Members, contributions and claims in one place — and every payout in the books.
A burial society collects small amounts from many members every month and pays out a large sum at the hardest moment in a family’s life. BurialPro runs that whole cycle inside TamilAccounting: members and their dependents, cashier receipts, bereavement claims with proper checks and approvals, refunds and amendments. Every receipt and every payout posts to the ledger as it happens.
Where a burial society gets into trouble
Most societies start with a member register, a receipt book and a spreadsheet. That holds for the first few hundred members. After that, these are the problems that come up at committee meetings — usually right after a death.
Nobody is sure who is covered
The register says one thing, the application form another. Which dependents are on the policy, which cover the member chose and whether the waiting period has ended are worked out by hand.
Cost: a family is told at the funeral that the person who died was never on the policy.
Payments arrive five different ways
Cash at the office, mobile money, salary deductions and bank deposits all land in different places. Matching each one to the right member, and the right month, is a job nobody finishes.
Cost: members who paid shown as in arrears, and members in arrears still treated as covered.
Claims approved on trust
A claim is paid before the death certificate is filed, before anyone checks the member’s arrears, or while the same deceased is being claimed by another member as well.
Cost: payouts the society’s own rules never allowed — and no way to get the money back.
Dependents counted twice, or forever
The same parent is registered under two brothers. A child stays on the policy long after passing the age limit. Each one is cover the society is carrying without a contribution behind it.
Cost: claims the premiums were never priced to pay.
No trail of who decided
When a member disputes a rejected claim or a lapsed policy, there is no record of who checked it, who approved it, when, or why.
Cost: disputes that drag on, and auditors who cannot sign off.
The fund position is a guess
Contributions in and claims out are kept in separate books. The committee cannot tell, month by month, whether the fund is growing or being eaten into.
Cost: premium decisions made without the numbers to support them.
From the application form to the last payout
Each stage is a step on the member’s record, done by the person allowed to do it, and logged with who, when and why.
The four jobs a society does every day
Signing members up, taking their money, paying claims, and keeping the policy up to date when life changes.
A member book you can trust at claim time
Each member is captured once, with the cover product, pay point, branch and agent, and then moves through QA review and supervisor approval before cover starts. Members are keyed on their national ID number — the Omang in Botswana — and the society can require that number to be the right length and digits only.
- Spouse, children, parents and extended family, with limits on how many of each
- A dependent can belong to only one principal member — a second registration is refused
- Children age out at the age limit you set; the waiting period and lapse rule are yours too
- KYC status and expiry date, with members flagged when their KYC expires
- Individual, company, group and sponsored members, including one member paying for another
Every payment on the right member, for the right month
The cashier receipts a joining fee or a monthly contribution against the member, and the money is allocated month by month, so the member’s statement shows exactly which months are paid and which are open. The receipt prints on A4 or on a thermal roll printer at the counter.
- Cash, bank transfer, salary deduction and mobile money, with the pay point on every member
- Prepayments capped at the number of months your rules allow; overpayments kept as credit
- Cash can be restricted so that a cash receipt needs a recorded reason
- Bank statement exports imported and matched to members by ID number
- Each receipt posts to the bank account and the contribution income account at once
Claims checked before they are approved, not after they are paid
QA review, assessment, final approval and the release of payment are separate steps, and each can be given to different people. Before final approval the claim is checked against the documents on file, the claimant’s bank details and the member’s standing.
- A document checklist that depends on the cause of death — an accident needs a police affidavit
- Arrears, waiting period and active membership checked automatically
- One claim per deceased: a second claim for the same person is locked out
- An optional deadline from the date of death, with an executive override
- Several approval levels if your constitution calls for them, and payouts in parts
When life changes, the policy changes with it
Adding a baby, removing a dependent, moving to a bigger cover or ending a membership are amendments: requested, checked, approved and then applied to the member record, with the supporting documents attached first.
- Add or remove dependents, upgrade or downgrade cover, update details, terminate
- When a principal member dies, the membership ends and further contributions are blocked
- Refunds worked out for you: contributions paid, the eligible part, penalty and admin fee
- A printable refund note, bereavement claim record and member contribution statement
Everything else a society office needs
The work around the members — telling them, reporting on them and keeping the office honest.
SMS to members
An editable message for each moment: joining, approval, receipts, claims received or paid, refunds. Instalment-due and arrears reminders can go out on a set day each month, and every message is logged.
Alerts for the office
Staff get an email and a browser notification when something is waiting for them — a member to check, a claim to approve, a payment to release — with a delivery log.
