06/17/2018

I am excited to announce that after months of hard work by our development team, we are preparing to release CIMS Cloud and CIMS Light Cloud this Sunday Afternoon. These changes will be made available to you automatically, and there is nothing that you need to do to see these changes.

Thsi update to CIMS/CIMS Light includes more than 15 new features spread across Cloud, Light Cloud and Cloud. Many of the new features and program changes are a direct result of suggestions made by our CIMS Clients or feedback that we get during training sessions and tech support.

Introducing this many new features at once is not without risk, so some of these new features have been slowly introduced into CIMS Cloud over the last few weeks.

New Features:

Improved map printing. (CIMS Cloud, released a few weeks ago).

This feature was released a while back and has a been a favorite since. To ensure that the information you are interested in appears on your CIMS Print out, we have introduced a real-time map preview window. During the printing process, the area of the map within the blue box is exactly what is going to be printed to paper.

You can now type a customer’s full name, including the comma when selling a grave or adding a burial. (CIMS Cloud, CIMS Light Cloud)

One of the most common tech support items that we receive is users who are new to using our customer search windows. To enhance the customer search experience, you may now search last names and first names by using the format LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME as shown in the image below.

CemTips has been overhauled to allow for multiple tips at once. (CIMS Cloud)

In the past, you had to choose what type of data (Space/Ownership, Burials, Markers, and Map Features) you wanted shown inside your CemTips popup. Our development team wanted to push the limits and allow you to see ALL types at the same time. When you click the CemTips Settings button in the lower right corner of your map, you will be able to select which types of data are used in CemTips, and then what information each type shows you. This allows you to stop your mouse on various items on your map and receive instant information.

You can now upload an image to multiple grave spaces at once. (CIMS Cloud, CIMS Light Cloud)

A common request from users is the ability to assign a single image to multiple grave spaces. You have spoken, and we have listened. In CIMS Cloud 2.4, both CIMS Cloud and CIMS Light Cloud users have the ability to select which graves an image should be applied to. After adding an image to our image upload window, you will be have the option of updating the current space, Update the whole lot, or update selected spaces.

As part of the image uploading process, you also have the option of optimizing the image before uploading. Optimizing the image means that we shrink the image down to a size more appropriate for viewing on the web. This can save data usage later if you view these images later on a tablet or mobile device. Optimizing images maintains the aspect ratio (height and width), so even though images are made smaller, they still look appropriate when viewing.

A new Customer Search has been added into the left search menu. (CIMS Cloud, CIMS Light Cloud)

When CIMS Cloud was first designed, we made every attempt to mirror the search capabilities of our desktop software. That meant keeping Customer search separate from the rest of the cemetery search functionality. We’ve realized that with CIMS Cloud we can do a better job, so we are excited to announce that CIMS version 2.4 now has Customer Searching right from the Left Search Menu. From the Customer search, you can search All Customers, Only Owners, Only Deceased, or Not Deceased Customers. When the results window opens, you will see if that Customer is an Owner, Interred, or a Permission. Clicking the word Owner, Interred or Permission will bring up a list of corresponding grave locations.

The Reserved Spaces Timer now has an option for 180 days, as well as the option for you to enter a value of your own. (CIMS Cloud, CIMS Light Cloud, released a few weeks ago)

To increase the flexibility of Reserved Grave Timers, we now allow you to select a new 180 day timer, or manually enter your own number of days.

Cause of Death is now a permanent field in CIMS Cloud. (CIMS Cloud, CIMS Light Cloud)

On the Customer window, under the Deceased box, we have added a Cause of Death field.

The Map Layers window has been completely overhauled. (CIMS Cloud)

For many of us who have been using CIMS Desktop or CIMS Cloud for many years, it is easy for us to navigate the map layers screen. For users who are new to CIMS Cloud, it was often confusing and hard to understand. In version 2.4 we overhauled the Map Layers window to make it more intuitive and we have included a real-time view of what your map will look like. As you can see in the image included, you can now toggle each layer on/off, and control that layer from the same window. We have eliminated the tabs at the top, and have more logically grouped the map controls together. On the right is a real-time view of what the colors and fonts will look like on your CIMS Map. This allows you to decide if you like the look before you apply it to your cemetery.

