May 31, 2024
LAST UPDATE: JULY 2026
By Natalie Chapman, Content Marketer for Passare
When a family comes to your funeral home after a loss, they’re looking for someone to guide them through an unfamiliar and emotionally overwhelming process.
Unfortunately, without a central place to collaborate, details can easily get scattered, leaving you and your families spending more time tracking down information than planning a meaningful service.
With the right at-need planning software, your staff can create a clear and guided process that helps families feel supported every step of the way.
Here are 11 at-need planning software features that help your funeral home deliver a better, more connected planning experience.
Improve service to families with these 11 features
Features that keep everything organized
During the planning process, details can come from every direction. These first features help your team divide responsibilities, organize tasks, and keep important information in one place, so everyone knows what to do next.
#1: Planning Center Roles
In Planning Center, you can set roles for family members so they know who's responsible for each part of the planning process. Plus, you’ll know exactly which family member to go to for specific tasks.
When you first assign a role, you can send families a personalized message letting them know what they're responsible for. Here's a quick look at each role:
- Viewers can review obituaries and upload files.
- Contributors can edit the obituary, view merchandise, and check off tasks.
- Editors have the most access, with the ability to make payments, view personal information, and invite other collaborators.
#2: Checklists
When there are so many tasks to manage, to-do lists are everyone's friend. In Planning Center, you can create custom checklists for families so they can track what they've completed and what's still needed.
You can also create checklists for yourself. This gives you an easy way to stay on top of your tasks while adding transparency to your process, which gives families peace of mind that everything is taken care of.
#3: Upload Files & Photos
Sifting through email threads, text messages, and Dropbox links to find the right family photos is time-consuming. To improve organization and make files easily accessible, keep everything in one place in Planning Center.
Families can easily upload documents, PDFs, photos, videos, and even music.
As a bonus, if you integrate with Tukios for memorial videos, you can sync photo uploads straight from Planning Center to Tukios to create a personalized video. It's that easy!
Learn more about the Tukios integration here. >>>
#4: eSignatures
Planning Center also helps keep important paperwork moving with eSignatures. Instead of printing, scanning, or waiting for families to come back in person, they can review and digitally sign documents from any device right in Planning Center.
You can customize documents in Passare with the fields you need and even make certain fields required so you get forms completed on the first send.
Features that make your process more personal
If you're like most funeral directors, you're always looking for ways to make things more personalized to the family. These next few features can help!
#5: Family Preferences
Family preferences in Planning Center gives families a more conversational way to share details about their loved one, their service preferences, and other important planning information.
For example, when families get started, they can answer a series of questions based on Dr. Alan Wolfelt's teachings. The questions include categories like Life Information and Event Information, helping families think through meaningful details they may not have considered otherwise.
This will get families thinking about what they want and help you better suggest options that best meet their needs.
#6: Merchandise
Whether your funeral home offers 5 caskets or 20, it's not uncommon for families to feel overwhelmed when trying to make a decision about merchandise on the spot.
You can add your merchandise to Planning Center so families can browse ahead of time. That way, they feel more prepared to make a selection at the arrangement conference, and you get a sense of what they want before they arrive.
With Merchandise, families can preview and pin their favorite caskets, urns, flowers, keepsakes, and feel confident and unpressured in their decisions.
Features that enhance communication
Clear communication can make all the difference when families are navigating the planning process. These features help you stay connected with families so nothing gets lost between calls, emails, and meetings.
#7: Schedule and share events
With all the service times, meeting updates, or schedule changes floating around during the planning process, it's easy for something to get missed.
When you move your schedule into the software you use daily, keeping up with details gets easier for everyone. In Passare, you can schedule and share events with families so everyone can see upcoming meetings and events in one place. And if any scheduling changes occur, everyone sees the updates in real time.
#8: Obituary writing
Have you ever heard the phrase "too many cooks in the kitchen?" Obituary writing can sometimes feel like that. Some family members try to get a word in, while others try to take words out. With all the updates, it can be hard to collaborate and keep up with incoming edits and revisions.
In Planning Center, you can assign family members as editors and contributors so they can work with you to write the obituary together. Any edits or additions show up right away, so everyone stays aware of updates.
You can even choose to offer families the AI obituary writer directly in Planning Center. With this feature, families can choose between AI or templates, select the tone and length, and use the information they've already entered to create an obituary that syncs back to the case automatically.
And when it’s finalized, you can lock the obituary, so you can be 100% confident that the obituary you’re printing or publishing is the correct version.
#9: Messages
When families have a question, they might text, email, or call. Between all the notifications you receive each day, it can be hard to keep up. With Planning Center Messages, you can have conversations with staff and families on a single platform, ensuring everyone stays on the same page throughout the planning process. Messages support real-time conversations, so your staff and families can stay connected from start to finish.
With Messages, you can easily keep families informed through direct messaging, review past discussions and decisions, and offer timely assistance when needed.
Features that take the stress out of payments
The payment process doesn't have to be stressful for you or your families. These final features help families understand balances, make payments online, and even invite others to contribute when needed.
#10: Payments in Planning Center
Whether families are paying with life insurance assignments, credit cards, or preneed policies, they can make payments and view their remaining balances directly in Planning Center.
When families pay in Planning Center, you can increase efficiency by taking payments directly into your software. Plus, you get notified when payments have been made, which seamlessly flow to the Payments & Adjustments page within Passare for easy and accurate reporting.
Learn more in our article, 3 Payment Integrations Every Funeral Home Should Use.
#11: External payment links
Sometimes, families need a little extra help with payment and may have people assisting with funeral costs who aren't involved in the planning process.
Make gathering funds easy by letting families send a direct payment link for anyone to make a payment in Planning Center for cash sales, at-need, pet, and trade cases. No Planning Center account needed!
Give families a top-tier online planning experience with Passare
From the first phone call all the way through the service and beyond, the right platform lets you work together with families online to collect information, share updates, gather signatures, and collaborate all in one place. By adding Planning Center to your workflow, you can make your at-need planning process collaborative, personal, and organized.
Keep learning about online at-need planning tools in these resources:
Want to see more ways Passare can help your business? Learn more in a demo with our team.
