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CIMS Cemetery Software Upgrades

Ramaker & Associates offers a maintenance program to all of our CIMS and CIMS Light cemetery software clients. Customers that are members of this program receive free upgrades to their products, typically once per year.

All of these features have been developed from suggestions from you, our clients. Although it is not possible for us to incorporate every suggestion, we do our best to provide a product that will meet the needs of all of our clients. If you have any ideas for new features, feel free to email us a suggestion.

Version 4.1 of CIMS and CIMS Light  was released in April 2010 and includes the following enhancements.

CIMS Enhancements

While many of the improvements pertain to both CIMS and CIMS Light, there are several changes that pertain only to the mapping functionality of CIMS:

1. Map Labeling
   • We have made a number of changes to the CIMS interactive map. The most obvious change is that we re-ordered the layers of the CIMS map so that labels that were once covered up are now moved to the top. For example: in the past, the section and block labels would always be covered by burial shapes. Now, they are above the burial shape when you are zoomed out a certain distance and under the burial shape when you are zoomed in closer on a grave.
2. New Burial Shape
   • Another mapping change that we have made is a new burial shape. Clients have asked us for a way to know which direction a burial was facing, so we designed a new burial shape that indicates burial direction.
3. Interactive Overview Map
   • In current versions of CIMS, users are able to grab the red indicator square, move it around the overview map and see the large map move at the same time. In this version of CIMS, we have added one more overview map feature: the ability to click on various overview shapes to have the large map zoom to that area. For example, if your cemetery is broken into 5 sections, you can now right-click on any section in the overview map and have the large map zoom to that section. (To move the red indicator square, you now use the left mouse button).
4. Print a CIMS Map
   • When you click the Print Map button in CIMS 4.1, you will have the option of printing the CIMS map in black and white to save on color ink. You will also have the option of printing the CIMS map to a paper size suitable for use with large plotters.
5. CIMS Map Tips
   • We have created two new CIMS MapTips. They are Named Burial Info and Ownership Info. Each MapTip will present Ownership and Burial information for each space. These new MapTips will include User Defined Fields that you may have created.

CIMS & CIMS Light Enhancements

These are the major changes that will be present in CIMS 4.1 and CIMS Light 4.1, but this is not an exhaustive list. Many other changes have been made that enhance the functionality of the software overall.

1. Query Funeral Homes
   • You may now search burials based on what funeral home was used. This will allow you to generate reports both for your internal use and for the funeral homes themselves.
2. Sort Markers Queries
   • When printing the results of a Marker Query, you now have the option of sorting by Marker Location or by Placement Date.
3. Report Changes
   • The Complete Owner Report & Complete Burial Report now includes remarks.
   • The Burial Management Report can now be sorted by Burial User Custom Fields.
   • You can now print an envelope right from the Customer Information Screen.
   • We have added the Customer Image to the Customer Detail Report.
   • The owner’s name was added to both Sold but Unused Reports.
   • We have created a new blank report with all the fields from the Customer Information window. This will allow you to gather as much information from a customer as possible even if you aren’t in front of your computer!
4. Auto-Save a Deed or Contact
   • When you use CIMS to generate Deeds or Contracts, you will have the option of auto-saving a PDF copy of that Deed or Contract. The PDF copy will then be linked to the Reports & Docs tab for easy access in the future.
5. Entering Dates
   • As long as you follow a standard mm/dd/yyyy format for entering dates, you will no longer need to enter slashes, dashes or periods. For example, a date of 03/01/2010 may be entered as 03012010 and CIMS will auto-fill the slashes.
6. Disinterment
   • When disinterring a burial, you now have the option of automatically deleting all markers associated with a burial at the same time. If CIMS detects a related marker for the burial that you are disinterring, it will prompt you to remove the marker as well.
7. Mobile Cell Number
   • You may now enter a Mobile Cell Number for a customer on the Customer Information Window.
8. Deed History
   • Users will now be able to track the complete deed history for any space. Much like the ownership history developed for CIMS 4.0, the Deed History button on the Deed tab allows users to list out previous deed numbers, names, deed dates, and other deed related items for a particular grave space.