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Honoring National Pet Memorial Day

Today is National Pet Memorial Day. Held annually on the second Sunday of September, it is an opportunity to celebrate and honor the lives and memories of the pets that have impacted us.

I’ve had the privilege of loving and being loved by dogs in my life. Each relationship is a unique connection and each loss has affected me in unique and profound ways. On this National Pet Memorial Day, I plan to take time to honor the memories and lessons that Clyde, Buddy, and George embedded in me. I plan to take time to look at pictures of them, share stories of them with my loved ones, and walk around their favorite places. 

There are many different ways you can honor a pet’s memory. Here are some other ideas on how you can take the time to celebrate the lives lost:

  • Pot or spread some flower seeds.
  • Plant a tree in your yard.
  • Look at pictures and share stories.
  • Frame a picture or create a memory box.
  • Get a picture or painting commissioned. 
  • Get a tattoo – you can even use ink created from their ashes.
  • Paint a garden rock and put it somewhere you’ll regularly see it.
  • Volunteer at your local animal shelter. 
  • Donate goods or funds to your local vet clinic or animal shelter.
  • Adopt!

Halcyon is a family-owned business, and as pet owners, we know that a pet is another member of the family. We know losing a loved one is difficult and we value the role our software has in helping those that ease the transition. Halcyon’s Pet Crematory Software is the perfect solution for handling walk-ins and clinic cases. Your vet clinics can easily add and stay in the loop during the entire end of life process. Let Halcyon facilitate the partnership you’ve always wanted with your vet clinics. Schedule a demo today!

September 2023 Newsletter

Halcyon’s September 2023 Newsletter informs readers about the recent family-targeted scamming that some customers have seen. We also discuss how our QuickBooks Online integration can save you time and errors. Lastly – come see us at the NFDA International Conference in Las Vegas, September 10-13. We’ll be at Booth # 1959!

Read the September Newsletter at this link. 

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Top 5 Reasons Funeral Homes Need Case Management Software

In the death care industry, efficient and streamlined processes are essential for providing the support and care that families need during difficult times. This is where case management software like Halcyon can become an invaluable tool. Here are the top 5 reasons why funeral homes should invest in case management software:

  1. Improved Organization and Efficiency: Funeral homes handle a multitude of tasks and details for each service, including documentation, permits, scheduling, and financial records. Halcyon can help you and your funeral directors keep all the information intuitively organized in one central system. This will streamline your processes, reduce errors, and save time having to create or search for documents. 
  2. Enhanced Communication: Funeral arrangements often involve multiple collaborators, including family members, funeral directors, and cemetery staff. Halcyon provides a platform for seamless communication and scheduling for all involved parties. From sharing important updates to coordinating logistics, Halcyon ensures that everyone is on the same page, leading to a smoother funeral process.
  3. Advanced Task Management: Successfully planning a funeral involves numerous tasks, such as obtaining death certificates, arranging transportation, and managing obituaries, to name a few. By using Halcyon for your management software, you can allow tasks lists to be created and assigned with due dates and responsibilities. This helps to guarantee that important tasks are not overlooked and allows for better organization and coordination within your funeral home team. 
  4. Streamlined Financials: Managing financials is crucial for any business. Halcyon’s case management software simplifies your financial processes by integrating payment processing and financial accounting functions. Generate invoices, track payments, and manage budgets efficiently. This not only saves time but also helps prevent financial discrepancies and ensures accurate record-keeping. 
  5. Compliance and Reporting: All funeral homes need to comply with various legal and regulatory requirements. Halcyon has features that provide adherence to these rules. From generating and storing documents to generating compliance reports, Halcyon facilitates accurate record-keeping and can help your funeral home stay compliant with your legal obligations. 

Investing in Halcyon Death Care management can be a game-changer for funeral homes. It will not only improve your business organization and efficiency but also enhance your communication, task management and financial processes- all while ensuring that you stay in compliance. By integrating Halcyon into your operations, you can provide a smoother, more seamless experience for the families you serve.

Halcyon’s Integrations Can Keep Your Business Rolling

Halcyon’s available integrations and partnerships seamlessly incorporate many of the tools your business uses or may be interested in using. Intentional partnerships with Death Care Industry-specific services help your business run more efficiently. Halcyon lets you send the information you have already input into your Halcyon system to the integrated partner(s) which eliminates the need for duplicate data entry. Consider your business as a bicycle wheel where Halcyon is the “hub” for your business management needs, and your other business tools the “spokes”. Here we will discuss some of the integrations and partnerships, or the “spokes” from our wheel analogy, that Halcyon has available for your business to take advantage of. 

