April 11, 2025
In your funeral home, you must be organized.
Organization helps your funeral home manage cases, keep track of reporting, and so much more. But how you organize items, personal effects, and bodies is more important than that.
Without a tracking system in place, you risk having a chaotic process that feels like one big guessing game to know where decedents and belongings are located.
If you're not organized, nightmare scenarios can happen, such as:
- Cremating the wrong body
- Misplacing a body or item
- Having to tell the family you lost something important
- Breaking the trust with that family
Even if you weren't directly responsible for the error, your entire team would be affected, and the family's trust in your funeral home would be shattered.
There is a way to avoid the devastating scenarios above...for good.
With barcode tracking, you can wave goodbye to the fears and embrace feeling fully confident with every family, every time.
What is barcode tracking?
Barcode tracking for funeral homes is a digital system that can be put in place to track the chain of custody for decedents and personal belongings.
With barcode tracking, you can assign scannable barcodes to each item and tie barcodes to certain cases to track their whereabouts—no clipboards needed! Best of all, every update is tracked digitally in real-time, and you can track everything from your phone—a device you have and use every day!
>>>>>For even more insights into barcode tracking and why you need a reliable system, check out our Barcode Tracking Guide!
So, now that you know what barcode tracking is and how it works let's dive into 3 reasons why funeral professionals love using barcode tracking.
1. Keep track of everything
The tried-and-true method of pen, paper, and a clipboard worked for decades to keep up with bodies and items in the funeral home. But as we mentioned before, using a method that doesn't update in real-time leaves room for error.
Think about it - was there ever a time you missed an important location change of a body or item because someone (or you) forgot to update it on paper?
One funeral director recalls those days and why they’re long behind him now:
“Keeping track of decedents and the chain of custody was one of our biggest hurdles, and our processes have cleaned up significantly since using Passare’s tracking. We’ve integrated the tracking system almost entirely across the board for cremation, transfers, and traditional burials.”
– Jordan Seitz, Funeral Director at Washburn-McReavy Funeral Chapels
Barcode tracking helps funeral directors rely less on pen and paper and start relying on up-to-date information that can be tracked from a phone. Anything from wedding rings to clothing and other specific belongings can be tracked easily and accurately.
Plus, many barcode tracking systems allow you to leave notes or add pictures to personal items so that your entire staff knows all the details and location of everything in the funeral home.
Barcode tracking also helps you view the location of every item and body across different funeral home locations, all in one place. You can even get more detailed and assign scannable barcodes to locations such as prep rooms, viewing rooms, refrigeration units, and urns or caskets.
With our barcode tracking system, you even track disposition type and get access to vital tracking information anytime, anywhere, using any device.
2. Stay in tune with your team
Barcode tracking improves communication with your entire staff! You wouldn't want a team member to move something to a different location without telling you, just like you wouldn't want to accidentally move something that another staff member needed to grab for a family.
Tracking in Passare allows anyone on your team to:
- Document the location of an item
- Track where and when that item moves locations
- Add new items or notes
- Lock items when they've been picked up
- Attach items
- And more!
"Since implementing barcode tracking, our communication process as a company has greatly improved. Our communication is much more focused and accurate, which results in less back and forth when clarifying details.”
– Angie Good, Managing Director at French Funerals & Cremations
When your team feels confident, your families feel confident! That brings us to the last point. 👇
3. Give families peace of mind
When a family relinquishes control of their loved one, they're completely trusting you to take care of their loved one's wishes, their body, and their personal effects. You already know they're relying on you to ease their worries about the transfer process with up-to-date tracking.
Plus, if a family calls with questions about an item, you can view the most recent information and let them know right away, without having to say, "Let me check on that and get back to you."
Being able to be transparent with a family can improve trust tenfold! It will also ensure that you are offering the highest standard of care to the families you serve.
“In this day and age, it is so important to have an accurate chain of custody. Passare gives us and families peace of mind.”
– Bryan Hicks, General Manager at Elmwood Funeral Home & Memorial Park
BONUS: Take your tracking on the go
With Passare, you and your team will have the best tracking capabilities on your mobile device at all times.
Easily scan barcodes assigned to decedents, locations, and personal effects, creating a reliable chain of custody. You can also attach images for easy verification and notes for up-to-date records. Plus, anything entered into the app is automatically synced to the case on the Passare platform - no retyping necessary!
"With Passare’s feature, there is no guesswork. The app provides the most up-to-date information about any case that anyone on the team can see at any time, including detailed notes and a chain of custody."
– Ricky Mansfield, Funeral Director at Miles Funeral Home
Take the guesswork out of your chain of custody
Organization and reliable processes are essential for creating meaningful funerals and serving families in the best way possible.
If you are still using clipboards, sticky notes, or notebooks for your chain of custody, it is time to find a better way. Get the most up-to-date tracking information possible with a barcode tracking tool.
Learn even more benefits and the logistics of choosing the right tool in our barcode tracking guide. 👏
Ready for smoother processes?
Book a demo with our team today.
