Cemify Beginners Guide - Everything You Need To Get Started
If you're new to Cemify and want a quick overview and tutorial as to how to get started, then this article is for you. After reading this, you will have an understanding of the fundamentals of the software and will be ready to use the system at its full potential. We'll start with a general introduction some key concepts and terminology in the software, and then move on to practical day to day usage tutorials.
What is Included in this Article:
Core Concepts & Terminology In Cemify
Cemify revolves around a few key concepts and terms. Before jumping into the workings of the software, it's important to understand these definitions. Most of these terms should feel very familiar to your existing management approach:
- Plot - a plot is an individual interment space in your cemetery. This might be a 3.5' X 8' in ground burial space or a niche in a columbarium. Plots form the foundation of your record keeping system and allow you to manage and track your cemetery inventory. Plots can be mapped (powering a digital cemetery map) or unmapped, depending on your implementation. Learn more about plots.
- Plot Classifier - a plot classifier is a way to classify a plot based on it's location in the cemetery. For example, a plot may be classified as Section North, Lot 25, Space 3. In this case the plot has 3 classifiers - Section, Lot & Space. Each unique plot must have a unique set of classifiers, to ensure accurate and organized records.
- Entity - an entity in Cemify refers to a group of plots. In the example above (Section North, Lot 25, Space 3) both the Section and the Lot would be considered entities in the cemetery, since they contain more than one plot.
- Sale - a sale in Cemify is a transaction related to the cemetery. For example, the sale of burial rights, or the sale of opening & closing services. Sales can include a Purchaser (the payee in the transaction,) Associated Plots (the plots associated with that sale,) Line Items (details of what is being purchased) & Payments (a record of payment or payments for that sale.)
- Person - a person record allows you to record details about an individual, such as contact information. People in Cemify can also be indicated as Purchasers in Sales and Owners/Designees in Plots.
- Owner - a plot owner indicates someone that is a deed holder or has the burial rights to a particular plot.
- Designee - a plot designee is someone that is designated to be buried in a particular plot in the future, but is still living.
- Burial - a burial is when someone has passed away and has been interred.
- Work Order - a work order is a cemetery work item, such as the preparation for a burial or the installation of a marker.
Together, these terms and concepts allow you to keep detailed, accurate and highly available cemetery records.
The Cemify User Interface
Cemify is cloud software, meaning you can access it with any modern device that's connected to the internet. To access Cemify, just visit cemify.com in Google Chrome and click on Login in the upper right hand corner. This will then prompt you for your email and password, provided to you upon the completion of your system implementation. Learn more about users and account management.
Navigating & Managing Cemetery Records
Once logged in to the system, you should notice an intuitive user interface that closely resembles the terminology above. Your primary navigation is in the top header:
Using this top header, you can toggle to the cemetery you'd like to work on (only applicable to multi cemetery operations,) navigate your records, search your cemetery records and access your system settings.
Next, we'll run through a few common cemetery record keeping tasks. Together, these tutorials will touch on every aspect of the software and give you a thorough understanding of how to use Cemify to its full potential.
Finding A Plot Location
A common task cemetery managers face is finding the plot location for a particular burial. In this example, let's say a family member is asking for the location of an individual named John Eaton. In order to perform a basic name search, just click the black search bar in the header, type in a name, and select the appropriate record:
(Note: All screen recordings in this article are animations that repeat in an infinite loop. If you missed the beginning, it will start back from the top)
In this case we clicked on a Burial record within the search results, so we are taken to a burial page. Within the burial page, we can see the Plot for that burial. In this case, Section B, Lot 41, Grave 1:
Since we are utilizing digital mapping for this cemetery, we can then click on View on Map to quickly jump to that location on our interactive map:
Adding A Burial Record To A Plot
As burials occur (or as you work to improve your existing records) you may find the need to add a burial record to a plot. To do so, you'll first want to find the plot you'd like to add a burial record to. The most common way to find a plot by its classifiers, is to click on the Plots tab in your top header, then use the entity navigation bar on the left to find the plot you are looking for.
Here's an example of finding Section B, Lot 4, Grave 2:
Once on a plot page, simply click on Add Burial to add a burial record to the plot. Type in the record details and click Save:
Please note, the fields you see for a burial record (and any records within Cemify for that matter) are fully customizable.
Adding An Owner To Multiple Plots
Often times, you will need to indicate ownership of a group of plots. Rather than editing each plot individually, in this example we'll show you how to edit a group of plots in one action.
Let's say you'd like to indicate that a Martha Peters owns graves 1, 2 & 3 in Section B, Lot 10. To do so, we'll find the plots in the Plots tab, select graves 1, 2 & 3, then add Martha Peters as an owner:
Note that the system first prompted you to search for Martha Peters (to see if that person already exists in your records.). Since she did not, we clicked on "Create new person". This workflow will ensure that you consolidate ownership records under the same individual if they are already in the system.
Creating a Sale Record
In most cases, cemeteries choose to only create sales records moving forward from the moment they start using Cemify. Historically backfilling sales can be a time consuming process, that is oftentimes impossible due to a lack of information in paper records. However, keeping proper sales records moving forward can ensure improved records, more efficient workflows, and easier reporting.
To create a sale, click on Sales in the top header, then click on Add Sale:
After a sale is created, you can then modify the details of the sale.
First, enter the purchaser (the person who will be paying). As with adding an ownership record, the system will prompt you to first search for a person to see if they already exist. If they do, you can select them to consolidate records. Otherwise, you can create a new person:
Next, add the associated plots. This will link the sales record with a particular plot within the cemetery. You are also able to select multiple plots:
Please note, because our Automations feature is on (this is on by default for new accounts) the purchaser on this sale is also automatically added as an Owner on the plot, and each plot's status is changed to Sold. This speeds up your record keeping process and improves accuracy of your records.
Next, we'll add line items to the sale to record what has been purchased. In your account and system settings, you can store Saved Line Items, allowing you to quickly select items with accurate pricing and categorization:
Finally, we'll record a payment on the sale. In most cases, cemeteries accept payment in full upon sale of a plot. However, you can also use Cemify to record and track partial payments. For this example, let's record a payment in full:
With the recorded payment, this sales record is now complete.
Creating A Deed Or Contract
After a sale is complete (or as part of the sale process) you can also utilize Cemify's Templates feature, which allow you to create custom pre-populated documents, such as Deeds, Contracts, Receipts & more. Please note, this feature is only included in select packages.
If utilizing this feature, just click on Templates to view your available templates, make any final modifications & print or download to PDF:
Uploading Photos & Documents To Cemify
People, Sales, Plots, Burials & Work Orders all allow you to attach photos and documents. This allows you to store photos of headstones, copies of contracts & much more in your Cemify database.
To attach a Document or Photo to something in Cemify, just click on Documents or Photos on the left of the record, select the file from your computer (or drag and drop) and click Save:
Learn more about uploading documents & photos.
Wrapping Up
You should now have a thorough understanding of the Cemify system and how to use it to keep accurate records in your cemetery. If there is anything that is unclear, or questions you have that are not answered in this guide, please feel free to contact our support team by clicking on the button at the bottom right and clicking ask:
You can also always reach us at support@cemify.com
Thank you for trusting Cemify as the digital partner for your cemetery!