Trade and at-need kept apart
Two case types with their own intake fields, required documents, pricing, and billing party, running on one shared schedule. Reporting can show them separately or together.
Crematories & Trade Services
Crematory management software
If you operate your own retort, you are running two businesses through one building. Trade cremations for other funeral homes need different intake, different paperwork, and different billing than your own at-need families, but they share the same cooler, the same schedule, and the same state log. FuneralHQ keeps them separate on paper and together in operations.
Who it is for
- Funeral homes that own and operate a retort
- Firms performing trade cremations for other providers
- Standalone crematories serving a network of funeral homes
- Operators keeping cremation logs in a spreadsheet
What it replaces
- A spreadsheet cremation log kept for state inspection
- Separate delivery and release records on paper
- Trade invoices built by hand at month end
- Whiteboard retort scheduling and cooler counts
How a crematory runs on one system
Trade work and at-need work are different case types on the same operational schedule, so intake and billing stay distinct while the retort and the log stay unified.
- 01
Open the right case type
A trade case records the sending funeral home, their case reference, and the service they ordered. An at-need case records the family directly. The intake fields, required paperwork, and billing follow from that one choice.
- 02
Verify the authorization
Cremation authorization is checked against the statutory next-of-kin hierarchy for your state, with the applicable waiting period tracked from the recorded time. On trade work you confirm the sending firm obtained and transmitted the signed authorization before the case is released to schedule.
- 03
Receive and log custody
Scan the decedent in at delivery, record who brought them and when, and assign a cooler position. Every custody change from receipt through retort to release writes a timestamped entry against the case.
- 04
Schedule the retort
Trade and at-need cases queue on one retort schedule with capacity and turnaround visible together. The operator records start time, end time, unit, and operator on the case as the cremation runs.
- 05
Release and bill the right party
Record the release of remains with the recipient, identification checked, date, and signature. Trade cases bill the partner funeral home on their terms, and at-need cases bill the family, both syncing to QuickBooks.
What a crematory operator gets
The work you already do carefully, recorded in a form you can hand to an inspector.
The trade partner as customer
Each sending funeral home is a billed account with its own price list, terms, and case history, so month-end billing is a statement rather than a reconstruction.
Example Twelve trade cases this month, priced on that partner list, one invoice.
Authorization and waiting periods
Authorization is recorded against the next-of-kin hierarchy your state defines, and the case will not schedule until the required documents are on file and the waiting period has run.
Chain of custody scanning
Scan at receipt, at transfer between areas, at the retort, and at release. Each scan is a timestamped, attributed entry, so the custody record is built as the work happens rather than written up afterward.
Operator and retort log
Every cremation records the unit, the operator, start and end times, and the case identifier, which is the core of what a cremation log has to show.
Exportable state-ready logs
Export the cremation log, delivery records, and release of remains records for a date range in a format you can file or hand over. Requirements vary by state, so we set the export up to match yours.
Common questions
Can we run trade cremations and our own families in one system?
Yes. They are separate case types with their own intake, paperwork, and billing party, sharing one retort schedule, one cooler view, and one cremation log.
Who gets billed on a trade case?
The sending funeral home. Each trade partner is an account with its own price list and terms, and their cases bill to them rather than to the family.
How is cremation authorization handled?
The authorization is recorded against the next-of-kin hierarchy your state defines, with the applicable waiting period tracked from the recorded time. On trade work you confirm the sending firm obtained the signed authorization before scheduling.
Does it track chain of custody?
Yes. Scans at receipt, at each transfer, at the retort, and at release create timestamped entries attributed to the staff member who made them.
Can we produce logs for a state inspection?
You can export the cremation log, delivery records, and release records for any date range. Recordkeeping requirements differ by state, so we configure the export to your state during onboarding, and you should confirm it against your own regulator guidance.
What about capacity and scheduling?
Trade and at-need cases queue on the same retort schedule so the operator sees real capacity and turnaround in one place instead of reconciling two lists.
See a trade case and an at-need case side by side
In 20 minutes we run both through intake, authorization, the retort schedule, release, and billing, then export the log.