Diocese of Bridgeport Fairfield County Catholic Cemeteries of the Diocese of Bridgeport
Steward

A demonstration prepared on your own audited numbers

Built for what lasts forever.

A cemetery's defining financial fact is a promise to maintain the grounds in perpetuity. This is your last four audited years, read the way a controller reads them — so the board can see it, and the auditor can trust it, every month.

Illustrative layout on real audited figures. We'll work with Catholic Cemeteries to design the right dashboards for each audience — board, finance, and operations. KPIs, tables, and views can be changed and rearranged. The live site is password-protected and encrypted, with reports drawn from your financial systems each month.

Where the cemetery stands

Audited results, fiscal years ended June 30. The story underneath the totals: assets are growing, but the growth is flowing into perpetual care, not operating flexibility.

Source: audited statements FY2022–FY2025

Net assets, and where they're committed

Perpetual care has grown from 39% of net assets to over half. Once committed, it isn't available to operate on.

Cemetery sales

Burial rights & other sales, by year. FY2023 included a large pre-need delivery.

Change in net assets

FY2022 was a loss driven by investment markets, not operations.

The metrics a cemetery actually lives by

These aren't generic financials. They're the questions a cemetery board and a nonprofit controller should be asking — and most accounting systems never surface them.

Derived from audited figures · estimates noted
Perpetual care as a share of net assets (FY2025)
▲ from 38.7% in FY2022
Years of saleable inventory remaining
at the recent net draw-down pace
Days of operating cash on hand (FY2025)
asset-rich, cash-thin

Perpetual care fund — the perpetual promise

Designated + contractually committed for perpetual care & maintenance.

The existential question behind this line: will the fund's income one day cover the grounds when sales end? That's the number to govern toward.

Saleable inventory — a finite resource

Crypts, niches, and graves carried at cost. Unlike a normal business, you can't reorder the product.

~12 years remaining is an estimate from the net draw-down; the true figure needs the unit count from the cemetery system. Exactly the kind of thing we'd reconcile.

Accounts receivable — collected, not chased

Net receivables have fallen roughly 80% across the period.

Deferred revenue — pre-need obligations

Money collected but not yet earned. A liability to deliver, not income.

Available once we connect your operations system

The metrics that truly define cemetery management live in your operations system (HMIS and the new platform), not the general ledger. These activate the month we reconcile that system to Financial Edge — the same reconciliation that keeps the audit clean. The figures below are illustrative.

Illustrative · not live data
Sample · from ops system
61% / 39%
At-need vs. pre-need sales mix
Pre-need builds tomorrow's revenue and today's deferred-revenue balance.
Sample · from ops system
46%
Cremation rate
▲ from ~38% five years ago
Shifts demand from graves toward niches and columbaria, and lowers the average sale.
Sample · from ops system
≈ 8 yrs
Saleable inventory remaining, in units
~1,180 spaces sold per year against ~9,400 remaining — the real land-and-construction horizon, by cemetery.
Sample · from ops system

Average sale by product

Grave$3,900
Crypt$7,400
Niche$2,300
Private mausoleum$14,800
Where the revenue actually comes from, product by product.
Sample · from ops system
3.1%
Pre-need cancellation rate
A quiet leak in the locked-in pipeline if it starts to climb.
Sample · from ops system
1,043
Interments, year-to-date
Core operating volume — demand-driven, and lumpy month to month.

Each figure above is a placeholder. The month your operations system reconciles to Financial Edge, these go live — which is exactly why that reconciliation is the heartbeat of the engagement.

Audit readiness, all year long

The monthly close isn't only clean books — it's a runway to an on-time audit. Checkpoints at month 6, 9, and 11 mean year-end is a confirmation, not a six-week scramble.

Illustrative monthly view · sample period
Month 6
Mid-year health check
Month 9
Plan with Grant Thornton
Month 11
Pre-close dry run · now
Year-end
Clean, on time
Ready for CPA sign-off (Arlene & Mac): 6 items clean, 1 flagged for review. Sign off applies the approved policy and is logged with date, version, and reviewer.
100%
Bank reconciliations completed on time
▲ resolves a prior audit comment
0
Inventory tie-out variances open
▲ resolves negative-inventory comment
1
Exception flagged for CPA judgment
a new restricted gift, sourced

Cash, in motion

Their loudest pain point: real cash is thin and never forecast. Below is the actual four-year cash flow from the audits — then the forward view we'd run once your data feeds in.

Cash flow: audited · forecast & aging: illustrative

Sources and uses of cash

Real, from the audited cash-flow statements. Operating cash flow has nearly tripled — but it's deployed into the perpetual-care fund and capital, which is why operating cash stays thin. The diamond marks the net change each year.

Operating cash flow

Cash generated by operations each year — the real engine, growing steadily.

Year-end cash balance

What's actually in the bank at June 30 — thin against an $11M operation.

The forward view — what we'd run for you

A rolling cash forecast and receivable discipline are the heart of the treasury function. These activate once the operations feed and the AP / payroll calendar are connected. Figures are illustrative; the receivable total is anchored to the real FY2025 balance.

Illustrative · not live data
Sample · from ops + AP / payroll

13-week cash projection

The view that catches the problem before it arrives — a projected balance, week by week, against a comfort floor.

Here the balance dips toward week 7 and recovers — seen weeks ahead, not discovered at the bank. This is the view that prevents the surprise tree-removal bill.
Sample · ops system

Accounts receivable — aging

How much is current, and how late the rest is.