Death Dates are now searchable from the burial search window. (CIMS Cloud, CIMS Light Cloud, released a few weeks ago)

This is a suggestion that came from a long time CIMS user, and we were happy to include it into CIMS Cloud. Previously we only allowed you to search by burial dates, but as this customer pointed out, not every type of burial has an accurate burial date. Up in the northern states, where snow may limit your ability to perform a burial, a burial date and death date may be weeks or even months apart.

The Customer Newsletter checkbox now has a purpose! (CIMS Cloud, CIMS Light Cloud)

The newsletter check box on the Customers window has returned to CIMS Cloud and CIMS Light Cloud. During the creation or updating of customer records, you can decide if you want this customer to be appear on the new Customer Newsletter mailing list. To generate the Customer newsletter list, go to the new Mailing List Report under Utilities | Cemetery Reports. When you generate this report, an excel file will be created and downloaded to your computer that contains the Customer First Name, Last Name, and Address Information. We have made the decision to utilize excel files for this type of mailing list because of the many options that excel offers for mail merges and formatting.

Added a new ruler function to the burial, marker and vault placement windows. (CIMS Cloud, released a few weeks ago)

For cemeteries that are looking for increased accuracy in large graves, we have added a new measurement function that allows you to measure the map to ensure that you are placing a burial, marker, or vault as accurately as possible. To use the new tool, simply click the button inside the placement window. To start your measurement, click the map at the location where you want to start measuring, then click again on the map in the location you want to end your measurement. 2 blue points will appear on the map indicating the starting and ending points of your measurement. You can adjust either of the blue pointers to fine tune your measurement.

Customer Search on the Customer page will remember your previous search filters and will re-apply those filters when you return to the Customer search. (CIMS Cloud, CIMS Light Cloud)

When utilizing our new Customer Search pane on the search tab of CIMS Cloud or CIMS Light Cloud, your last customer search criteria will be remembered and re-applied when you return to the search window during the same session. This means that if you searched a Customer by last name, found the graves that they owned, and them went back to the customer search window, the last name you entered is still going to be in the search window. This will work as long as you don’t log out of CIMS Cloud or close your web browser.

GPS walking directions has been added into eCIMS Cloud. (eCIMS Cloud)

Since eCIMS Cloud (burialsearch.com) is designed to be used by the general public, we have introduced new features that allows for easy navigation of your cemetery. When searching for a loved one in eCIMS, users will now see a button that will provide direction and distance information between their current location and the location of the grave they searched. To see a demo of this in use, please click this link: https://youtu.be/jjqBWbnH8aU

Added multiple videos and step by step instructions to our CIMS Wiki Help Page. (CIMS Cloud, CIMS Light Cloud)

Visit http://wiki.cimshelp.com for our new how to videos relating to common tasks in CIMS Cloud. We will continue to add new content in the future. You can access the CIMS help wiki by clicking the Help button in the top right of CIMS Cloud. And CIMS Light Cloud.

QuickBooks will now allow descriptions and costs to be edited from within the Invoice Entry Pop-up window. (CIMS Cloud, CIMS Light Cloud)

To allow more flexibility at the time of sale, we have modified the QuickBooks module windows to allow for Descriptions and costs to be edited on the fly.

Bug Fixes

===Searching “Exact Match” on the Burial names no longer results in an error.

Fixed a bug in CIMS Cloud that often prevented lot outlines from being visible as you zoomed in closer to graves. (CIMS Cloud)

In Previous versions of CIMS Cloud, if you had your graves colored by status (Available, Restricted, Sold, Reserved, Sold with Burial), the grave colors would prevent the lot outlines from being displayed as you zoomed closer in on your map. We have corrected this issue, as seen below. The lot outlines are pink in the image shown below. From within our new Map Layers control screen, you can control the thickness and color of the lot outlines to make them more or less visible.