Cemetery billing and mapping system Essay

1.0 INTRODUCTION Technology has grown over the years and has made the life of mankind much easier. Technology is all around us and shows no sign of disappearing. It helps enhance the quality of life and business by doing many of our everyday tasks, which leaves more time to spend on more demanding and tedious matters. Computers are a great aid for businesses in terms of making a system from different aspects faster, proficient, and reliable. Computerized systems can generate reports and records in a fraction of the time compared to manual methods. Today, many of the world’s successful companies use computers for record keeping and report generations. Only a few have yet to adapt to the idea of computerized systems and continue to use a manual method of writing and recording in logbooks. Paraiso Memorial Park, Inc. is a privately owned cemetery located in Ampid II San Mateo, Rizal. Their main office is located at Door No. 12 Marietta Arcade MR Center, Marcos Highway, San Roque Marikina City. The cemetery first opened in November, 1973, by Mr. Romeo M. Liamzon. It is currently being led by their president Marietta Liamzon, the wife of the late Mr. Romero M. Liamzon. Paraiso Memorial Park, Inc. offers memorial services and lots for the deceased. Having a computerized Billing and Tracking system will help provide a proficient way to record, organize, and store data, regarding the client’s information. The system will help lessen the time and workload of the companies’ employees by giving faster, organized, accurate, and reliable information and records. 1.1 Background of the Problem In today’s modern age, computer has become a way of life; it is very evident that a majority of the country’s businesses still have not yet adapted to high technology. Particularly in most independent companies, daily transactions are still done on paper or old computer practices. We all know that modern offices are now operating at great pace striving to serve as many clients as possible with the best of their abilities. Although, as the years roll by, the number of clients and customers have grown and various record cases arise from these manual methods of managing clients’ records. Paraiso Memorial Parks, Inc. is a private cemetery located at San Mateo, Rizal. It was formerly founded by Mr. Romeo M. Liamzon, the late husband of President Marietta Liamzon, on November 1973. It currently has more than 20,000 customers and still continues to increase. It has (28)twenty-eight hectares of lot which are classified into five different types of memorial lot (1) lawn lot, (2) court, (3)presidential, (4) family estate, and (5)apartments (see attachment D-all. ), and are classified into 3 kinds of lots which is (a)Regular lot (b)Special (c)Premium Special. Paraiso Memorial Park, Inc. has surely grown over the years and along with it, its customers; the increasing numbers has been neglected over the years and therefore some of the processes of Paraiso Memorial Park, Inc. are in need of modification or update. Paraiso Memorial Park, Inc. is currently using a manual method of Billing and Tracking system. This manual method is prone to human errors and requires a considerable amount of time and effort. When computing the payments of a customer, wrong input into a ledger due to human errors can result in creation of a new entry, which consumes valuable time and effort. This leads to the delay of posting on the payments of a customer. There have also been cases where a page or the whole ledger is lost, damaged, or misplaced. It can be troublesome in finding the misplaced page or reproducing a damaged page. The filing of records is also a manual method of writing down information and then storing them into file cabinets. Records can be lost or misplaced from not being properly inserted into the file cabinets. If a request is made to view the record of a specific client, the employee must search through each folder of the file cabinet, which is very time consuming. Records and data lack security. Customer information is at risk to unauthorized viewing. Since there is no lock on the ledgers or file cabinets, anyone can gain access and view records or customer information. Once a customer has been issued a customer booklet, there have been cases where in a customer will forget to bring their customer booklet when giving a payment of installment. The employee will have a hard time finding the account of the customer since the contract number is unknown. They will search manually through each ledger, name by name. This becomes a problem since their ledgers are not organized in alphabetical order. In tracking a specific grave for customers, relatives, or visitors who do not know or remember the address of the lot, Paraiso Memorial Park, Inc. will search through several blotters for the name or address of the requested lot. The blotters are not arranged in alphabetical order, so the employee must search thoroughly name by name. The tallying of the available lots in Paraiso Memorial Park can be strenuous with the large number of overall lots in Paraiso. In order to find out how many lots are still available for sale, employees must compile the information gathered from numerous blotters. 1.2 Overview of the Current State of the Technology Paraiso Memorial Park, Inc. has valid agents that are authorized to assist old customers and especially new clients that are willing to buy. There are 20 transactions averaging per day and Paraiso Memorial Park, Inc. has 20,000 customers (already fully paid) to serve. There are two ways to inquire a lot in Paraiso Memorial Park Inc.; these are the following; Inquiring to avail a lot in Paraiso Memorial Park First customers inquire through an agent in the park which is called â€Å"The Officer of the Day†. This agent usually holds a Plan of the Park, Pricelist of the kind’s lots in Paraiso Memorial Park, Sales Application Form, Individual Application for Creditor and Contract to Sell. Customers may then ask about the price of the lot, kinds and classification of lot, terms and condition of payments, and how the customer will pay (cash or check) and where. The Agent will occasionally