Can You Outsource Shepherd Veterinary Software Front Desk and Billing Work?
Yes. Dedicated trained teams work inside your own Shepherd system, covering the phones, scheduling, messaging center, refill requests, invoicing, and end-of-day reports. Flat weekly pricing from $299 per FTE (volume based), with a trained backup included at no charge. Live in 14 days.
What Is Shepherd Veterinary Software?
Shepherd is a cloud-based veterinary practice management system built by Shepherd Software, Inc. and led by co-founder and CEO Dr. Cindy Barnes, a practicing veterinarian with a background in emergency medicine. That origin shows in the product’s core idea: the SOAP medical record drives the rest of the system, so charges captured in the record flow to the invoice automatically and inventory updates when products are administered. Around that core sit scheduling with customizable appointment types, a digital whiteboard, a messaging center with two-way texting, a pet portal for appointment requests and Rx refills, customizable forms, Shepherd Pay for payment processing, detailed end-of-day reporting, and AI tools such as TranscribeAI for SOAP notes.
The catch is that automation still ends where the phone rings. Portal requests, texts, refill queues, unconfirmed appointments, and end-of-day reconciliation all need a person, and in most Shepherd clinics that person is a CSR who is already three deep at the front desk. That staffing gap, not the software, is what this service solves.
Who Is This For?
Practices that chose Shepherd for its clean, record-first workflow and now need people to keep pace with it: independent general practices, urgent care and emergency hospitals, mobile vets, and multi-location groups. It fits a single-doctor clinic that needs one remote CSR to own the phones and portal queue, and a growing group that wants a central remote desk for messaging, refills, invoicing follow-up, and reporting across locations.
Where Shepherd Practices Lose Time and Money
Shepherd removes the paperwork, not the call volume. CSRs juggle check-ins, texts, and a ringing line all day, and burnout follows.
See the fixEach departure means re-training someone new on Shepherd, your protocols, and your clients, while the rest of the team absorbs the queue.
See the fixAutomated reminders reach most clients. The unconfirmed remainder needs a phone call the day before, and nobody has the hour it takes.
See the fixRecords requests and claim forms stack up behind the front desk, and clients wait at the counter while someone hunts for documents.
See the fixFront Desk, Phones, and Client Records
Our specialists answer your phones in your practice’s name, register new clients and patients in Shepherd, and keep records clean: owner details, patient information, and the customizable forms you send for new client intake, delivered by email or link and tracked to completion. Your on-site team stays with the clients and patients in the building; the remote team owns the ringing line and the data behind it.
Scheduling and Appointment Types
We build and maintain your Shepherd schedule around your customizable appointment types and provider availability, triage pet portal appointment requests, call the unconfirmed list before each clinic day, and backfill cancellations the same morning so the book stays full. When same-day emergencies land, a remote scheduler reshuffles the day by phone while your front desk keeps the lobby calm.
Messaging Center and Pet Portal
Shepherd’s messaging center gives clients free two-way texting with your practice, and the pet portal takes appointment and refill requests around the clock. Both are only as good as the response time. Our team works those queues through the day, answers routine questions from your approved scripts, routes clinical questions to your staff, and makes recall and follow-up calls so lapsing patients come back instead of drifting to the clinic down the road.
Prescription Refills and Pharmacy Faxes
Refill requests arrive through the pet portal, the phone, and third-party pharmacy faxes that need a chart check before any doctor signs. Our specialists verify the patient and prescription history in Shepherd, prepare each request for approval, process the approved ones, and notify the client, same day. We also handle pet insurance claim paperwork and records requests so checkout stops waiting on documents.
Invoicing, Charge Capture, and Shepherd Pay
Shepherd’s promise is that if it is in the medical record, it is on the invoice. Our team protects that promise: reviewing invoices against records before checkout, preparing Easy Estimates for treatment conversations, posting and reconciling Shepherd Pay payments including stored-card and online portal transactions, and following up on outstanding client balances politely and persistently. Missed charges and unreconciled days stop leaking revenue.
Inventory and End-of-Day Reporting
Because Shepherd decrements inventory when products are administered, the data is only as reliable as the item setup and receiving behind it. Our specialists maintain item records, process receiving, watch reorder points, and reconcile counts. On reporting, someone on our team owns your calendar: end-of-day reports, commission and treatment reports, and the patient and revenue views your manager actually reads, delivered on schedule with exceptions flagged.
Put a Dedicated Shepherd Team on This Work
You have seen what we cover, from the ringing phone to the end-of-day report. Meet us, pick the seats you need, and watch a trained team work your own Shepherd queues before you commit to anything.
Book Your 2-Week Free TrialHow Our Teams Train and Go Live on Shepherd
New team members learn your Shepherd setup before they touch live work: your SOPs and appointment types first, then supervised sessions inside your own account covering the schedule, messaging center, refill queue, and invoicing workflow. A team lead reviews early production daily and quality checks continue after go-live. Every specialist works under an individual confidentiality agreement with named Shepherd credentials, never shared logins, and you can review our activity in your own system at any time.
