How to Select a Cemetery and Set Up Logistics

The second step when creating a new quote is Cemetery & Logistics. This is where you select the cemetery, enter plot information, and schedule the installation. The entire step is optional. You can leave the cemetery blank, skip the plot details, or skip both, and the order will save without them.

Selecting a cemetery

Click the Cemetery dropdown to see all the cemeteries you've added in your Settings. Type to search: it matches the cemetery's name, its town and its address, and it matches any part of the name, so typing "mary" finds "St. Mary Cemetery". Case does not matter. Select the cemetery for this order.

While the list is open, each cemetery shows its location on a small grey line under its name, so two cemeteries with the same name are easy to tell apart. Once you pick one, the field shows the plain name. When nothing matches you see No cemeteries found.

If the cemetery isn't in your list yet, click the Add New button to the right of the dropdown to create it right from here. The cemetery form that opens has its own Add button next to County / Zone, so a missing county can be created on the spot: fill it in, click Save, and you are back on the cemetery with the new county selected. Its Contacts row takes the primary contact and any additional contacts, such as the sexton or the office.

Learn more: How to Add and Configure a Cemetery, How to Set Up Counties or Zones

Pinpoint Location on Map

Under the cemetery dropdown there is a Pinpoint Location on Map switch. Turn it on to mark the exact spot the stone is going. The map opens on the cemetery's saved address. Type in the search box and pick a result, or click straight on the map to drop the pin, then click again to move it. Open in Google Maps hands the same spot to a phone for the crew.

The search box finds towns, cemeteries and landmarks, not just street addresses, so you can type a cemetery name and get it. Results preview on the map as you type, framed the way Google would frame them: a town as a town, a street address zoomed right in.

When you save this step with the pin on, MonuDesk files two views of the pin on the order as Reference attachments: Cemetery Location Map (Satellite) - <cemetery name>.png and Cemetery Location Map (Street Map) - <cemetery name>.png. The satellite view shows the headstones and paths a setter navigates by, the street map shows the section roads. Both are listed under Notes & Files, where you can rename them.

The map is never added to a document on its own. Once an order has a saved map, the Generate dialog always opens, and the two views sit in their own Cemetery location map section: "Optional. Pick one view to print the pinned grave location on this document." Neither view is ticked for you, and ticking one unticks the other, so a document carries at most one map. A ticked map does not count against the Maximum 2 images per document limit on the foundation order and purchase order pickers.

Moving the pin replaces the saved images, and switching the pin off deletes them, so an out-of-date location can never be pulled onto a document later.

When the order isn't going to a cemetery

Some stones never reach a cemetery: the family collects the stone from you and sets it themselves. Say so with the customer pickup button rather than by leaving the cemetery blank, so every screen and every document downstream knows it was a decision.

The button is the small package icon to the right of Add New, beside the Cemetery field in the Cemetery & Plot Details card. Hover it and the tooltip reads "Customer pickup: no cemetery, the customer collects the stone."

Click it and:

• The button fills in solid, and its tooltip becomes "Customer pickup is on. Click again or pick a cemetery to turn it off."

• The Cemetery field shows Pickup.

• Any cemetery already chosen is cleared, together with the cemetery fee selections that came with it, so no cemetery fee is left sitting on the total.

• The map pin and the plot section collapse. Plot and decedent details you already entered are kept.

• The Scheduling card lower down this step stays available.

• A Delivery card headed Pickup appears in the right-hand summary straight away, reading "The customer collects this stone. No cemetery involved."

To turn pickup off, click the button again, pick a real cemetery from the dropdown, or clear the Pickup value. Every new order starts as a cemetery installation, so pickup is always an explicit choice.

The choice is stored when the wizard is saved, by Save as Quote, Save as Confirmed Order, the unsaved-changes draft save, or Update Quote / Update Order. Cancelling the wizard leaves the order as it was. Re-open a pickup order and the Cemetery field reads Pickup again. Switching an order to pickup takes the cemetery fee off the subtotal, total and balance on save.

Learn more: Orders for Customer Pickup (No Cemetery)

An installation whose cemetery you do not know at this point is a different thing. Leave the Cemetery dropdown empty and carry on through the wizard. When no cemetery is selected:

• Cemetery fees do not apply. There is nothing to calculate against.

• Tax comes from the purchaser's ZIP code when Automatic Tax Calculation is on and a rate is found for it. Otherwise it falls through to the Default tax rate of the office location the order belongs to (Settings → Office Locations), and then to your default Sales Tax % from Company Profile if that location has no default. With Automatic Tax Calculation off, you can still override the rate manually in the Pricing Panel.

