Afterword
←
Back to changelog
Powered by Canny

new

May 2025

Hello everyone!
We hope you had a great Memorial Day Weekend. We’re excited to share another round of Afterword updates. This month we’ve focused on key features like eSignatures and Vital management.
Want us to add a feature or make an adjustment?
Email us with your requests at founders@afterword.com.
May 2025 Highlights:
  1. We've rolled out
    Major eSignature Upgrades,
    including support for up to 7 Next of Kin signers, Witness signers, and significant enhancements to the user experience to make it easier for families to understand where to sign on any device. Funeral homes who collect vitals online can collect multiple NOK information and generate multi-signer contracts directly from the Online Planner.
  2. We launched our
    Chain of Custody app
    in the App Store     for all our existing customers! After months of testing with our early adopters, we’re making our Chain of Custody App available for everyone. Our app uses your GPS and barcodes/QR codes to streamline the body tracking process. If you’re interested in using Chain of Custody at your funeral home, please reach out to us.
  3. We released our
    Aftercare Emailing system
    , which allows you use to send email reminders for Yahrzeit, death anniversaries, or other emails to check-in with your families. If you’re interested in using this at your funeral home, please reach out to us.
We're already looking ahead and working on what's next. As always, your feedback is invaluable – please keep it coming!
Full List of Updates
These key features are just part of the story for May. We've made numerous other improvements and fixes across the platform, all aimed at making Afterword more powerful and easier for you to use. Let’s dive into the complete list of what we’ve been working on:
Documents & eSignature
We're continually enhancing your document management and electronic signing capabilities:
  • Multi-Signer Sequences from Planner
    : Generate eSignature sequences involving multiple signers directly from the online planner. We support up to 7 Next of Kin signers.
  • Witness Support & UI Overhaul
    : You can now capture Witness names and emails directly within the eSignature process. The overall eSign modal and signing page have been significantly updated for a clearer and more user-friendly experience.
  • iOS Zooming
    : Added dedicated Zoom in and Zoom out buttons to make Zoom easier for Mobile users.
  • Default ID Requirement for eSign
    : Added a setting to make requiring an ID upload for eSignatures the default, enhancing security and compliance.
  • "Scroll to Next" page
    : Added the ability for signers to "scroll to next" forms for smoother navigation through signing multiple documents.
  • Static Field Borders
    : Borders around fields are now removed after they have been filled in on documents, creating a cleaner final appearance.
  • Closing Tab Warning
    : We warn families if they attempt to close the tab before completing the signature process.
Chain of Custody / Body Tracking
  • Live in the App Store.
    Launched our mobile Chain of Custody App in the App Store.
  • Barcode Support
    : Added support for different types of barcodes and included counties/states for auto-generation in relevant contexts.
Aftercare Emailing System
  • Scaleable Emailing System:
    Our ****system scales to support tens of thousands of emails per month based on your needs. You can use this to send simple emails like a request for a Review or for templated emails with specific data.
  • Yahrzeit Email Template
    : Designed a dedicated email template for Yahrzeit notifications.
Case Management & Vitals
Improving the core of how you manage case and family information.
  • Expanded Next of Kin (NOK) Support
    : We've added support for up to 7 Next of Kin signers.
  • Informant & Contact Data
    : We’re indexing all family members in Afterword to make searching even easier.
  • State/Province Customization
    : State/Province abbreviations are now a toggleable feature for each funeral home to ensure we’re using the correct name where appropriate. We can also easily rename fields like “State” to “Province” or "County" to "Parish" for specific regional needs.
Financial Management & Payments
More flexibility and control over your financial operations:
  • Dynamic Payment Method Configurations
    : Funeral homes can now have dynamically configured payment methods, e.g. ACH for pre-need, Affirm for direct cremations, or Credit Cards for at-need.
  • Late Fee Calculation
    : Late fees can now be calculated automatically based on your monthly late rate.
  • Tax Rate Overrides
    : The system now respects Vital case tax rate overrides in financial calculations.
  • Statement Presentation
    : Addressing requests to show "Funeral Home Charges" as a clear summary of Service + Merchandise on statements.
Online Planner & Family Experience
Enhancing the tools families use to make arrangements and stay informed:
  • Multi-Signer Sequences
    : Families can initiate complex, multi-signer eSignature sequences directly from the planner.
  • First Page Dropdown
    : The dropdown on the first page of the planner now shows all available pages that have names, for clearer navigation.
  • Offline Warning
    : If a family gets disconnected from the internet while filling out a form, we warn them now so they can make sure to re-connect to the internet before continuing.
Migration Support
  • Prepared our platform to migrate data from Crakn. (Customer Request)
  • Prepared our platform to migrate data from PartingPro (Customer Request)
Bug Fixes & Testing
Our team has been diligently addressing issues to ensure a stable platform:
  • Initials Fix
    : Fixed an issue where signatures and initials were appearing in the wrong places on documents.
  • Document Field Validation
    : The system will no longer consider signature-based date/time fields as "required fields" for form completion, improving workflow for automated fields.
  • Whiteboard
    : Fixed an issue with multiple users editing simultaneously in the Whiteboard.
  • Forms
    : Addressed an issue where street addresses were sometimes defaulting to
    {}
    and causing case load errors.
  • Testing
    : We can now test
    every single form and document
    for each client before we release new changes. This means we can verify all code releases before making them live without affecting your experience.
  • Google Translate.
    Implemented a Google Translate hotfix in 12 minutes after reports of a user in Austria using Google Translate to view Afterword’s Online Planner in Russian.
May has been a month of significant foundational improvements and exciting new functionalities. We're already looking ahead and working on what's next. As always, your feedback is invaluable – please keep it coming!
Best,
The Afterword Team