How to Fill In the Lettering & Inscription Card (Lettering Work Orders)
Tell the engraver exactly which lines to cut on a stone that is already standing, which lines to leave alone, and how to list every person on the stone.
Written By Dennis Rodin
Last updated 10 days ago
A lettering job cuts new text into a stone that is already standing. The Lettering & Inscription card is where you tell the engraver which lines are new and which lines are already carved, so nothing gets cut twice.
The sketch is cut word for word. Type Mary Jones there for reference with a 2026 under it, and Mary Jones gets cut into the stone a second time when all you needed was the 2026. This card exists to stop exactly that.
The one rule that matters: a line is cut only when its Engrave this box is ticked. Unticked means it is already on the stone, do not re-cut it. Nothing is ever ticked for you.
Where to find it
Open the New Quote wizard and go to Step 3: Items & Configuration. Click Service at the top to switch to a service order. The Lettering & Inscription card is the second card down, directly under Service Details. Its subtitle reads "What the engraver receives. Only ticked lines are cut into the stone."
The card is on every service on an order, whatever service type you picked, so you can use it for a lettering job, and skip it for a cleaning or a reset. An order can hold up to 12 services, and each one has its own lettering work order. It is also there when you reopen the order with Edit Quote or Edit Order, so you can fill it in after the cemetery visit.
A monument does not use this card. On a monument the names and dates come from Step 4: Sketch & Inscription instead, because the whole stone is being cut new. A service you add to a monument order with Add a service has its own card, the same as any other service. See How to Use Sketch and Inscription.
Which stone
The first block, headed Which stone, is four free-text fields. They tell the crew which memorial to walk up to and where on it the new work goes. They are identification, not instructions: nothing typed here is cut.
Family name: the surname already carved across the die, for example BERKELEY.
Inscription location: where the new work goes, for example Front die - right panel.
Stone type: Upright, Flat marker, Bench, or however your shop describes it.
Stone color: the granite, for example Gem Mist. Type what you see at the cemetery.
Below the four fields is the one exception. Tick The family name also needs cutting (it is not on the stone yet) when the surname has never been carved, for example on a stone that only ever carried first names. The family name then appears in both places on the shop ticket: under Stone so the crew can identify the memorial, and under ENGRAVE THIS because it is real work. Leave it unticked on a normal lettering job.
Names and dates
The second block, Names and dates, holds one entry per person on the stone. The helper line above it reads "Untick means it is already on the stone and must not be re-cut."
People are pills in a bar across the top of the block, each showing a small DECEDENT label over a number: 1, 2, 3 and so on. Click a pill to edit that person. Three buttons sit with the bar:
+ ("Add another person") adds a blank person.
The copy icon ("Copy this person into a new one") copies the active person's name and dates into a new person. It does not copy the Engrave this ticks.
The trash icon ("Remove this person") removes the person you are on. It shows only once there are two or more people.
A work order carries up to 10 people. At ten, the + and copy buttons stop, with the tooltip "A work order carries 10 people at most".
Each person has three rows, and every row has a text field and its own Engrave this box:
Deceased name, for example Mary Jones.
Date of birth, for example 1940.
Date of death, for example 2026.
Dates are free text, so a year on its own is fine. A person you add starts blank with all three boxes unticked: nothing is cut that a human did not tick. Remove someone and the rest renumber straight away, so the person numbers on the printed ticket never skip. A person left with no name, no dates and no ticks is dropped when you save.
Under the people sits Other names on stone, for example Robert Jones 1938-2011. It is one shared line for the whole stone, with its own Engrave this box: unticked means those names are already carved and must not be re-cut.
Fill in every row you can see on the stone, whether or not it needs cutting. The rows you leave unticked are what protects the existing carving: they print on the shop ticket under NOTES (DO NOT ENGRAVE), so the engraver knows the text is meant to be there and is not something they forgot.
Typing a value does not schedule it for cutting. A row with text and no tick is a reference line. A row with no text at all is skipped entirely.
Copy from plot details
Click Copy from plot details, top right of the Names and dates block, to build the people from the decedents you already entered on the order rather than retyping them. It fills:
One person per named decedent, writing that decedent's full name into Deceased name and their Date of birth and Date of death over the matching person's name and dates.
Family name from the first decedent's last name, and only while that field is still blank, so a spelling you corrected by hand survives.
It never touches Other names on stone, and it never ticks an Engrave this box.
The people fill in with every Engrave this box still unticked. That is the point: the copy deliberately ticks nothing. You still choose what gets cut.
If the order has no decedent names yet you get a red No decedent details to copy toast reading "Add the decedents under plot details first, then copy them here." Add them under Cemetery & Plot Details on Step 2: Cemetery & Logistics, or in the Inscription section of Step 4: Sketch & Inscription, and come back.
Note: the copy never ticks a box, so you can run it as often as you like. Running it again writes the current plot names and dates over the people on the card and leaves the Engrave this ticks exactly as you set them.