• Plot fields like Section, Lot, and Space become inert. You can leave them blank.

• Order Overview, order cards, and all PDFs render Cemetery not specified wherever the cemetery would normally show.

You can add a cemetery later from Edit Order. When you save, cemetery fees recalculate based on the cemetery you picked. The tax rate stays the one the order was saved with; if the new cemetery's county or zone rate should apply, click the rate in the Pricing Panel and type it in.

Client different than Plot Owner

If the person purchasing the monument is not the person who owns the cemetery plot, toggle on Client different than Plot Owner. This opens fields for the plot owner's First Name, Last Name, Phone, Email, and Address.

This is especially useful for cemetery applications where the cemetery needs the actual plot owner's information, not just the purchaser's.

Cemetery Plot Information

Click Cemetery Plot Information to expand it. Here you can enter:

Plot Location: the Section, Lot, and Space where the monument will be installed. Under them sit Block and Tier for cemeteries that use them. Both print on the shop ticket's plot line and in the Lot / Grave row of the foundation order.

Decedent details (optional): the First Name, Middle Name, and Last Name of the deceased. Whatever you type here shows on the Sketch & Inscription step later in the quote, and editing the decedent on either step changes the same person on both. You can leave these fields blank and add the decedent later, or skip them entirely if the order doesn’t require them (for example, a stock monument or a pre-need order where the family hasn’t decided yet).

If there are multiple people to be memorialized, click Add Another Plot to add a second or third decedent with their own plot location.

These plot rows are the order's one decedent list. The same people appear on the Sketch & Inscription step and, on a service order, in the Lettering & Inscription card on Items & Configuration. Enter them wherever you reach first, edit them anywhere, and every step follows.

Because the list is shared, removing a plot row removes that person from the whole order. When that person carries inscription work only step 4 can rebuild, MonuDesk asks first: a Remove <name>? dialog explains that "This person is on the whole order, not just this plot", names what will also be deleted from Sketch & Inscription, and offers Keep them or Remove. A row carrying nothing but a name is removed without a prompt, and the last remaining row cannot be removed.

Buttons your role cannot use are greyed, such as the trash button on a plot that is already saved. Hover a greyed button to read "You don't have permission to do this. Please contact your company owner."

Installation Notes

Below the plot information, you will see a button called Installation notes. Use this to add placement details for this specific order, like which direction the stone should face, where exactly in the plot the stone goes, or any other installation instructions. These notes are shown in the Order Overview and on the Shop Ticket.

Location card

As you fill in the details, a Location card appears on the right side of the screen. It shows a summary of everything: the cemetery name and address, the plot location, the plot owner (if different), the cemetery contact person, any additional contacts on the cemetery (under Additional Contacts, with their role, phone numbers, email and note), and any notes you added in the cemetery settings.

Tap an additional contact's phone number to call it or the email address to write to it. Additional contacts are for your team only: they do not print on any document and customers never see them.

Scheduling

At the bottom of this step, you set the installation timeline under Scheduling.

• Specific date range: click this and a calendar opens where you pick a start and end date. Use this when you have a firm timeline.

• Seasonal preference: click this and a list opens with Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Use this when the customer doesn't have exact dates but knows which season they want the monument installed.

You can also set a Promise Date on this step. This is the specific date you promised the customer for delivery or installation. Click the Promise Date field and pick the day on the calendar, for example if the family wants the stone set by a birthday or anniversary. Where nothing is set yet you will see a dashed Select promise date card.

The Quick pick buttons, +1mo, +1.5mo (six weeks), +2mo, +3mo and +6mo, sit with the installation date range. Clicking one sets an installation window running from today and sets the Promise Date to the window's last day, on a new quote and on a draft you resume alike.

A promise date is optional, and MonuDesk does not fill one in for you when you save. The field carries a small badge telling you where its date came from: LAST DAY OF DATE RANGE means the date is the last day of your installation window, and MANUAL means somebody picked it. To take a promise date off the order for good, click the small x on the right of the field. It stays off, and the next save will not put it back. You can add, change or remove it later from the Order Overview.

When you're done, click Next at the bottom right to continue to Items & Configuration.

Related articles:

• How to Add and Configure a Cemetery

• How to Start a New Quote

• How to Fill In Client Information

• How the Pricing Panel Works

• Orders for Customer Pickup (No Cemetery)