Vet Clinic Software in India: What to Look For (2026)

Most "best vet software" lists compare features. This guide starts somewhere else: what Indian law asks of a clinic's prescriptions, bills and records. Once you know that, it is easy to see which software helps and which gets in the way.

This guide is for clinic owners and practising vets. We quote the rules themselves and link to them at the end.

In short: good clinic software keeps one record per patient, lets only the registered vet write a prescription, and prints it on your own paper with the owner's name and address, the medicines, the dose and the total quantity (Drugs Rules, Rule 65(10)). Consultations are GST-exempt. Medicines you sell are not covered by that exemption, so keep them on a separate line and ask your CA. If you dispense, track stock by batch and expiry and keep your supply register.

What the law asks of a clinic's paperwork

Prescriptions

The Drugs Rules, 1945 count a vet with qualifications approved by the State Government as a "registered medical practitioner" (Rule 2(ee)(v)). When an owner takes your prescription to a chemist for a Schedule H, H1 or X drug, Rule 65(10) says the prescription must:

• be in writing, signed with your usual signature and dated
• give the name and address of the owner of the animal
• show the total amount of the medicine to be supplied and the dose

Under the Drugs Rules that is the whole minimum, with one addition: a Schedule X prescription must be written in duplicate (Rule 65(9)(a)). The rule does not ask for your registration number, a diagnosis or the animal's details. Most vets add their registration number anyway, and we read the VCI code's name-board rule (regulation 42(8)) as allowing it.

A chemist may not dispense the same prescription twice unless you have written on it that it may be repeated (Rule 65(11)). If a repeat is fine, say so on the sheet.

Medicines you give from the clinic

If you hand medicines to your own patients, Schedule K, entry 5 of the Drugs Rules exempts you from Chapter IV of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, which is where the sale licence comes from. The exemption only holds if you are not "keeping an open shop" or "selling across the counter". It comes with conditions:

• Buy only from a licensed dealer or manufacturer, and keep purchase records with batch numbers and the manufacturer's name and address.
• For a medicine containing a Schedule G, H or X substance, label it with your name and address, and with the dose (or "For external use only").
• Enter each supply in a register: the medicine, the dose, the patient, the date and who prescribed it. Number the entry and put that number on the label.
• Keep the register and the prescriptions for at least two years.
• Store medicines as the label directs, and never supply one past its expiry date.
• The exemption does not cover a vet who imports, makes, distributes or sells drugs on a scale that brings Chapter IV into play.

If your clinic also runs a pharmacy counter under a retail drug licence, Rule 65 adds its own registers, including a separate Schedule H1 register kept for three years.

The Drugs Rules are amended often. We read the CDSCO consolidated text (amended to July 2024). Confirm the current position with your State Drugs Controller.

GST on the bill

Notification 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate), Sl. No. 46 exempts "services by a veterinary clinic in relation to health care of animals or birds".

Medicines you sell, pet food, and any boarding or grooming are not covered by that entry. Put them on their own lines, never under one bundled price. Your CA decides how each line is taxed.

Two GST points worth checking with your CA:

• A business that supplies only exempt services does not need to register (CGST Act, section 23(1)(a)). Once you also sell taxable items, that no longer applies.
• Exempt turnover counts towards the Rs 20 lakh registration threshold (Rs 10 lakh in some north-eastern and hill states) (section 2(6), "aggregate turnover").

A GST-registered clinic issues a "bill of supply", not a tax invoice, for an exempt supply (section 31(3)(c)).

Certificates

The Veterinary Council of India's code of conduct (the 1992 Regulations) lists the certificates vets are asked for, starting with "a vaccination certificate for licensing of pets", for transport across a state border and for export. It asks you to:

• keep a "Register of Veterinary Medical Certificates" with full details of each one you issue
• put the patient's identification mark, name or number, age and the owner's name on the certificate, and keep a copy
• get the client's signature or thumb impression and a declaration that they own the animal or act for the owner

Dogs and cats sent by rail, road, sea or air need a health certificate in the form set out in Schedule A of the Transport of Animals Rules, 1978. That form includes the type and dates of vaccinations. For a pet leaving India, the Animal Quarantine and Certification Service asks for a health certificate from a registered vet, a microchip certificate and vaccination details.