One list of people across the order
The people on this card and the decedents on the rest of the order are one list. Name a decedent under Cemetery & Plot Details on Step 2 or in the Inscription section of Step 4, and they appear as a person here. Type a person here and, as soon as they have a name or a date, they appear on Steps 2 and 4.
So the first person on a new order reaches the card from one of three places:
the plot rows on Step 2: Cemetery & Logistics, shown when the cemetery requires plot details or when you switch on Cemetery Plot Information (Optional);
the Inscription section of Step 4: Sketch & Inscription, which has its own add, duplicate and delete decedent buttons;
Copy from plot details on this card.
Because it is one list, removing a person here also removes that decedent from the order.
Correct lettering names and dates on the card itself. The shop ticket prints the card's copy, so that is the version the engraver works from.
On a service order, the Inscription section of Step 4 opens collapsed once every decedent already has a name, a date of birth and a date of death.
Note: older two-person lettering orders open with both people already as pills. If a third name was typed into Other names on stone on one of those orders, add that person with +, type their name and dates, and tick only the lines that need cutting.
Inscription needed: cut exactly this
The last field on the card is a free-text box labeled Inscription needed: cut exactly this, with the note "Always goes to the engraver, exactly as typed."
Anything you type here always lands under ENGRAVE THIS. There is no tick box, because this field exists only for new work. Use it for the exact wording, spacing or layout instruction you want cut, for example 2026, matched to the existing font and centered under 1940 -. Leave it blank when the ticked rows above already say everything.
What the shop ticket prints
Generate the shop ticket from the order with Document Generation → Generate Shop Ticket. On a service-only order the lettering work order replaces the monument build summary, and it prints as three separate blocks in this order:
Stone: Family Name, Stone Type, Stone Color, and Other Names on Stone when its Engrave this box is unticked. This block prints in the Order Details part of the ticket.
ENGRAVE THIS: every ticked row, plus the Inscription. Printed in larger type than the rest so it cannot be skim-read. Family Name joins this column only when The family name also needs cutting is ticked.
NOTES (DO NOT ENGRAVE): every unticked row that has text in it, in smaller type, and always Inscription Location.
The two cut columns print side by side in a bordered box below the Stone block. Once two or more people are named, every person line carries a suffix, for example Deceased Name (Person 1) or Date of Death (Person 2), so a date can never be read against the wrong name.
On an order with more than one service, or with a monument and services together, each service prints under its own name or SERVICE A, SERVICE B and so on (just SERVICE when there is only one), after the stones and their accessory rows.
A worked example. You are adding a death date to an existing Jones upright:
Stone: Family Name: JONES. Stone Type: Upright. Stone Color: Gem Mist. Other Names on Stone: Robert Jones 1938-2011.
ENGRAVE THIS: Date of Death: 2026. Inscription: 2026, matched to the existing font and centered under 1940 -.
NOTES (DO NOT ENGRAVE): Deceased Name: Mary Jones. Date of Birth: 1940. Inscription Location: Front die - right panel.
A block only prints when it has something in it. If you tick nothing, no ENGRAVE THIS block prints at all, and the ticket sends no cut list to the shop.
Where else the lettering shows up
The same three blocks, same headings, appear in two more places so you can check the work without generating a PDF:
Review & Create, the last step of the wizard: a Lettering & Inscription recap at the bottom of the Service Details card. ENGRAVE THIS is green and NOTES (DO NOT ENGRAVE) is amber, so the two can never be confused at a glance. Read it before you save.
Order Details on a saved order: a read-only Lettering & Inscription row, captioned "Only lines under Engrave This are cut", grouped into the same Stone, ENGRAVE THIS and NOTES (DO NOT ENGRAVE) blocks and carrying the same person suffixes. The row appears once any lettering field has a value, and each value keeps the line breaks and spacing you typed. To change anything, reopen the order with Edit Order and go back to Step 3.
A copy of the order: the order header's ⋯ menu → Duplicate Order → Yes, Duplicate Order carries the whole lettering work order across, every person and every Engrave tick.
On the customer's contract the work order prints in a Lettering Service box below the totals, in wording written for the family rather than the engraver: Stone identifies the memorial, To Be Engraved lists every ticked row and the Inscription together with the Inscription Location, and Reference — Not Engraved lists the unticked rows. It prints whether or not the contract carries drawings, and it lists every person on the card.
Common mistakes
Ticking every row after copying. The copy fills the fields so the engraver knows what is already there. Tick only the new work, usually just the date of death.
Typing the new date into the sketch as well. On a lettering job the card is the work order. Anything typed on the sketch is cut too, so you would get the line twice.
Leaving the existing carving blank. An empty NOTES (DO NOT ENGRAVE) column tells the engraver nothing. Fill in the names and dates you can read on the stone even though none of them are ticked.
Looking for the card on the monument. The card belongs to services. It appears once you have switched Step 3 to Service, and on a monument order once you add a service with Add a service.
Expecting a price from it. The card is instructions only. Price the job in the Pricing & Measurement block below it, where By Letter Count is usually the right fit for lettering.
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