Advanced cemetery options
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Advanced options for your cemetery are found in their own dedicated popup. Click on the name of your cemetery in the upper-left corner of CIMS, then click "Edit cemetery settings". This opens the edit cemetery settings popup.
Custom inputs (aka user-defined fields)
Automatic burial & deed numbering
Hide input fields & parts of the CIMS interface
Basic cemetery information
The "Basic" tab of the edit cemetery settings popup is where you can change your cemetery's name or address, choose the default date format, or add remarks. Some of these fields might be used in custom reports, if you have any.
Custom inputs (aka user-defined fields)
Use the "Advanced" tab to add, edit and delete custom inputs (also known as user-defined fields). User-defined fields can be added for spaces, burials, markers, deeds, care funds, customers or work orders.
What is a user-defined field?
Say you want to track something in CIMS but you don't see a field dedicated to it. You can add this field to the program. Any data you save in this custom input will be saved in CIMS and searchable. Common examples of custom inputs are "Book number" and "Page number", or "Lot card number" for cemeteries tracking where the original information about a space sale was stored. Some cemeteries choose to track a customer's birth place, or add a link to their online obituary.
Add a user-defined field
Scroll until you find the section you want to add a user-defined field to (space, burials, markers, etc.). Click the navy blue "New" button. Add a label, choose a type, then click "Add". It is not necessary to click "Update cemetery settings" at the bottom of the edit cemetery settings popup, but you will need to refresh your webpage to see the new fields you have added.
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Text input - single line of text | Most common type. Good for short text.
Example: Birth place: "Jackson Hole, WY" |
| Text input - multi- lines of text | Useful for longer blocks of text.
Example: Obituary: "Rev. Samuel Smith was born in 1954 on his family farm in ...... [text continues, this example does not]" |
| Dropdown select | Define a set of options for users inputting data to choose from. Excellent choice when you have a limited set of possibilities and want to make sure users don't spell things 5 different ways or get too creative. Use commas with no spaces to separate your options.
Example: Funeral service location: "Graveside,Whitehill Chapel,Louis Family Funeral Parlor,None" |
| Date input | Save a date in CIMS.
Example: Burial permit issued: "11/04/2009" |
| Numeric input | Good for numbers and costs.
Example: Down payment amount: "1500" |
| Last name lookup | Link a customer record to this custom input. Acts like other last-name lookups on the site, where you search by last name for a customer, then a list of results from your database will appear for you to choose from. Read about customer records here.
Example: Funeral director: "Francine Devine" |
| External link | Save a URL to your database. Useful for YouTube links to obituaries.
Example: Obituary video: "www.youtube.com/my-video-url" |
Edit a user-defined field
Click on the name of a user-defined field, type in your changes, then click "Update cemetery settings" at the bottom of the edit cemetery settings popup. Do the same to change dropdown options.
Delete a user-defined field
Click the red trash can icon to the right of a user-defined field to delete it. A popup will ask you confirm this action. Be careful, as you will delete any data associated with this field from CIMS!
Search a user-defined field
The best part about user-defined fields is you can search by them! Whatever section of your site you added a field for (space, burials, markers, etc.), just go to the search tab, choose that type, scroll down, and you will see your custom inputs listed at the bottom.
Rename cemetery levels
Cost updating tool
Automatic burial & deed numbering
Calendar subscriptions
The CIMS documentation has a page dedicated to the calendar, read it to learn how you might show CIMS calendar events on your third-party calendar app, such as Google, Outlook or iCal.
Custom space statuses
Hide input fields & parts of the CIMS interface
Map shapes
Basic
Name: The name of your Cemetery, update as needed. This is what appears on reports.
Address: The mailing address of your Cemetery.
Remarks: a generic field for any additional information
Default Date Format:
- mm/dd/yyyy (Month/Day/4 digit year) standard US format
- mm/dd/yy (Month/Day/2 digit year) standard US format, not recommended unless you are positive the ALL dates (birthdays, death dates, burial dates etc.) are in the 2000s
- dd/mm/yyyy (Day/Month/4 digit Year) standard everywhere not in the US format
- yyyy-mm-dd (4 digit year - Month - day) standard computer format.
Advanced
User Defined Tracking Fields
There are 6 User Defined Tracking Fields available for each of the following:
- Spaces
- Burial
- Markers
- Customers
If more than 6 are needed please consult with a CIMS Cloud representative.
Add to left fly out searches
All User Defined Tracking Fields will appear in the appropriate left fly out search types and can be used to filter the search results of the appropriate type.
Specials
Sometimes some other than a standard text input field is required. For special tracking inputs use the following:
Multi-line text area input box
Add a '^' (carrot) at the end of the input label. For example: "Next of Kin^" (without quotes) will generate a multi-line textarea box instead of a single line text input box.
Burial Number
If the label for a User Defined tracking Field is "Burial Number" then CIMS Cloud will automatically fill in that input field with an auto incrementting number. That number is controlled in the "Configuration" tab of the "Edit Cemetery" popup.
Drop downs
Enter a ';'(semicolon) after the input label, and then a comma separated list of options. For example: "Setup;Chapel, False Setup, No Tent, None, Tent, Tent and Chapel" will generate a dropdown select box with the ootions of Chapel, False Setup, No Tent, None, Tent, and Tent and Chapel.
Configuration
Cemetery Level Labels
For each Section (top/main level of your cemetery) can have unique names for all the sub levels. Also you can set the Universal 4 or 3 levels names as well.
Our Standard naming convention is:
- Section
- Block
- Lot
- Space
- Lot
- Block
You may use different names instead you can have:
- Cemetery
- Section
- Area
- Grave
- Area
- Section
And if you have a mausoleum Section you can use:
- Section
- Wall
- Row
- Space
- Row
- Wall
Just for this mausoleum and the rest of the ground spaces use naming conventions as above.
CIMS Cloud is flexible enough to work with you so you don't have to re-learn the layout of your own cemetery.
Space Cost Updating Setting
IF you need to change the cost of all the Available, reserved, and restricted spaces in a section, or lot use this tool
- choose the section
- choose the lot(s) you want to update the spaces in
- set the price
- verify the sentence above the green "Update Space Costs" button looks right
- click the green "Update Space Costs" button
Burial & Deed Numbering
Enter in the starting numbers for automatice Burial and/or Deed numbering. IF you do not want to use automatic numbering then leave these fields blank and the "Deed Number Active" check mark un-checked. If you want Automatic Burial Numbering then you must of a corresponding User Defined Tracking field under Burials on the Advanced tab of the Edit Cemetery popup with the label of "Burial Number" (label is Case Sensitive).
Additional Status
If you need more space statuses than the following:
- Available
- Sold
- Sold With Bruial
- Reserved
- Restricted
Additional statuses are treated similar to "Available" in that no extra information such as customers or sales agents. Also no burials, deed, permission, etc. information can be added as long as a spaces is assigned a custom status. You can add up to 3 additional statuses here. Examples of additional statuses are:
- Needs Research (meaning your old records are incomplete and you are not positive if a space is available for sales or not)
- Cemetery owned
- ???
All custom statuses will appear in the map legend and be in the status dropdowns in the left side Space search, and right side Owner tab.
