Cemetery Management Software

The vendor is required to provide a comprehensive cemetery management software solution that supports the efficient administration, operation, and long-term recordkeeping of municipally operated cemeteries.
- To modernize cemetery administration processes by implementing a user-friendly, cloud-based solution capable of:
• Managing plot inventory and mapping;
• Tracking interments and interment rights;
• Supporting compliance with legislative and financial obligations;
• Facilitating operational planning and task scheduling;
• Enabling secure public access to select records where appropriate.
- Cemetery plot and lot management
• Digital plot mapping:
o An interactive map of each cemetery showing all plots, columbarium, blocks, sections, landmarks, and scattering spaces.
o GIS integration or built-in grid reference system to enable accurate visual location and navigation.
o Compatibility with legacy paper maps and ability to overlay or import scanned maps.
• Plot inventory control:
o Track status of every plot (available, reserved, sold, interred, double depth, cremation niche, scattering rights etc.).
o Define plot characteristics: size, depth, surface material, number of interments allowed, etc.
o View historical usage and current availability by section or location.
• Multi-interment support:
o Ability to record and distinguish between casket burials, cremations, combined interments in a single plot, and scattering rights.
- Decedent and interment records management
• Decedent profiles:
o Store complete information: full legal name, birth/death dates, burial/scattering date/time, cause of death (optional), religion (if applicable).
o Record funeral service provider, officiant, and grave opening/closing personnel.
• Record attachments:
o Attach supporting documents: death certificates, burial permits, cremation certificates, and service programs.
o Support for photo uploads (e.g., headstones, burial sites).
• Relationship tracking:
o Link family members buried in proximity or within the same plot.
o Record next of kin or contact person for future communications.
- Interment rights and ownership tracking
• Interment rights holder (IRH) registry:
o Record name, address, contact info, and legal rights details for each IRH.
o Ability to manage co-holders or multiple rights over a plot.
• Transfer and assignment history:
o Track transfer of rights including reassignment
o Capture relevant legal documentation and required approvals.
o Ability to upload documents (pdf, images, etc.)
• Certificate generation:
o Print and email certificates of interment rights for legal distribution.
o Maintain a registry with unique certificate numbers and issuance dates.
- Compliance with act and other regulatory requirements
• Care and maintenance fund tracking:
o Calculate and record mandatory contributions (e.g., 40% of plot sale proceeds) to care and maintenance funds as per o. reg. 30/11, after the cooling off period.
o Generate audit-ready reports showing all contributions and applicable transactions.
• Mandatory burial recordkeeping:
o Maintain compliance logs for interments, exhumations, cremation burials, etc.
o Allow easy export of data to submit to the registrar, funeral, burial and cremation services act.
• Vital statistics reporting:
o Capture and store required data for the office of the registrar general (vital statistics act), including registration of deaths and burials.
• Bylaw enforcement:
o Embed municipal cemetery bylaws into workflows (e.g., minimum notice for burial, permitted marker sizes, allowable inscriptions).
- Financial management and integration
• Sales and payment tracking:
o Record sale of plots, columbarium niches, and interment services.
o Support invoicing, receipts, installment plans, and outstanding balances.
o Track expenses associated with the management of cemeteries
• Care and maintenance and trust fund reconciliation:
o Record payments earmarked for perpetual care or reserve funds.
o Integration with municipal finance system or ability to export reports for finance staff.
• Fee schedules:
o Configure current pricing for plots, interments and scatterings, headstone installations, and administrative services.
o Ability to apply different fee schedules
- Work orders, tasks, and scheduling
• Burial scheduling:
o Manage interment calendar with support for clash detection and blackout periods (e.g., holidays, frost conditions).
o Reserve time for grave opening and closing and staff preparation.
• Work order management:
o Assign and track tasks such as grave opening, marker installation, landscaping, snow clearing.
o Attach task-specific notes, photos, and status updates (e.g., completed, pending, delayed).
o Ability to plot burials on a map
• Mobile field access:
o Mobile-responsive design or dedicated app allowing staff to access plot info, update task statuses, and log notes in the field.
- Public portal and self-service capabilities
• Searchable burial and scattering records:
o Public can search for names, dates, and plot locations based on configurable access controls.
o Potential for integration with genealogy tools
• Plot inquiry or reservation form:
o Allow the public or funeral homes to request information on plots (this should be a system feature that can be enabled or disabled)
o Route inquiries through a central workflow for follow-up.
• Interactive mapping:
o View cemetery layout and zoom into plot-level detail.
o Highlight recently interred, vacant plots, or heritage-designated sections
- Document and archival management
• Upload legacy records:
o Bulk scanning of historical ledgers, plot cards, and paper burial records.
o OCR and indexing for keyword searches.
• Document tagging:
o Categorize documents by plot, person, date, or type.
o Ensure long-term preservation and compliance with records retention bylaws.
- Reporting, analytics, and audit trails
• Operational reports:
o Daily, weekly, and annual activity summaries (interments, sales, service requests).
o Inventory availability and usage trends by cemetery or section.
• Legislative and financial reports:
o Generate required reports for provincial regulators, council, or auditors.
o Export in multiple formats (pdf, excel, csv).
• Audit trail and change logs:
o Log all edits and user actions for transparency and compliance.
o Filter by user, date range, or affected record.
- Security, privacy, and backup
• User role permissions:
o Restrict access to records based on job function (e.g., clerk, field worker, supervisor).
o Separate public vs internal access.
• Data privacy compliance:
o Adhere to MFIPPA requirements for storing and sharing personal information.
o Encryption of sensitive data in transit and at rest.
• Backup and disaster recovery:
o Regular backups with the ability to restore individual records or full system.
o Cloud-hosted with high uptime guarantees.
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: June 16, 2025