Planning ahead can help reduce end of year stress and set your practice up for a strong start to 2026. This guide walks through key operational areas to review, including office closures, scheduling updates, reporting, inventory planning, and pricing updates.

If this is your first end of year with Shepherd, welcome! You do not need to complete any manual year end close or run a special process in the system. Shepherd does not require a button push or midnight close out, unlike some server based PIMS systems. No more staying late on the last day of the year to close out your books before the clock strikes midnight!

Office Closure Planning

Communicating Office Closures or Holiday Hours

Proactively communicating closures or limited hours helps clients plan for medication refills, prescription food purchases, boarding needs, and appointments.

If you're not closing for the holidays - Thank you for your continued support providing care for animals and the people that love them during the holidays!

Communication Tools in Shepherd

You can notify clients using Mass SMS, Mass Email, or Pet Portal Announcements.

To send a Mass SMS or Email

Navigate to Message Center
Select Mass Communication
Use an existing template or select + New Mass SMS/Email
Choose SMS or Email and configure your message

Please see the Mass Communication help article for details on delivery options and SMS charges.

Posting closures on social media and updating your practice voicemail helps ensure clients see your message through multiple channels.

Updating Your Shepherd Schedule

Updating schedules helps prevent appointments from being booked when your team is unavailable, including bookings made through the Pet Portal.

Adding Schedule Blocks

Navigate to Schedule → Appointments
Select an appointment slot
Choose Update hours for this block
Select Block Off Time for Provider

This allows you to block availability directly from the schedule view.

Updating Provider Availability

Navigate to Admin → Scheduling → Providers
Select a provider
Scroll to Additional Availability & Out of Office
Select Add New and enter the applicable dates

End of Year Reporting

Always confirm reporting requirements with your bookkeeper, accountant, and local regulations to ensure you run the correct reports.

Reports covering a full year may take several minutes to generate, depending on data volume. Please allow the full report to load.

What Information do you need?	Recommended Report
Total taxable sales, sales tax collected	Sales Tax Report
Commission or production for my DVM’s	Production Report Summarizes user productivity, including services rendered and revenue generated
Which items sold were the most/least profitable this year?	Inventory Items Sales & Usage Report See total units sold, cost vs. profit, and more
Which clients have credits/balances at end of year?	Accounts Receivable Report Track outstanding balances owed by clients, monitor aging invoices, and manage credit balances.
What types of appointments did clients miss the most this year? Who are my clients that most frequently cancel or no-show their appointments?	Appointment Report Navigate into the Appointment Report → Select your Time Period → Select “No Show” in the Appointment Status drop down menu → Select View Report (or download) You will see two views: Appointments (this will provide your “No Show’s”) and Cancelled Appointments to see how many appointments were cancelled this year and for what reason
How do I find a list of my top clients of the year?	Client Report Set these filters: Time Period: This Year Run Report By: Last Invoice Date Email Address: All Mailing Address: All Then click View Report. Once the report loads, scroll to the right until you see the Period Sales column. Click the sort icon twice to sort from highest to lowest. If you’d like to print or save the sorted results, click the blue Active CSV link just below the Download and View Report buttons. That will export the report in the same order you’re seeing on screen.
How are clients hearing about my practice? What marketing avenues bring in top clients?	Referral Source Report If you currently have Referral sources setup in Shepherd you can run this report to uncover how clients are hearing about your business - Google, Facebook, website, etc. Here you can see how many clients were reported from each referral source this year, average sales per client referral type, and more.

Summary Report

The Summary Report offers a detailed overview of various key financial metrics within a selected time period.

Navigate to Reporting → Summary Report

Revenue will be the first available tab to toggle into viewing this report in Shepherd. From here you can see total revenue by client type or Product Categories. Running by Product category will provide insight into which categories at your hospital provide the highest/lowest gross and net revenue, and includes your total amount of discounts and returns in each category.

This Summary Report will also provide tabs to view AR Reconciliation, Sales Tax, Invoices, Discounts, Payment Types, Payments, Returns, Refunds, and Client and Patients.

In the Client and Patients section you can quickly see your total number of new clients and patients, total number of transferred patients, and more

End of Year Inventory Planning

If your practice performs end of year inventory counts, review the following resources before beginning.

Shepherd Inventory Help Center Articles

Shepherd Inventory Count Help Article

Pay special attention to the alerts called out in the help article to be best prepared for your count!

Inventory Counts Help Article

Updating Lots, Bottles, and Expiration Dates

Tracking and updating your lots and expiration dates for Vaccines and Controlled Drugs can be completed by searching and opening the product and saving the new lot information you wish to track.

Inventory Lots Help Article

You can enable lot and expiration tracking for additional inventory items, but this setting applies to all items and cannot be turned off. Contact the Support Team before enabling if you have questions.

Take a Look

Updating Pricing for the New Year

Shepherd offers tools to update pricing efficiently, whether you are adjusting individual items or applying bulk increases.

Reference Lab Pricing

Integrated reference lab list pricing updates automatically when the lab updates pricing. Any overridden or custom pricing does not update automatically, and in house lab pricing must be updated manually.

Bulk Edit Pricing Updates

Bulk Edit allows mass updates across products and inventory items. This feature is permission based and can time out if too many items are selected at once.

Bulk Edit Help Article

Filtering in Bulk Edit

Use filters to narrow results before making changes. Filter sets can be saved for future use.

Manual Pricing Updates

After filtering, pricing can be edited directly within the Bulk Edit table without opening individual items.

Bulk Price Increase

Navigate to Admin → Bulk Edit → Products → Bulk Price Increase.

This option applies percentage increases to existing markup and is ideal for updating categories like exams or medications.

Bulk selling price percentage increases are only available for products not linked to inventory items.

Additional End of Year Considerations

Make sure you have your 2026 Rabies Tags ordered!
EOY is a great time to update team documentation within your Practice:
- SOPs
- Controlled drug logs
- Safety protocols
- Staff handbook updates

Will you be setting up Production or Commission for your team in 2026? Check out our User Production and Commission Help Article!
Are you looking to start tracking inventory within Shepherd in 2026? Take a look at our Inventory Overview Help Article!
Will you start tracking how clients are referred to your Practice?
- Admin → Clinic Settings → Referral Sources (under Practice Management) → Add New

Thank you for trusting Shepherd to support your practice throughout the year. We wish you a smooth close to the year and a happy, healthy, and successful New Year.

Shepherd End-of-Year (EOY) Planning Guide