By Natalie Chapman, Content Marketer for Passare

Most funeral home leaders don't wake up one day and think, "We need new software."

They start with smaller questions like:

"Why does this task take so much time?"
"How do we stay consistent as we grow?"
"Why is it so hard to see the full picture of how my business is doing?"

And these types of questions usually point back to one thing: growth. A growing number of cases, staff members, locations, or simply higher expectations from families can put pressure on your processes that used to work just fine.

With the right software, you can create processes that stand the test of time and help your operations keep pace with your growing business rather than hold it back.

In this article, you’ll hear from a Chief Operating Officer who's experienced the benefits of having the right software firsthand.

Meet Chief Operating Officer, Mike McDowell

Mike McDowell is the Chief Operating Officer at Companion Funeral & Cremation Service, a growing firm with 4 funeral home locations and 1 cemetery across Athens, Chattanooga, Cleveland, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In total, they serve around 3,000 families every year.

When Companion started expanding, Mike and his team quickly realized their current software couldn't keep up. They sat through more than 15 software demos with other companies before deciding that Passare could fit their needs today and scale with their business in the future.

"We are significantly more efficient with Passare than any other system we've used," Mike said. "I couldn't imagine running our business without Passare at this point."

Keep reading to learn 8 ways software can help you run a more efficient funeral home.

#1: Grow your business without breaking processes

Ever heard of “growing pains”? It perfectly describes what happens when a business starts to grow.

As your funeral home grows, the systems that once worked can start to break down, for example:

• More cases mean more places for errors.
• Increased staff means extra handoffs and confusion.
• Growing family expectations mean added complexity.

And this doesn't just happen when you add locations. It can happen when you start offering more online planning options, adopting new technology, or serving families beyond your immediate community.

How the right software can help

When Companion was about to open their third location, Mike realized their current software wasn't going to cut it.

"We were about to open our third funeral home location when we realized our current software wouldn't scale with our growth," Mike said. "We needed functionality that our software didn't have."

After switching to Passare, Mike's team went from 2 locations to 4, plus a cemetery, without having to rebuild their workflows or retrain their team on a new system each time they expanded.

#2: Decrease downtime with responsive tech support

When something is wrong with your software, whether it's a form that won't generate or a document that needs tweaking, you don't have time to sit on hold with support.

In funeral service, timing and accuracy matter. And when a family is counting on you, every minute spent troubleshooting is a minute you're not spending with them.

How the right software can help

With Passare, Mike experienced how quick support can help get tasks done faster and with less stress.

"When we asked for our first custom form from the support team, I think we got it back within 15 minutes. That alone shows that Passare is different from other software companies. They put resources behind the things that matter, such as development and support."

When your support team understands funeral service, you skip the explanation and get straight to the solution. Fast support keeps your day moving.

#3: Keep your workflow moving on the go

Funeral service doesn’t happen in one building. Your team moves between churches, cemeteries, hospitals, care centers, and the funeral home. Sometimes all in the same day!

Without easy access to case details, you have to rely on phone calls, texts, and, let’s be honest, memory. And when a family calls with a question while you're at a graveside service, "let me get back to the office and check" isn't always the answer they want to hear.

How the right software can help

Mike's team uses Passare Mobile to access and update information from wherever they are, no laptop required.

"Our entire team is using the Passare mobile app," Mike said. "We can see details on every case, whether at our desk or on the go. That's been incredible."

And the impact goes beyond just convenience.

"Our funeral directors are living their best lives. They've got a much better work-life balance today than they did 5 years ago. And a lot of that is because they can access Passare from their phones anywhere. They don't have to log into some obscure downloaded program on computers in the building."

#4: Reduce mistakes in your chain of custody

When you rely on handwritten logs and paper checklists to track the location of decedents, personal items, and cremated remains, you leave room for missed steps or duplicate work, especially as your volume grows.

And if you’re not exactly sure where a family’s loved one is when they call in and ask, that doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

How the right software can help

Mike describes Passare's barcode tracking as a game-changer for their operation.

"Passare's barcode tracking is miles ahead of everyone else's," he said. "With the mobile app, we can simply snap a picture of an article of clothing and let everyone know that item just got brought in, along with its location. You don't have to go through some complex process just to make an update."

