Practice Manager Recognition Week runs November 15–21, 2026, and it belongs to your practice manager.
The week is set by the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association — the official name is Recognition Week, not Appreciation Week — and the 2026 edition is the upcoming one.
Here are the dates and the name to use, where the week comes from, ways owners and teams can celebrate, gift ideas that don't create payroll surprises, and what keeps a good manager past the week itself.
Rules vary by state and change
This guide explains federal rules and the state rules it names, as of the date above.
Employment law and veterinary practice rules differ by state and are revised often, so confirm current requirements with your state veterinary board, labor agency or employment counsel before you act on them.
It is general information, not legal advice.
This year's dates: November 15–21, 2026
The Veterinary Hospital Managers Association (VHMA) celebrates Practice Manager Recognition Week November 15–21, 2026.
That is the week to plan for: VHMA had not published 2027 dates as of October 22, 2026, so put this November on the calendar now and check vhma.org before you print anything for next year.
If you went looking for a 2025 date, the practical answer is the upcoming one — and the name.
The official name is Practice Manager Recognition Week; the "appreciation week" phrasing that circulates in searches is not what VHMA calls it, and the difference shows up on signage, social posts and anything you order.
The manager's week sits inside a busier staff-week calendar: the association-run weeks land in May, October and November.
Put all of them on the practice calendar at the start of the year so the budget, the coverage and any orders are settled before each week arrives.
| Week | Dates | Who runs it |
|---|---|---|
| Approved Veterinary Assistant (AVA) Week | May 17–23, 2026 (passed); May 16–22, 2027 is expected under NAVTA's third-week-of-May pattern, but NAVTA had not announced 2027 dates as of October 22, 2026 — confirm on navta.net | NAVTA |
| National Veterinary Technician Week | October 18–24, 2026; then October 17–23, 2027 and October 15–21, 2028 | NAVTA |
| Practice Manager Recognition Week | November 15–21, 2026 | VHMA |
| Veterinary Receptionist Week | April 18–24, 2027; then April 23–29, 2028 and April 22–28, 2029 | Independent organizer site |
National Veterinary Technician Week is the one with the full apparatus behind it — NAVTA lists its dates years ahead, published a 2026 theme, and runs the week with an exclusive sponsor.
The manager's week carries a lighter apparatus, but a real one: an association sets it, publishes the dates, and produces materials for it — more than the front desk's April week has behind it, where our research found only an independent organizer's site.
Who sets the week, and where it came from
Practice Manager Recognition Week is set by the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association (VHMA), which says it has more than 5,000 members nationwide.
VHMA describes the week as an annual observance honoring the leadership, dedication and impact of practice managers, and says it will provide social media content, recognition ideas and resources so teams have something to work with.
The association doesn't do it alone in 2026.
Thrive Pet Healthcare is championing this year's week, and AVMA president Dr. Jen Quammen is quoted in VHMA's announcement in support — she called it "Veterinary Practice Managers Week."
What we could not find is a founding year: our research found no published start date for the week, so don't describe it as a decades-old tradition.
What is documented is the 2026 week itself, with dates, a champion and materials behind it.
That puts it a rung above the grassroots Receptionist Week in April, which our research traced to an independent organizer's website with no association behind it.
For the manager's week, adopt VHMA's dates and name as published; for the front desk's week, your practice is the tradition-maker.
Ways owners and teams can celebrate the manager
VHMA hands you the first move: its announcement promises social media content, recognition ideas and resources for the week, so start from the association's own kit before you build from scratch.
Then make it specific to your manager.
Managerial work is invisible when it goes well — the schedule that held, the payroll that ran, the client complaint that never reached a doctor — so the recognition that lands names one of those saves out loud.
The owner or lead DVM should say it, and the card should carry it.
- Take a task, not just a tone. Pick one recurring job the manager always carries — next month's schedule build, the inventory order, the staff meeting agenda — and take it off their plate for the week, with a named person covering it.
- Let the team recognize sideways. A huddle where technicians, assistants and the front desk each name one thing the manager did for them this year carries further than a banner from the top.
- Fund a credential step. VHMA's Certified Veterinary Practice Manager (CVPM) credential requires 3 years of practice management experience in select duties, 18 college semester hours in management-related courses, 48 hours of management-focused continuing education and 4 letters of recommendation — sponsoring a piece of that is recognition the manager keeps.
- Know what the letters mean. VHMA is the accrediting association and sole sponsor of both the CVOM and CVPM credentials, and after VHMA approves a CVPM application the candidate has two years to take the electronic exam at a local test center, with certified managers committing to ongoing CE.
A funded credential step also turns the week into a career conversation.