Website: 

When you integrate your website with your Halcyon system, you can seamlessly send decedent vitals, obituaries, and service information to your site. Our website partners are currently funeralOne, Tukios, Batesville, CFS, and Frazer, among others.

Answering Call:

Do you need to utilize an answering service? Halcyon partners with Answering Service for Directors (ASD). This integration allows you to create new cases in Halcyon by importing the first call information collected by ASD. Halcyon will also automatically send updates on service and obituary information to ASD any time information about upcoming events are modified.

Financials:

Halcyon has optional add-on integrations with business tools to facilitate accounting and bookkeeping needs. Our seamless, real-time integration with QuickBooks will keep your business and bookkeeper happy. Our credit card processing partnership with First American allows you to take payments electronically and have them applied to the case automatically. Included with our credit card partnership is our Empathy Funding feature, which is a crowdsourcing tool that facilitates donations from families and friends. Unlike other crowd-funding providers, payments made via Empathy Funding are applied directly to the decedent’s account balance ensuring all donations are appropriately allocated.

Documents & Forms:

Let Halcyon create and fill in the forms, contracts, and documents that you already use. You can even integrate with DocuSign for your documents with signatures, getting your electronic signatures completed easily either in-person or virtually over email. We’ll capture the completed electronically signed document and save it to the case’s file. 

More:

Other industry-specific platforms that Halcyon can integrate with include stationary providers (Bass-Mollet and Messenger) and at-need insurance funding (Express Funeral Funding and Claimpro.) Halcyon is always looking for updates and integrations. Our Google Calendar integration and Google Address Search tool are just some examples of recent updates to our software. 

All of these features are designed to make us more than just your Client or Case Management Software. Let Halcyon be the “hub” for all your business. To learn more about Halcyon, schedule a free demonstration.

July 2023 Newsletter

Halcyon’s July Newsletter covers how to fix an Adobe .pdf error that is happening on certain web browsers and how to fix it, the power of our Custom Reporting tool, and where to find us at NFDMA’s annual conference at the end of the month! Read the July Newsletter at the link below and make sure you’re subscribed!

Link to Halcyon’s July 2023 Newsletter.

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Learn More About Halcyon’s Efficiency Tools

Halcyon’s efficiency tools are designed to save you time by eliminating redundancies and the need for multiple programs’ various business tools. Here we will briefly discuss some of our tools and how they can benefit you, your staff, and your business.

Our Notes tool lets you keep case specific notes stored in one easily viewed location, allowing staff to quickly access any necessary case notes. We also give you the ability to notify them immediately of the note if needed (via text, email, or even both)!

Want to notify a family of something? No problem. You can also send a message to anyone outside of your Halcyon organization and can even have a standard message generated to fit any scenario. We’ll store everything in one convenient area for your assigned Halcyon staff to review or add to as needed.

Set up Auto Tasks in Halcyon so when a case is added or a triggering event occurs, your list(s) of to-do’s are automatically pushed out to staff with any required due dates assigned.

Halcyon also lets you set up as many Custom Statuses for your cases as you’d like, letting you organize your case load with as much specificity as you desire.

As with all aspects of Halcyon, our interface and helpful tools are designed to flow seamlessly with your natural business processes. Our easy to use software is intuitive and robust, freeing up your time to spend with what really matters – your families and communities.

NFDA Announces Annual Inspiration Award

This year during Women’s History Month, The National Funeral Director’s Association has launched a new annual award – The “Inspiration Award” – to acknowledge an exceptional female or non-binary individual in the funeral service or related field. The 2023 Inspiration Award will be conferred at the Professional Women’s Conference in May.

Halcyon is proud to be a woman founded and woman owned company. Since forming in 2002, we are grateful to have witnessed just some of the diverse impacts that women in the funeral service industry have made. We look forward to learning more of current and future inspiring women/non-binary people in our field!

Do you know someone that is pushing the funeral service and industry forward? Nominate them today! More information about the first annual NFDA Inspiration Award can be found on their website following this link. Nominations are due on March 31st.