A vet invoice is half a medicine record and the whole of an expense. This guide shows what the vet must leave you, what to copy into the medicine book, and what to do when the paper is incomplete.
When a vet treats a food-producing animal, regulation 18 requires them to enter, or give you in writing, their name, the product and batch number, the date, the amount, the animals treated and the withdrawal period. Copy those into your medicine book the same day, add the expiry date, reason, who gave it and the meat and milk end dates, and ask the vet in writing for anything missing. Keep the record for 5 years. The same invoice is your expense record and, if you are VAT registered, your input VAT evidence.
When a vet administers a medicine to a food-producing animal, regulation 18 of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 says they must, as soon as is reasonably practicable, either enter the following in your records personally or give it to you in writing: their name, the name of the product and the batch number, the date, the amount given, the identification of the animals treated, and the withdrawal period. If they give it to you in writing, you enter it.
The wording "as soon as is reasonably practicable" came in with the 2024 amendment, in force in England, Wales and Scotland from 17 May 2024. The law does not say the invoice is the record. An invoice, visit note or treatment slip counts only if it carries all six items. If the vet leaves medicine for you to give, the administration record is yours to make at the time under regulation 19.
A written prescription for a food-producing animal is a separate paper. It must identify the animal or group, give the product, amount and dosage, state the withdrawal period or that it is zero days, and say if the product is under the cascade. Our guide to the Veterinary Medicines Regulations for farmers has the wider picture.
Work from three pieces of paper: the invoice, the vet's visit note or treatment slip, and the pack itself. The invoice gives what you bought and who from, the visit note the animals, date and dose, and the label the batch and expiry.
| Medicine book field | Where to get it | Required by |
|---|---|---|
| Product name | Invoice line, matched to the label | VMR regs 18 and 19 |
| Batch number and expiry date | Pack label, or the vet's written record | VMR reg 18; Red Tractor for expiry |
| Quantity acquired, supplier name and address | Invoice | VMR reg 19(1) |
| Date and amount given, animals treated | Visit note: tag numbers, or the group and a head count | VMR reg 18; Red Tractor |
| Withdrawal period | Vet's written record or prescription | VMR reg 18 |
| Date treatment finished, and meat and milk end dates | You work them out from the last dose | Red Tractor |
| Reason for treatment, and who gave it | Vet's notes, or you | Red Tractor |
Red Tractor's extra fields are in standard AM.6 of the beef and lamb standards. Our medicine book template has a column for each, and the medicine book guide explains them.
The usual gap is an invoice with the product and the price and nothing else. Do not fill the blanks from memory. The duty to supply the six items sits with the vet, so ask the same day, in writing: the date, the animals, the product, and which of batch number, amount or withdrawal period you need. Keep the reply with the invoice. A text or email is a written record you can file.
Batch number and expiry date are printed on the pack, so photograph the label before the bottle goes in the bin. The withdrawal period is different: only the vet or the datasheet can give it, and it depends on the dose, route and duration used. If the vet's period differs from the label, follow the vet.
Write a dated note in the row saying what was requested and when. A visible gap with a note reads better to an assessor than a tidy line that is guesswork. If milk or an animal could leave the farm before you have the withdrawal period, hold them. Red Tractor's guidance accepts the information spread across several documents, provided you can correlate a medicine to specific animals or groups.
For routine group treatments such as vaccines, Red Tractor's guidance on standard AM.6 says the medicines need not be individually entered in the medicine book. A list in the veterinary health plan covering the necessary information will do, so long as it can be correlated against other farm records and the purchase records.
In practice I would still make one line per treatment event: group or pen, number treated, product and batch, date finished and one end date for the whole group. That line ties the vaccine on the invoice to the animals in the shed, which is what an inspector follows.
An animal pulled out for a specific problem is different. A cow with mastitis or a calf with pneumonia gets its own row, with its own reason and end dates, even if the vet treated her during a group visit. The visit note should list those animals by tag number, so keep it. Our guide to the health plan and annual vet review covers where the group list sits.
The cascade lets a vet use a product outside its authorisation when nothing authorised fits. A written prescription under it must state that it is a cascade product, and the vet must specify a withdrawal period. For England, Scotland and Wales, Schedule 4 sets floors: not less than 1.5 times the longest datasheet period, or 28 days for meat and 7 days for milk if the product is not authorised for food-producing or milk-producing animals.
Those are minimums, and the vet sets the actual figure. A cascade product is the vet's decision, so there should be a written withdrawal period behind the invoice line. Our guide to medicine withdrawal periods has the sums and a worked date.
Write "cascade" in the notes column so the row can be found later, because the beef and lamb standard's annual review asks the vet to review cascade use. File the prescription with the invoice, and if a cascade line has no withdrawal period against it, ask the same day.
One piece of paper, two records. The invoice is the proof of cost for the accounts, kept with the bank line that shows it was paid. Our farm bookkeeping and HMRC records guide covers what to keep.
On VAT, HMRC treats purely medicinal products as always standard-rated, so a VAT-registered farm can normally reclaim the VAT on medicine lines, provided it holds a proper VAT invoice, which HMRC calls the primary evidence for input tax. A flat rate farmer is different: HMRC says a flat rate farmer cannot reclaim input tax. Visit fees carry whatever rate the vet shows, so ask your accountant if a line looks odd. Our guide to the Agricultural Flat Rate Scheme explains the trade-off.
The clocks differ: VAT records need at least 6 years, the medicine record 5 years after the medicine was given. Keeping the invoice 6 years covers both. It also lets you split a bill, medicine lines against the animals treated and visit fees as a separate cost. That split answers a question like what a treatment cost per head, which is where the medicine book and the books meet.
My advice is five steps, done the day the invoice arrives. Photograph the invoice and the visit note. Match each medicine line to a row in the medicine book. Copy the six items, then add expiry, reason and end dates. Chase any gap in writing. File the invoice for 6 years.
FarmHQ is a farm office app for UK cattle and sheep farms, in beta, built for this: a photo of a vet invoice drafts both the medicine-book entry and the VAT-coded expense line, with Ask Farmer Joe drafting and you confirming before anything is booked. It starts free on the Trial Farm (25 cattle, 50 sheep), with paid plans on the pricing page. It does not replace your vet or accountant. A spreadsheet and a folder work too, provided the six items are on the row.
Under regulation 18, the vet must record or give you in writing their name, the product and batch number, the date of administration, the amount given, the identification of the animals treated and the withdrawal period. It must be done as soon as is reasonably practicable after treatment.
Only if it carries all the required items: the vet's name, product, batch number, date, amount, animals treated and withdrawal period. A price-only invoice is not enough, so pair it with the vet's visit note or treatment slip, and ask in writing for anything missing.
Ask again in writing, naming the animals and product, and keep the reply. Do not send the animals for slaughter or milk into the tank until you have a period you can rely on. If it stays unresolved, raise it with the practice manager.
If you are VAT registered and hold a valid VAT invoice, normally yes on the VAT charged. HMRC treats purely medicinal products as standard-rated. A farmer on the Agricultural Flat Rate Scheme cannot reclaim input tax, so check which scheme you are on.