Recordkeeping at a funeral home is quiet work until the moment you need a specific document and cannot find it. The goal is not to keep more, it is to keep the right records in a way that makes any one of them findable in seconds. This checklist covers the four areas that matter most: cases, documents, payments, and price lists. It is an operational guide, not legal advice; consult the FTC Funeral Rule resources and your own counsel for compliance specifics.
Case records
- Decedent details and vital statistics.
- Family contacts and their roles (next of kin, authorizing agent, responsible party).
- A dated activity history of changes on the case.
Documents
- Signed authorizations (embalming, cremation) with their audit trail.
- Permits and certificates.
- The general price list acknowledgment.
- The version of each form that was actually signed.
Payments
- The itemized statement of goods and services.
- Each payment, with method, amount, and date.
- The running balance and any payment-plan status.
Price lists
The FTC Funeral Rule requires funeral providers to give accurate, itemized price information, including a general price list and related disclosures. From a recordkeeping standpoint, that means keeping current price lists organized and easy to produce, and keeping the acknowledgment on the case.
| Price list | Keep it |
|---|---|
| General Price List (GPL) | Current version, easy to hand to families |
| Casket Price List | Current and consistent with the GPL |
| Outer Burial Container Price List | Current and consistent |
| GPL acknowledgment | On the case, per family |
What to ask software vendors
- Do signed documents, payments, and the statement all live on the case?
- Is there an audit trail on signatures and case changes?
- Can I produce a complete case record quickly?
- Can I export records for retention?
How FuneralHQ handles this
FuneralHQ keeps the case, signed documents, the itemized statement, payments, and a dated history together on each case, so producing a complete record is a click, not a search. Review the controls on the security page.
Related resources
Read general price list management and how to keep funeral home documents audit-ready.