✨Integrations & Data Connection Updates
Veterinarian Recommended Solutions - New Integration Introduction
Shepherd and Veterinarian Recommended Solutions (VRS) are integrated to assist with streamlining communication and improving the accuracy and efficiency of data exchange between both platforms. With the integration, relevant client and pet data is easily synchronized, ensuring seamless coordination for product recommendations, order fulfillment, and client communications.
Veterinarian Recommended Solutions is currently in closed beta, but we're gearing up for an exciting public launch very soon!
PetDesk - New Integration Introduction
Simplify your clinic with PetDesk’s user-friendly client engagement tools and enhance client experiences with North America's #1 pet app and multi-channel messaging. Eliminate double data entry and reduce front-desk workload by automating tedious tasks (like sending reminders) -- Boost admin efficiency, reclaim your time and delight your clients with the combined strength of Shepherd and PetDesk.
PetDesk Communications is currently in closed beta, but we're gearing up for an exciting public launch very soon!
🚀 New Features & Capabilities!
Introducing Dark Mode for Shepherd
We understand that every user is different - with unique preferences and accessibility needs. That’s why we’re excited to introduce Dark Mode for Shepherd!
Whether you’re looking to reduce eye strain, save battery life, or simply embrace the dark side, Dark Mode has you covered. You can now switch between:
Light Mode – the classic, bright look
Dark Mode – sleek and easy on the eyes
Ready to explore a new look? Give Dark Mode a try - if you dare. 😈
Enhanced Discount Configuration by Item Type
To give you more flexibility in how discounts are applied, we've enhanced our discount settings! You can now define specific discount percentage rates by item type - all within a single client discount type.
This means you can tailor discount rates for different item types (like services, products, medications, etc.) under one unified discount template.
You’ll find the updated Client Discount Settings in your Admin Clinic Settings.
Inventory Update: Increased Cost Precision
To support more accurate inventory cost calculations and valuations, we’ve increased the precision of inventory costs from 2 decimal places to 4.
This enhancement allows for greater accuracy in tracking and reporting, especially when dealing with high-volume or small-margin items.
New Label Element: Horizontal Line
We’ve added a new customization option for labels - a horizontal line element!
This design feature allows you to visually separate and organize different sections on your labels, giving you more control over layout and clarity. It’s perfect for creating clean, professional-looking labels tailored to your needs.
To start using this new element, head to your Admin Label Settings and update your label templates.
New Messaging Overview Dashboard
To help you stay informed about your message usage, we’re introducing the Messaging Overview Dashboard, available under your Admin Client Communication settings.
This new dashboard gives you clear insights into how you're utilizing messaging - so you can easily track volume, trends, and associated costs. It’s everything you need to stay in control and make informed communication decisions.
Take a look and see how your messages are adding up!
Coming Soon: Purchase Messaging Credits & View History
Soon, you’ll be able to purchase Messaging Credits directly from the Messaging Overview Dashboard - along with access to your purchase history, all in one place.
This upcoming enhancement ensures that all your messaging activity - from usage to purchases - is centralized for easier management and transparency.
MMS messaging is also on the horizon, giving you even more flexibility in how you connect.
Stay tuned for the rollout of a more streamlined messaging experience!
Patient Medical Record Export: Locked SOAP Notes Only
You now have greater control over what’s included in exported patient medical records. We've introduced a new filter option that allows you to export only locked SOAP notes.
This ensures that only finalized and reviewed notes are shared, helping you maintain accuracy and consistency in your record-keeping and communication.
Look for this new option the next time you export a patient record!
New Report: Appointment Report
Say hello to your newest reporting sidekick - the Appointment Report!
This trusty companion gives you quick access to key appointment scheduling data and analytics, helping you spot trends and optimize your calendar. It features two main tables:
Scheduled Appointments – view upcoming and past scheduled visits
Canceled Appointments – keep tabs on appointment cancellations
And this is just the beginning - a full dashboard for high-level insights is coming soon!
Dive in and explore what your new sidekick can do!
Learn more about the Appointment Report
Scheduling Update: Reschedule Appointments with Ease
You can now reschedule appointments with the click of a button!
This new feature lets you carry forward all existing appointment details - saving time and reducing manual re-entry. Best of all, it maintains a single continuous appointment record, so your history stays clean and accurate.
