Industry
Payments software for veterinary practices and animal hospitals
Veterinary practices collect money in three awkward moments: a deposit before surgery, the balance at discharge when the client is emotional, and a monthly wellness plan that must keep billing for a year. Enterprise Pay Gateway provides hosted checkout links for deposits and balances, scheduled recurring billing for wellness plans with automatic retries, and payouts into your own bank account — a fixed monthly subscription plus a platform fee from 0.20% to 0.75%, with Stripe's processing fee billed separately by Stripe.
Last updated 9 September 2026
Typical ticket
$120–$3,500
Routine vaccinations and emergency surgery sit in the same practice, so you need both a fast small charge and a deposit-plus-balance flow.
Wellness plan fit
Very high
Monthly preventative care plans smooth revenue and raise visit frequency, but only work if failed cards are recovered automatically.
Bad debt risk
Elevated
Care is often delivered before payment is discussed. Deposits taken against a written estimate remove most of the write-offs.
Where the money leaks
Estimates are approved verbally, then disputed
A signed estimate that ends in a card charge at discharge is far more collectable than an invoice emailed afterwards. Collecting a deposit at the moment of approval anchors the client to the number they agreed to.
Wellness plans churn quietly
Plans are sold once and then forgotten. Cards expire, clients move banks, and the practice only notices at year end when the annual value never arrived.
Discharge is the worst time to take payment
Clients are stressed and the front desk is busy. A card on file, charged against the agreed estimate, keeps the conversation clinical rather than financial.
Multi-doctor practices lack a shared view
Volume by service, average ticket and plan retention are usually invisible without exporting from the practice management system. Consolidated reporting shows where revenue actually comes from.
The four payment flows you need
- 1
Estimate deposit
Send a deposit checkout link when the client approves the estimate. The amount is credited against the final invoice.
- 2
Discharge balance
Charge the remaining balance through a checkout link sent to the client's phone before they reach the front desk.
- 3
Wellness plan
Bill the plan monthly with retries on decline and a self-serve portal where clients update their own card.
- 4
Retail and prescriptions
Sell food, preventatives and refills from the same storefront page so repeat product revenue is captured without a second system.
What veterinary payment processing actually costs
Two costs, always separate. Stripe charges card processing directly to your account — its published US online card rate is 2.9% plus 30 cents at the time of writing, with card-present and international transactions priced differently.
Enterprise Pay Gateway charges a fixed monthly subscription from $49 plus a platform fee that falls with volume: 0.75% on Starter, 0.60% on Growth, 0.40% on Pro and a negotiated 0.20%–0.35% for groups.
A two-doctor practice running $150,000 a month sits on Pro: $199 plus roughly $600 in platform fees, alongside Stripe's processing. Model your own volume on the pricing page before committing.
Wellness plans that do not leak
About one in ten recurring charges fails somewhere in a year, almost always because a card expired or was reissued. Without staged retries and a billing portal, that failure becomes a cancelled plan nobody chased.
Set a clear rule for when plan benefits pause after a failed payment, and email the client a direct link to update their card. Most clients fix it within a day when the link is one tap away.
Deposits, estimates and disputes
Put the estimate range and the deposit amount in writing before you charge, and repeat the description on the checkout page — that description is what a card issuer reads during a dispute.
Refund quickly when a procedure is cancelled. A prompt refund is cheaper than a chargeback, which carries a fee and counts against your dispute ratio regardless of the clinical facts.
Keep clinical records in your practice management system. Payment records only need amount, date, product name and the customer email used at checkout.
Frequently asked questions
- Can a veterinary practice bill monthly wellness plans?
- Yes. Create the plan as a recurring product and bill it on a monthly schedule. Declined cards are retried automatically and clients can update their card through a self-serve billing portal, which is what stops silent plan churn.
- How do surgical deposits work?
- Create a deposit product at the amount you want to hold and share its checkout link when the client approves the estimate. The deposit is credited against the final invoice at discharge.
- What does payment processing cost a veterinary clinic?
- Stripe's card processing fee, billed by Stripe to your account, plus the software platform fee. Enterprise Pay Gateway charges $49 to $199 a month plus 0.75% down to 0.40%, with negotiated 0.20%–0.35% pricing for larger groups.
- Does this replace my practice management system?
- No. It handles the money: deposits, balances, wellness plans, retail and reporting. Clinical records stay where they are.
Start taking deposits this week
Create your account, verify with Stripe, and share your first checkout link. Card processing is provided by Stripe under its own agreement with you.