implemented a centralized supply ordering automation platform that connected all nine clinics to a unified procurement system with real-time inventory tracking, automated reorder triggers, budget controls, and vendor management. The system replaced the clinic-by-clinic manual process with a network-wide automated workflow.

Figure 1: Centralized supply ordering network connecting 9 clinics to vendors through automated reordering, budget controls, and volume aggregation

The system worked at three levels. At the clinic level, each location's inventory was tracked in real time through barcode scanning at the point of use. When a supply item dropped below its par level (set individually for each SKU at each location based on historical usage), the system automatically generated a reorder request. Clinic managers could review and adjust these requests but were not required to initiate them—the system ensured nothing was missed.

At the network level, the ordering engine aggregated reorder requests across all nine clinics before submitting to vendors. Instead of nine separate small orders, vendors received consolidated purchase orders that hit volume discount thresholds. The system also implemented smart routing: if Clinic 3 needed an item urgently but Clinic 7 had excess stock, the system suggested an inter-clinic transfer before placing an external order.

Budget controls operated at both clinic and network levels. Each clinic had a monthly supply budget, and orders that would exceed the threshold required manager approval. The network had category-level budgets (pharmaceuticals, surgical supplies, diagnostics) that triggered alerts when spending exceeded planned levels. All of this was visible on a real-time dashboard accessible to clinic managers and network leadership.

Invoice reconciliation was automated through three-way matching: purchase order, receiving confirmation (via barcode scan at delivery), and vendor invoice. Matched invoices were automatically approved and posted to QuickBooks with correct location, category, and vendor coding. Discrepancies were flagged for review rather than requiring manual comparison of every line item.

The Results

• Total supply costs decreased 22%, saving approximately $462,000 annually through volume discount capture, elimination of emergency order premiums, and reduced inventory waste
• Stockouts dropped from 3.4 per clinic per month to 0.2, virtually eliminating procedure delays and emergency sourcing. The remaining rare stockouts were due to manufacturer backorders, not ordering failures
• Expired inventory waste fell from 4.2% to 0.6% of pharmaceutical stock, saving approximately $38,000 annually in wasted medications
• Weekly ordering time per clinic dropped from 6-8 hours to 45 minutes, returning that time to clinical staff for patient care
• Invoice reconciliation time dropped 85%, with automated three-way matching replacing manual comparison across 23 vendors and 9 locations
• Vendor count was reduced from 23 to 14 through analysis of purchasing patterns, consolidating volume with preferred vendors and negotiating better terms
• Inter-clinic transfers saved an additional $24,000 annually by redistributing excess inventory instead of placing new orders

"Our veterinarians and technicians went into this profession to care for animals, not to manage spreadsheets and chase purchase orders. Automation gave them that time back while actually spending less money."
— Network Operations Director

Key Takeaways

• Aggregated purchasing power is the biggest cost lever for multi-location businesses. The single most impactful change was consolidating nine independent ordering streams into one, unlocking volume discounts that individual clinics could never access.
• Par-level automation eliminates both stockouts and overstock. Setting data-driven reorder points for each SKU at each location balanced the competing risks of running out and ordering too much.
• Inter-clinic transfers are hidden savings. Before automation, excess inventory at one location was invisible to others. The transfer suggestion engine recovered significant value from existing stock.
• Budget visibility changes spending behavior. When clinic managers could see real-time spending against budget, ordering became more thoughtful. The budget controls paid for themselves through changed behavior, not just through hard approvals.
• Three-way matching is the gold standard for invoice accuracy. Automated matching of PO, receipt, and invoice eliminated the reconciliation burden while catching vendor billing errors that manual review often missed.

For veterinary networks, dental groups, and any multi-location healthcare practice, decentralized supply ordering is an expensive habit. Centralizing and automating the procurement process delivers immediate, measurable savings while freeing clinical staff to focus on what they were trained to do—care for patients.