accompany their client throughout the park if requested; if the customer is willing and agrees to buy the lot, the agent checks the lot plan if the requested lot is available or not, then double checking it by calling the main office located in San Roque, Marikina City. If the availability of the lot requested is confirmed available, the agent will then present the Sales Application Form and Customer Data Sheet, Application Form for Individual Application for Creditor, and Contract to Sell to be filled up by the customer. The said forms stipulate the policy of the company regarding lot utilization, rules, and regulations. The agent and the customer will begin scheduling a date and time for when they will go to the main office for verification of data and issuance of a deposit slip. This deposit slip will be presented to the bank (Life Saving Bank besides the main office) upon payment. Afterwards, they will return to the Main Office for the issuance of official receipt, and the customer booklet depending if customer is in installment basis. Inquiring to avail a lot in Paraiso Memorial Park Inquiry through the Paraiso Memorial Park main office; located in San Roque, Marikina City. There is also an agent there called â€Å"The Officer of the Day†. Customers inquire through this agent and follow the same steps and procedures as if at the park office inquiry, except the customer cannot survey the memorial lots. The checking of availability of the requested lot is also quicker, since the main office holds the blotter. Issuance of the â€Å"Certificate of Ownership† will be given within a month after the full payment to have it prepared and signed by the official signatory and a PHP500.00 fee will be charge. The Contract to sell will be given to the buyer once it is signed by the official signatory that is within a month of the first payment. Along with the Contract to Sell is the Perpetual Care Fund in a form of trust amounting to PHP 5, 500.00 to PHP 132, 000.00 depending on the lot. (See Attachment C-7) Paraiso Memorial Park accepts all kinds of Check, whether Post-Dated Check or Personal Check. When a customer gives a post-dated check Paraiso Memorial Park prints out in a paper the information on the post-dated check and signs it saying Paraiso Memorial Park Inc. receives the post-dated check. The Individual Application for Creditor is a form of Insurance wherein if the conditions are met, a PHP 20,000.00 will be deducted to the remaining balance of the buyer. (See Attachment C-3.) If the customer is unable to pay according to the payment terms, a penalty will be given depending on how long the customer is overdue. A three (3) month grace period is given before charging for the penalty interest. Paraiso Memorial Park, Inc. offers up to six (6) terms of payment. (See Attachment C-21 and C-22). If the customer needs to use his/her memorial lot for burial purposes (Interment), she/he must pay in full or in cash in order for the lot to be used or utilized. Paraiso Memorial Inc. will provide an Interment Form which is only provided in the Main Office. The authorized (beneficiaries) customer will fill-out the interment form and apply for an interment. Issuance of deposit slip is also given by the cashier at the main office for paying the interment fees at the bank (Life Saving Bank beside the main office of Paraiso Memorial Park Inc.). After paying, the customer will then return to the main office for the issuance of Official Receipt. Then Information is now recorded into the interment sheet. When a customer is at-need (customer needs a memorial lot for immediate burial), he/she must pay in full or in cash in order for the lot to be used or utilized, take note that in this kind of transaction, the lot price is much higher than pre-need sales. The Sales Application Form, Customer Data Sheet and Contract to Sell are now manually recorded into two (2), one is the â€Å"Blotter† and the other is the â€Å"Subsidiary Ledger†. The Subsidiary ledger contains information about a single account, while the â€Å"Blotter† contains the information of the purchased memorial lot. The Tracking process or finding the availability of lots in Paraiso Memorial Park Inc. is done by manually scanning the lot plan and blotters. The lot plan is the map of Paraiso Memorial Park; this is categorized by Area and Garden, and is arranged by blocks/lots (see attachment C-25). Availability of the lot can also be seen here. The Blotter contains lot area, contract no., name of buyer, date availed and the remarks (if lot is fully paid or not). Paraiso Memorial Park, Inc. constantly updates their lot plan and blotters to remove the occurrence of double sales. The Park checks once a year the overall number of available lots up for sale. Currently Paraiso Memorial Parks has 25,000 lots. 1.3 Project Rationale A computerized billing and tracking system is very important in the succession of adaption on monitoring billings and customers of Paraiso Memorial Park Inc. This brings vast opportunities for development of Memorial Companies whereas data is already in their grasps. To the company, it is intended to take full advantage of current technologies that provide you with the ability to maximize your resources, increase productivity, improve accuracy and promote great cost effectiveness. To the employee, it is developed with functions which help save time and effort. It also provides an easy access to the authorized personnel only and performs automatic computation for billing. To the customer, the best information and services are ready to serve and a faster billing process is given, creating less hassle on paying bills. To the future researcher, this will guide them as a reference for their future subjects related in this study and can then be improved as technology and knowledge is growing. To STI College Marikina, this will serve as a reference to future students and will give them idea in creating or building a system of their own. This project aims to design and provide a methodology and its associated tools in order to support the integration of applications and process which have not necessarily been designed to coexist for memorial parks and competitive business.