Why Outsource Shepherd Work, and Why Staffingly
Answering services take messages and stop. We work inside Shepherd: phones, scheduling, portal queues, refills, invoicing, inventory, and reports, one accountable team.
A flat weekly fee per dedicated specialist. No percentage of collections, no per-call pricing. Every efficiency gain stays with your practice.
Your SOPs plus supervised training inside your own Shepherd account. Our people learn your appointment types, your doctors’ preferences, and your regular clients.
Most teams go live in about 14 days. 2-Week Free Trial. Trained backup included at no charge. 800+ providers served, 4.9 Google rating you can verify on our listing.
Process and Onboarding
20 to 30 minutes on Teams. We map your Shepherd queues and pain points before we meet.
Named Shepherd user accounts per specialist, least-privilege roles, your approval on every account.
Your SOPs plus supervised sessions in your own account; supervised production from day one.
Daily production reports, weekly KPI review, month-to-month after your 2-Week Free Trial.
Security and Data Protection
Veterinary practices are not covered entities under HIPAA, but your client, payment, and patient data deserve the same discipline we bring to human healthcare. Our staff are HIPAA-trained as a baseline, we execute Business Associate Agreements for practices that want them, and our workflows are designed to support strict data protection, with SOC 2 Type II attestation, ISO 27001:2022, $5M E&O and cyber liability coverage, and named individual credentials in your Shepherd account. Read the complete program at Security at Staffingly.
Flat Weekly Pricing Per Dedicated Specialist
1 to 4 dedicated Shepherd FTEs.
5 to 9 FTEs.
10+ FTEs.
45 hours of coverage for less than others charge for 40.
$399 per week works out to $8.87 per hour across 2,340 hours of coverage a year, flat. Your dedicated specialist covers a 9 hour day, Monday to Friday, a full hour more than a standard shift: the day starts by clearing what arrived overnight, voicemails, portal requests, and pharmacy faxes, and it ends past your close so far less rolls into tomorrow. A trained backup steps in at no charge whenever they are out. Flat weekly fee per dedicated specialist, never a percentage of your revenue, no setup fees.
Start with a 2-Week Free Trial. Month-to-month after, with no long-term contract.
- Salary + payroll taxes + benefits
- Recruiting + turnover replacement
- Training on your PIMS + protocols
- PTO, sick days, and no coverage plan
Calculate Savings
Shepherd Outsourcing: Frequently Asked Questions
What tasks can a remote team handle in Shepherd?
Client and patient registration, scheduling around your appointment types, pet portal and messaging center queues, prescription refill preparation, invoice review and charge capture checks, Shepherd Pay posting, inventory upkeep, and end-of-day reporting. Anything administrative that happens inside Shepherd screens, a trained remote specialist can own.
Can your team answer our phones, not just work queues?
Yes. Specialists answer on your existing VoIP line or a dedicated US number, book directly into Shepherd, and log every call against the client record.
Does outsourcing conflict with Shepherd’s automation?
No, it completes it. Shepherd automates charge capture and inventory decrement; our team covers the human work around it: phones, portal requests, refills, confirmations, and reconciliation.
How do your staff access our Shepherd account?
Through named individual user accounts you approve, with least-privilege roles. No shared logins, and you can review our activity in your own system.
Do you handle two-way texting and the pet portal?
Yes. We work the messaging center and portal queues through the day, answer routine questions from your approved scripts, and route clinical questions to your team.
How fast can a dedicated Shepherd team start?
Most teams go live in about 14 days: access setup, training on your SOPs and appointment types, then supervised production. The engagement starts with a 2-Week Free Trial.
Is our client and patient data protected?
Veterinary clinics are not HIPAA covered entities, but we apply the same standard anyway: HIPAA-trained staff, signed confidentiality agreements, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001:2022, and $5M in coverage.
Which practice types does this fit?
Shepherd settings of all kinds: independent general practices, urgent care and emergency hospitals, mobile vets, and multi-location groups that want one central remote desk.
Written By
Dan Nandan has spent 25+ years in IT consulting and healthcare BPO, was among the first in the US to build an RPO/BPO delivery network overseas, and has been featured in Computerworld. He runs the operations and the dedicated virtual teams behind the veterinary support workflows described on this page.
Connect on LinkedInSee what a dedicated Shepherd team changes in 14 days.
Book a strategy meeting. Dan Nandan, CEO, joins most calls personally. Real conversation, real numbers for your practice.
Claim Your 2-Week Free TrialShepherd and Shepherd Veterinary Software are trademarks of Shepherd Software, Inc. Staffingly, Inc. is an independent outsourcing company and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Shepherd Software, Inc. Staffingly works inside client-owned Shepherd systems under client-granted access.