About two-thirds is current. The total ties to the real FY2025 net receivable; the buckets are illustrative. The late tail is exactly where collection effort and ACH fixes get targeted.
Sample · ops system

Installment book by tenor

Pre-need contracts financed over 12, 18, and 24 months.

Weighted-average term ≈ 15 months — the runway over which this book converts to cash, and the discipline behind extending terms.

Payables — what we owe, and when it's due

The paying side of working capital: how current the cemetery is with its vendors, how its obligations are structured, and where the operating dollars go.

Illustrative · not live data
$420K
Total accounts payable
across active vendors
32
Days payable outstanding
paying on terms, not late
71%
Current — not yet due
no vendor stretch
Sample · AP system

Payables — aging

What's current versus what's past due, by age.

The vast majority sits in current — the cemetery pays on terms rather than stretching vendors. The small late tail is exactly what a weekly payment run keeps clean.
Sample · AP system

Payables — by vendor terms

How obligations are structured — Net 15 through Net 60.

Mostly Net 30 — standard, predictable terms. Knowing the term mix is what lets the 13-week forecast time each payment precisely.
Sample · AP system

Payables — by category

Where the operating dollars go.

Grounds, equipment, and vault supply lead — the cost of maintaining the grounds and serving families. This is how the board sees what actually drives operating spend, month to month.

Audited financial statements

Every figure in this demonstration traces back to these audited statements. They are public, independently audited records — the source behind every chart you've seen.

Public · independently audited
On the live, password-protected site, each year's audited statements are stored and available to view or download. In this portable demonstration the files aren't embedded — they attach on deployment.

How it's run

What it takes to produce this every month, the reporting inputs behind each view, and the team — by function — that delivers it.

The operating model

Our goal

We deliver outcomes — built with our people and yours, powered by your numbers, your systems, and your service to the families you serve.

Steward is the window. Behind it is a managed monthly close, an audit-ready year-end, and board-ready reporting, run with your team on your own numbers and tailored to each audience. The point isn't the technology. The point is that the back office runs quietly and accurately, so your people can stay where they're needed most — present for families in their hardest moments.

A clean monthly close

Books reconciled and standardized every month on a set schedule, with operations tied out to the general ledger — not a year-end scramble.

An audit-ready year-end

A 6 / 9 / 11-month checkpoint cadence so the year closes clean and exceptions surface early — not in the audit.

Board-ready reporting

CFO and board packages produced for you each month in each audience's language, plus an exception report that keeps CPA sign-off quick.

The reports behind each view

Every view on this site is built from a small set of standard reports, run and reconciled on a schedule. These are the inputs — not the systems — so the process stays the same whatever software an entity runs.

Dashboard viewReports that feed itCadence
Board overview & net assetsBalance Sheet · Statement of Activities (P&L)Monthly
Perpetual-care fundRestricted / designated net-asset scheduleMonthly
Cash flow & year-end cashCash-flow statement · bank reconciliationsMonthly
ReceivablesA/R aging · installment & contract scheduleMonthly
PayablesA/P aging · vendor & expense detailMonthly
Cemetery intelligenceInterment counts · sales by product (operations)Monthly
Audit readinessReconciliation checklist · perpetual-care funding · deferred-revenue roll-forwardMonthly + 6/9/11
DocumentsAudited financial statementsAnnual

Who runs it — functions, not seats

The work is organized by function and staffed by our team. The cemetery's existing order-entry role is retained on-site with our backup, and independent CPA oversight stays with the Diocese.

OVERSIGHT Controllership Seton Collaborative · owns the outcome Independent CPA oversight Diocese of Bridgeport · non-profit CPAs policy sign-off, then monthly exceptions Bookkeeping & general ledger AP / AR · transaction posting Monthly close reconciliation · journal entries Reporting & board packages Payroll processing & filings Order entry & AP intake Cemetery role · with Seton backup RETAINED ON-SITE

Roles are shown as functions, not individuals. Because each is a function and not a single seat, coverage never depends on one person being in the building — and the cemetery keeps its trusted on-site role, with our team as backup and the disciplined process around it.

Built to flex. Every view, KPI, and cadence here is a starting point, not a fixed template. We design the right dashboards with each audience — board, finance, operations — and rearrange them as needs change. Tell us what the board wants to see, and that's what it shows.

What it takes — and what we deliver

Keeping this accurate, every month

This view runs on your own numbers. Keeping it current and audit-ready is a defined monthly process that Seton runs with your team — not a one-time report. Here is the flow.

Input · general ledger

Financial Edge reports

Standard Balance Sheet and P&L export each month on a set schedule. We build the cash-flow and functional-expense statements Financial Edge doesn't produce internally — the same ones the audit needs.

Input · operations system

Cemetery system feed

Sales, interments, contract terms, receivable detail, and inventory by unit come from the cemetery system — HMIS today, and the new platform as it comes online.

Reconcile · monthly

Tied out and standardized

We work with your team to schedule the report runs and standardize the formats, then reconcile the operations system to the general ledger — so the monthly data and KPIs are accurate and don't break from one month to the next.

Deliver · every month

CFO & board reports

You receive a monthly CFO report and a board-ready report, plus this live view and the exception report that makes CPA sign-off a few minutes' work.

Financial figures in this demonstration are drawn from audited statements, FY2022–FY2025. Cash projections, receivable aging, financing tenors, and the operational metrics are illustrative until the cemetery-system feed is connected and reconciled.