The veterinary practice manager career guide maps the role, the path into it and where it goes — worth putting in the manager's hands along with the card.
Gift ideas for Practice Manager Recognition Week
The best manager gifts are non-cash and specific to the job: a course or CE registration, a conference ticket with the practice covering the CE hours, a workstation that finally fits, or the whole team fed on a day the manager doesn't have to organize it.
The federal tax lines decide which of those create payroll work.
Under IRS Publication 15-B (2026), the reference for fringe benefits, cash and cash equivalents — gift cards and gift certificates — are never excludable from wages as de minimis benefits, no matter how small the amount.
A gift card is wages: run it through payroll like any bonus.
Non-cash gifts can land differently.
The publication's own examples of excludable de minimis benefits include holiday or birthday gifts other than cash with a low fair market value, flowers or fruit for special circumstances such as outstanding performance, and occasional parties or picnics for employees and their guests.
Notice what that list does not include: a dollar figure.
Publication 15-B judges de minimis benefits by their value and their frequency and sets no ceiling — anyone quoting you one is guessing.
Formal achievement awards are narrower still: excludable only for length of service or safety achievement, and only as tangible personal property — not cash, gift cards, vacations, meals, lodging or event tickets.
The excludable amount is capped at $1,600 per employee per year for qualified plan awards and $400 for awards that aren't, and the award must be part of a meaningful presentation under circumstances that don't create a significant likelihood of disguised pay.
Confirm how a specific gift lands with your payroll provider or tax preparer before it goes on the books.
| Gesture | Treatment under Publication 15-B (2026) |
|---|---|
| Gift card or gift certificate, any amount | Wages — never de minimis, however small |
| Non-cash holiday or birthday gift, low fair market value | De minimis example — can be excludable |
| Flowers or fruit for special circumstances such as outstanding performance | De minimis example — can be excludable |
| Occasional team party or picnic | De minimis example — can be excludable |
| Tangible length-of-service or safety award, presented | Excludable only within the conditions and the $1,600 / $400 caps |
This is the short version.
The full gesture-by-gesture breakdown, including what doesn't qualify as de minimis at all, is in our staff recognition guide.
Keeping a good practice manager after the week
A week of recognition earns its place, but it is the second lever.
AAHA's "Stay, Please" study asked veterinary professionals in clinical practice what keeps them and what would make them stay: 30% of those surveyed plan to leave their current job within the next year — an intent-to-leave share, not a turnover rate.
The study's leaver list is the one to read.
Among people planning to leave, the change most often named as the thing that would make them stay was fair compensation (52.5%), with appreciation for work second (29.0%), ahead of career development (25.6%), teamwork (24.2%) and caring leadership (24.1%).
Among people planning to stay, the most-selected reasons were teamwork (40.8%), practicing modern medicine (34.3%), meaningful work (32.2%), fair compensation (30.2%) and flexibility (27.6%).
For your manager, that reads plainly: run the week, then check the pay band.
On VeterinaryHires, practice manager listings stating annual pay had an employer median of $70,875 a year across 28 employers as of October 6, 2026 — a small sample the page itself flags, and advertised rates rather than earnings.
And the band is one candidates can see: 76% of practice manager listings stated pay (206 of 271) on the same date.
If the manager is classified exempt, the classification is worth a look in the same pass.
As of October 22, 2026, the federal salary level for the executive, administrative and professional exemptions is $684 per week ($35,568 a year), and the executive exemption also requires a primary duty of managing the enterprise or a recognized department, customarily and regularly directing two or more employees, and hire/fire authority or recommendations given particular weight.
That is the federal floor — state rules can differ, and our exempt vs non-exempt guide walks the full classification.
Where the friction is the role itself — a title with no boundary, a manager who is the default owner of everything no one else wants — appreciation treats the symptom.
Our guide to what a PM should own covers where the job should start and stop, and what never moves off the licensee's desk.
Then close the loop the week opens: specific recognition on a schedule, a pay band checked against the market, a career step funded, and a role with defined edges.
That combination is what keeps a good manager long after the week itself is over.
Before the week arrives
- Write November 15–21, 2026 into the practice calendar under its official name: Practice Manager Recognition Week.
- Download VHMA's recognition ideas and social media content before you build your own materials.
- Pick one recurring task to take off your manager's plate for the week — and name who covers it.
- Collect two specific saves from the past year and put them, with names, in the card.
- If any gift is a gift card, budget the payroll line with it: cash equivalents are wages however small.
- Check your manager's pay band against current listings, and book a compensation review if it's behind.
- Put Vet Tech Week and the April receptionist week on the same calendar so no role's week gets planned alone.