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.
About the FuneralHQ Editorial Team
This guide was written by the FuneralHQ Editorial Team, the in-house team behind funeral home software used by independent firms to run cases, documents, payments, and QuickBooks sync in one record. We write from how funeral homes actually operate, and we cite sources for regulatory and industry claims.