IDEXX Neo vs Shepherd

IDEXX Neo is cloud-based veterinary practice management software for clinic workflows spanning patient care, scheduling, payments, and reporting. Its dashboard summarizes overdue and draft invoices, reminders, appointments, callbacks, and diagnostic results. Patient records and workflows include histories, examination notes, diagnoses, estimates, procedure templates, diagnostic orders, and electronic signatures. Scheduling covers appointment management, SMS reminders, boarding, and the Neo Patient Portal. Payment features include capturing payments with a wireless Clover device and reviewing payment history and reports. Practice reporting includes metrics, purchase orders, inventory tracking, visualizations, and data export. Integrations listed by IDEXX include its diagnostics and reference labs, ANTECH, Deputy, SmartFlow, Televet, VetConnect PLUS, Vetstoria, and IDEXX Web PACS. IDEXX says Neo is hosted and managed by Amazon Web Services and data is backed up automatically. It works in a modern browser on Mac, PC, iOS, or Android devices. IDEXX offers a free 15-day trial; subscription pricing is available on request. The company recommends keeping one or two devices with wireless data plans available in case internet access is lost.

Shepherd is cloud-based veterinary practice management software for clinics, with tools for medical records, client requests, payments, and student-facing workflows. Its SOAP process updates the medical record and invoice, then creates discharge instructions. TranscribeAI generates SOAP notes, while DiagnoseAI offers clinical decision support and treatment suggestions; ShepherdAI features are optional. Through the client portal, clients can request appointments and prescription refills, review medical history, and access vaccine certificates. Shepherd Pay is integrated into the system and supports USB terminals, stored cards, and online pet portal payments. The subscription includes unlimited users and work stations, expert training, veterinary-experienced support, Shepherd Pay, and no implementation fees. Listed connections include IDEXX diagnostics, HomeAgain, AllyDVM, CoVet, and PetDesk; the help center also lists Shepherd OpenAPI. The company says onboarding takes four to six weeks without historical data migration, or eight to ten weeks when migrating records. Pricing is discussed during a demo. Shepherd reports an annually renewed SOC 2 Type II examination and says its production data is hosted on AWS in Ohio across multiple availability zones.