Appointment Status Updates: Revised Order & New "Late" Status
We’ve enhanced the Appointment Status dropdown to better reflect the real-world flow of appointments and improve efficiency for your team.
What’s New:
The status list now appears in a logical, progressive order, making it easier to track and update appointments as they move through each stage.
A new “Late” status has been added, allowing staff to quickly mark when a client has missed their scheduled arrival time.
🔔 Note: The “Late” status is currently a manual update and is not tied to automated triggers at this time.
These updates help streamline appointment tracking and improve communication across your team.
Appointment Status: Define Ordering of List + Add Late Status
Appointment Status Dropdown Enhancements- We’ve reorganized and refined the appointment status list to better align with how appointments actually progress.
What’s New:
The appointment status dropdown now displays status options in logical order
“Late” has been added as a new appointment status, helping staff quickly note when a client has missed their scheduled arrival time
This is currently a manual status change and will remove the appointment from Upcoming Appointments on the Patient Profile
Patient Vitals: New Entry Options & Enhancements
We’ve made important updates to how you record patient vitals, giving you more flexibility and precision.
What’s new:
Additional vital entry fields to capture a wider range of data
Updated selection options for improved usability and consistency
A new option to mark vitals as "Did Not Obtain", helping you keep records clear without compromising accuracy
These enhancements are designed to make patient records more detailed, accurate, and focused - supporting better clinical decisions and documentation.
🛠️ Existing Feature Updates!
Design Health: Enhanced Badge Styling
We’ve refreshed the styling of status badges as part of our ongoing commitment to design health and user experience.
What’s Improved:
Enhanced visual accessibility for easier at-a-glance recognition
Consistent styling across the platform to reduce visual friction
Subtle design refinements that support a more cohesive and polished interface
These updates ensure that as Shepherd continues to grow in features, the visual experience remains clear, intuitive, and user-friendly.
Inventory Lot Administration: Define Lot Details During Treatment
To improve accuracy and consistency in inventory tracking, we've enhanced how inventory lot information is handled during treatment administration.
What’s New:
When administering an item in a SOAP and Inventory Lots is enabled, users can now manually define complete lot details - including lot number, expiration date, and other relevant data - at the time of administration.
Previously, you could only create a null placeholder lot with no defined details. This enhancement ensures that lot information is captured upfront, reducing manual follow-up and improving traceability.
This new behavior applies to all inventory items, not just vaccines, to maintain consistency across all lot-based inventory handling.
This update provides greater transparency and improves operational flow across both clinical and inventory teams.
This change is building up to supporting selecting multiple lots during combination vaccination administrations. You'll be seeing this available very soon!
Pet Portal Update: More Inclusive Appointment Wording
We’ve made a small but meaningful update to the appointment request screen in the Pet Portal to better reflect the diverse care models supported by our clinics - whether care is provided in a traditional brick-and-mortar setting or through mobile services.
What’s New:
The instructional text on the appointment request screen now reads:
“Select the pet(s) you’re booking for”
This update helps ensure that all clients feel included, regardless of how or where their care is delivered.
Pet Portal & Scheduling: Improved Pending Confirmation Behavior
We’ve fine-tuned the scheduling logic to help keep your calendar accurate and avoid accidental double-bookings - especially when using Direct Booking.
What’s New:
Appointments marked as Pending Confirmation are now treated as fully reserved internally
These time slots are hidden from clients in the Pet Portal’s Direct Booking view while you await the owner's response
This ensures that your availability stays up to date and minimizes scheduling conflicts, all while giving pet owners time to confirm.
Prescriptions – Pinned Items Now in Quick View Bar
We’ve introduced a handy enhancement to prescription management: Pinned prescriptions now appear directly in the right-side Quick View bar - with room for up to three pinned items at a time.
Why this matters:
Faster Access: Instantly jump to your most-used prescriptions without searching.
Streamlined Workflow: Keep frequently referenced or in-progress prescriptions just a click away.
Better Organization: Use pins to keep high-priority items visible as you move between patients or tasks.
This is the first of several upcoming prescription updates, and while it may seem small, it's designed to make your daily workflow more efficient and intuitive.
Prescription Refill Permissions: Better Alignment with User Roles
To enhance security and ensure consistency with role-based access controls, we’ve updated how refill permissions are managed.
What’s New:
The ability to end prescription refills is now restricted to users with the "Prescriptions (Create, Renew, End Refills)" permission.