And when it comes to accountability, the tracking tool pays for itself.

"If a family calls claiming they brought in a necklace, I can go into Passare and see every article of clothing, every pair of glasses, or anything else a family may have brought in. If there's not a necklace, I can be confident the family didn't bring one in because we don't have it tracked."

#5: Make your care center easier to manage

Preparation, scheduling, and documentation pile up quickly in a care center. And if your care team is operating in a different location than your directors, staying on the same page gets difficult.

Without the right tools, staff can end up juggling multiple systems, manual processes, and numerous phone calls.

How the right software can help

Companion recently launched a centralized care center serving all 4 of its funeral home locations. Mike's entire back-office staff handles cremation and embalming in a different building from the directors, and some locations are over two hours away. That takes coordination.

"We need to be able to see in real-time when cremations are complete, when death certificates come in, or when we get cremation permits," Mike said. "With Passare, no matter where we are, we get instant updates on everything that's going on at the care center. It's made everything more efficient."

Instead of phone calls, texts, or Slack messages flying back and forth, Mike's team gets automatic updates in Passare. Everyone sees the same information at the same time, whether they're at the care center, a funeral home, or on the road.

#6: Connect all your tools to one software

Running a funeral home takes more than case management software. There's accounting, payment processing, website management, answering services, and more.

When those systems don't talk to each other, you’ll end up entering the same information into multiple platforms. Which means more room for errors and wasted hours.

How the right software can help

For Mike and his team, Passare's integrations brought everything together.

"Passare's integrations have simplified internal payments with the payment integration, and we can easily upload photos to our website using the Tukios integration," said Trae Cody, Owner and Funeral Director at Companion. "The Public API in Passare allows any company we work with to integrate with the software, and that's been huge."

Companion also integrates Passare with their accounting software, their answering service, and preneed provider, so data flows seamlessly between platforms without anyone having to re-enter it.

"Passare's goal is to be the number one provider of service in our industry, and you can tell. They're accomplishing that goal by allowing us to pump everything through our case management software with integrations."

#7: See a bird's-eye view of your business

Keeping track of payments, balances, and revenue shouldn't feel like detective work. But when your financial data lives in spreadsheets, paper files, or systems that don't sync, small issues can snowball into uncomfortable conversations with families and missed revenue.

How the right software can help

Mike shared how Passare's financial tools gave him clearer insight and control over the business.

"We have the payment integration set up that allows us to run credit card payments and have them automatically apply to the correct account," he said. "There's no more confusion or incorrect payments, and our bookkeepers aren't logging all the day's payments at the end of each day."

Before Passare, miscommunication around payments was a regular headache:

"Before, a family might've paid the front office staff, but that information wouldn't make it to the back office staff until the end of the day. Many times, this would cause the back office to call a family who had already paid because they were not getting the updates in real time. We don't have any of that confusion anymore."

#8: Stay consistent across multiple locations

As firms add locations, it becomes harder to maintain the same standards, processes, and visibility everywhere. Different staff, different habits, and different systems at each location can lead to inconsistent service, and that's the last thing you want your families to experience.

How the right software can help

With 4 locations spread across East Tennessee, consistency is a priority for Mike.

Passare helped make that possible by giving every location access to the same system, case information, and processes. Whether a director is in Cleveland or Chattanooga, they see the same data and follow the same workflows.

"I can answer a phone call for a case at Chattanooga, Athens, or Oak Ridge — it really doesn't matter where — and I can easily provide answers because I can see in Passare what's been brought in, where it is, or what we have and don't have," Mike said. "That's a big deal."

Software that makes your life (and operations) better

Whether you're trying to scale your business, get a handle on your financials, keep your team connected on the go, or simply improve efficiency, Passare can help you do it all.

Just take it from Mike.

"I couldn't imagine running our business without Passare at this point."

Ready to see what your operations could look like with the right software? Schedule a demo with our team below.

Share the benefits of Passare with the rest of your team!

• For the funeral director → A funeral director's guide to Passare
• For the manager → A manager's guide to Passare
• For the admin → An admin's guide to Passare