The owner's personal data

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 protects data about people. For a clinic, that means the owner's name, phone number and address. Ask any vendor where your data is stored, who at the vendor can see it, and how you get all of it back if you leave.

What clinic software should not do

Suggest drugs or doses. Prescribing is the vet's job. A drug pick-list, a default dose or an "AI suggestion" blurs who decided. We think software should record the vet's decision, not make it.

Put its own brand on your prescription. The VCI code limits what a vet's name board carries to their name, qualifications, titles, speciality and registration number, and says that is also the content of their prescription papers. We read that as: your prescription should carry your details, not a software company's logo.

Let anyone write a prescription. The front desk can book a visit and print a prescription the vet has written. Only the vet should be able to write one.

Rewrite history. A wrong note or a wrong prescription should be voided with a reason, not deleted. The record is your evidence if a question comes up later.

Questions to ask any vendor

1. Who can write a prescription, and how does the software know they are a registered vet?
2. Does the prescription print on my own letterhead, with nothing of yours on it?
3. Can a wrong note or prescription be deleted, or only voided with a reason?
4. How does the bill separate an exempt consultation from a taxable medicine?
5. If I dispense, does stock go down by batch and expiry, and does it warn me before a batch expires?
6. Does the vet need a laptop, or does it work in a phone browser?
7. Can it handle every species I see, not just dogs?
8. How do I get all my data out if I leave?

How petboard handles it

petboard runs pet businesses in India: boarding, daycare, grooming, training and vet clinics. Here is what it does for a clinic today (more on the clinic page):

• Consultations: the front desk books a visit or a walk-in, and it shows up on the vet's own list straight away. Nobody has to assign it. A visit card shows the patient's allergies and what is due at this visit.
• Notes: a free-text note per visit, saved with the time and the name of the person who wrote it. A note can record weight and temperature. A wrong note is removed with a reason, not erased.
• Prescriptions: only a vet who has signed a declaration in petboard with their council registration number can write one. petboard records that number; it does not check it with the council. It prints on your own letterhead with the owner's name and address, the patient, each medicine with dose and quantity, and your registration number under the signature. Each one is numbered. You sign the printed sheet. petboard puts no mark on it, and there are no drug suggestions or default doses.
• Records: one record per patient with consultations, notes, prescriptions and lab reports, newest first. You can order a lab test on a visit and file the result with its report PDF.
• Stock (Rs 500 extra): receive stock with batch and expiry. A supply recorded on a visit, or a dose given on a boarding stay, draws from the earliest-expiring batch, and anything below the minimum you set is flagged. Writing a prescription does not change stock, and there is no warning before a batch expires yet.
• Dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, small pets, and an "Other" option for anything else. It works in a phone browser. If you run boarding as well, it is one account and one patient record.

What petboard does not do yet:

• Exempt-line billing. petboard prints a bill for a visit today. An invoice format with a separate exempt line is drafted and waiting for CA sign-off. If your clinic is GST-registered, petboard will not create a bill for a consultation until that line is live: bill those visits from your own invoice book and keep the clinical record in petboard.
• The Schedule K supply register and certificates. Keep your dispensing register and certificate register the way you do today.

A clinic is Rs 999 a month per branch, with unlimited patients and staff. Stock tracking adds Rs 500. A branch that runs boarding and a clinic is Rs 1,999 with stock tracking included, and a branch never costs more than Rs 2,999. petboard charges no GST, so that is the full price. No card is needed to sign up, and setup and your first booking are free. Writing a prescription needs an active paid plan.

Sources (read 13 October 2026):

• Drugs Rules, 1945, CDSCO consolidated text: Rule 2(ee)(v), Rule 65(9) to (11), Schedule K entry 5
• Notification 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate): Sl. No. 46
• CGST Act, 2017: sections 2(6), 23(1)(a), 31(3)(c)
• VCI code of conduct, 1992 Regulations: regulation 42
• Transport of Animals Rules, 1978: Rule 4, Schedule A
• AQCS: exporting a pet
• Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023: section 2(t)

This guide explains the rules as we read them. It is not legal or tax advice.

More resources:

• Pet Boarding Software in India (if you board as well as treat)
• How to Start a Dog Boarding Business in India