This change aligns with existing requirements for creating prescriptions and requesting refills, ensuring that only authorized team members can manage critical prescription workflows.
These updates support better compliance, reduce the risk of unauthorized changes, and reinforce robust access control across your team.
Provider Scheduling: Additional Availability + Break Management
We’ve enhanced provider scheduling tools to give you more flexibility and precision when managing provider availability.
What’s New:
You can now define breaks within additional availability blocks, giving providers more control over their schedules.
This update supports greater efficiency and customization, helping you plan around real-time needs while maintaining accurate availability for appointments.
These improvements make it easier to tailor schedules without compromising clarity or access for your team.
Reporting Update: Controlled Drug Report Now Includes Additional Client Details
We’ve enhanced the Controlled Drug Report to support more complete and compliant record-keeping.
What’s New:
The report now includes the following client details:
Gender
Date of Birth (DOB)
Driver’s License information
These additions help ensure your records meet regulatory requirements and provide a more comprehensive audit trail for controlled substance tracking.
Reporting Update: End of Day Report + Additional Shepherd Pay Details
We’ve updated the End of Day Report to include additional Shepherd Pay payment details, offering more clarity and traceability for payment reconciliation.
What’s New:
A new “Last 4 Card No” column has been added to show the last four digits of the card used
A new “Authorization ID” column displays the unique payment authorization reference
These enhancements help streamline end-of-day financial reviews and ensure more detailed Shepherd Pay transaction tracking.
Reporting Update: Invoice Line Items Report Now Includes Entering User Details
To provide greater transparency and accountability, we’ve updated the Invoice Line Items Report to include user-specific entry data.
What’s New:
A new column titled “Entered By” has been added
This column displays the name of the user who created or added each invoice item row - whether during treatment administration or manual entry
This enhancement helps users easily identify who entered each charge, supporting clearer communication, better auditing, and improved team accountability.
Reporting Update: Enhanced Sales Tax & Return Handling
We’ve improved the way returns are reflected in sales tax reporting to deliver a more consistent and transparent experience when reviewing tax-impacted transactions.
What’s New:
Enhanced logic ensures returned items are accurately represented in sales tax calculations
Greater visibility into how returns affect total taxable amounts, improving reporting accuracy
These updates help maintain compliance and provide clearer insights into the financial impact of returns on sales tax obligations.
🤖 OpenAPI Updates
🆕 Here’s What’s New
Appointment Report - Scheduling Method
You can now see how each appointment was scheduled (OpenAPI, internal, or Pet Portal). This provides clearer reporting for appointment sources and marketing attribution.
Endpoint:/pav2/open-api-appointments
Group Configuration - Share Flags
We’ve updated the group configuration endpoint to now return a complete set of share flags, including ShareMessaging. This ensures that third-party integrations respect multi-location sharing rules.
Endpoint:/pav2/open-api-group-configuration
Embedded Entities - Home Clinic Identifier
The homeClinicId field is now consistently returned on embedded patient and client entities, including SOAPPlan and TaskEntry endpoints. This enables accurate clinic-based filtering in multi-site environments.
Endpoints: Multiple, including SOAPPlan and TaskEntry
Clinic-Level Product Overrides
You can now retrieve clinic-specific product overrides when fetching products in multi-site groups. Group-level defaults remain available via an optional embed.
Endpoint:/pav2/open-api-products
User Roles
You can now retrieve user roles and assigned role data through the API. This supports more advanced user management and permission-aware integrations.
Endpoints:
/pav2/open-api-roles
/pav2/open-api-users?embed=roles
Clinic User Associations
You can now retrieve which users belong to which clinics, and view per-clinic user settings (such as whether time clock is enabled).
Endpoints:
/pav2/open-api-clinic-users
/pav2/open-api-users?embed=clinicUser
Reminder Setting Filter
You can now filter by isCustom when retrieving reminder settings, making it easier to separate system-generated reminders from custom ones.
Endpoint:/pav2/open-api-reminder-settings
🧰 Other Enhancements You’ll See
Group Endpoint Filtering Improvements
The /pav2/open-api-groups endpoint no longer supports filtering by ID. It now returns only the group associated with the clinic in the x-clinic-id header, improving security and consistency.
Field Consistency & Validation
We’ve improved consistency for key fields like homeClinicId and schedulingMethod, and strengthened validation across appointment, product, and reminder data to ensure cleaner syncs with external systems.