26 society reports
Member register, active and lapsed members, new business, claim portfolio, claims by cause of death, members by pay point and region, contribution statement, fund summary and more.
Nightly jobs, previewed first
Activate members whose waiting period has ended, age out children and lapse unpaid policies automatically. They start switched off, and the settings screen shows exactly who would change before you turn them on.
Bring your member book across
Import members, dependents and payment remittances from spreadsheet templates. Members can arrive already active, or go through the normal checks.
Branches, regions and agents
Each member belongs to a branch, and receipts and payouts carry that branch into the ledger. Agents have their own commission report on what their members paid in.
Cover products
Principal-and-family, parent, extended, senior and tombstone top-up plans, each with its cover amount, monthly rate and age band.
A full audit trail
Every status change on a member, claim, refund or amendment records the user, date, time, IP address, the old and new status and the reason.
Built for the people who run the fund
Whether you have five hundred members or fifty thousand, the office does the same work every day.
Burial societies
Member-owned societies that need a clean register, monthly collections and claims the committee can stand behind.
Funeral cover schemes
Schemes selling several cover products through agents, with waiting periods, lapse rules and dependent limits to enforce.
Community and church funds
Volunteer-run funds that need simple receipts, SMS confirmations to members and a fund summary for the annual meeting.
Societies with branches
Several offices taking money and logging claims, with every figure tagged to its branch in the ledger.
Administrators and committees
Separate roles for capture, QA, assessment, approval and finance, so no single person can sign up a member and pay their claim.
Treasurers and auditors
Receipts and payouts already in the general ledger and the bank account, ready to reconcile and report on.
Bring your data. We’ll keep it right — and keep making it better.
Switching software is the hard part. We help you move, keep your records sound, and keep improving the system with you.
Data migration & opening balances
Move across from Tally, Zoho, QuickBooks, Xero, Sage 50 or SMACC, or from Excel templates for items, customers, suppliers, employees, chart of accounts and opening balances. You preview every row before it is saved — and our team helps you through it.
Your data, kept right
Your database is backed up three times a day — every 8 hours — and your files are backed up too. Each company keeps its own separate database; roles decide who can see, enter, approve or void; every change is on the audit trail; and everything exports to Excel or PDF whenever you want it.
Always improving, with you
We follow up regularly with the businesses that use it, and their requests become features. Updates arrive on your account automatically — nothing to download or reinstall.
Connected to what comes next
GST e-invoice and e-way bill, ZATCA, WooCommerce, WhatsApp, biometric devices, online payment gateways, mobile apps and an AI assistant — and new connections are added as the market moves.
BurialPro: common questions
The receipt posts a bank deposit straight away: the bank or cash account you chose is debited and the contribution income account — or the joining fee income account — is credited, tagged with the member’s branch and linked to the member’s own customer account. The deposit shows in banking and is reconciled with the bank statement like any other. If the deposit is voided, the contribution is reversed and the months it paid open up again. Arrears are tracked inside BurialPro by month; premiums are not raised as sales invoices.
Releasing a payment posts a bank payment: the claims expense account (or the refunds account) is debited and the bank is credited, tagged with the member’s branch. A claim paid in parts posts one payment per part, and the claim shows what is paid and what is still due. The expense is recorded when the money is released, not when the claim is approved. Voiding a payment puts the balance back on the claim.
QA review, assessment, final approval and release of payment are separate permissions, so you decide who does each. If your constitution needs more, claims and refunds can go through the system’s approval matrix — for example operations, quality control, a manager and the chairperson — with approve and reject from the approval inbox. A rejection needs a reason, and every step is logged.
Each member has a pay point and each receipt a payment method — cash, bank transfer, salary deduction or mobile money. Bulk payments come in through the payment remittance import, and bank statement exports can be imported directly: each deposit is matched to a member by ID number and posted into the bank account you choose.
Yes. The dependent limits, child age limit, spouse premium, age bands, waiting period, lapse period, claim deadline, prepayment cap, refund penalty and admin fee, cash restriction and ID number format are all set per society in the BurialPro settings. Each has a sensible default, and the stricter checks start switched off until you turn them on.
Yes. There are spreadsheet templates for members, dependents and payments. Each member gets a customer account in the ERP as they are imported, and you choose whether imported members start active or go through QA and approval like a new application.
Give your members a society they can trust.
Start free, load a few members and dependents, and take a claim from logging to payout before you commit.