Columbarium walls
Structures typed as columbarium, with independently sized floors and per-cell niche labels.
Crematorium Mapping Software
Cremation inventory that is mapped, not improvised
Cremation is now a large share of what most cemeteries handle, but the inventory it creates — niche walls, gardens, scattering areas — rarely fits software designed around rows of ground graves. CEMETERRA maps each of these the way it is physically laid out, and records inurnment and scattering as first-class interments.
Niche wallsColumbarium structures mapped as multi-floor grids with your own niche numbering.
GardensCremation gardens mapped as outdoor areas on the cemetery map like any other section.
ScatteringRecorded as a full interment and bookable as a scheduled service event.
Cremation inventory has three different shapes
A single map layer cannot represent all of them, which is why cremation records so often end up outside the system.
A niche wall is vertical. Dozens of positions occupy a few square metres of floor plan, stacked several high, sometimes on more than one level. Traced as polygons on a site map they collapse into an unreadable overlap, so CEMETERRA treats a columbarium as a structure with floors, and each floor as a grid of rows and columns — up to 100 by 100 — where each cell carries the niche number that is physically on the wall.
A cremation garden is horizontal and behaves like an ordinary section, so it is drawn on the cemetery map using the cremation garden plot type. Scattering areas are set up the same way, as positions within a garden, because every interment record attaches to a plot. That is a deliberate constraint rather than a limitation: it is what keeps a scattering searchable years later, when a family asks where a relative was scattered and the answer has to come from a record rather than someone's memory.
Cremation gardens
Mapped on the cemetery map as an area, with positions typed as cremation garden.
Cremation niches
The cremation niche plot type, usable inside a wall grid or as standalone inventory.
Ossuaries
Communal structures are a supported structure type alongside mausoleum and columbarium.
Records that match how cremation actually works
The gap in most systems is not the map — it is that cremation gets flattened into a burial record with the wrong fields.
A cremation can involve a cremation, an inurnment, and later a scattering, for the same person, at different dates, sometimes in different places. Storing that as a single burial row loses the sequence. CEMETERRA records interment type explicitly, so the register keeps the distinction, and scattering is additionally available as a scheduled event type so the service can be booked and tracked alongside burial ceremonies, memorial services, and graveside services.
| Cremation requirement | CEMETERRA | Burial-first systems |
|---|---|---|
| Niche wall layout | Multi-floor grid with per-cell numbering. | Overlapping polygons, or omitted from the map entirely. |
| Interment detail | Burial, cremation, inurnment, scattering stored distinctly. | Cremation flattened into a burial record or a free-text note. |
| Scattering records | A distinct interment type against a garden position, plus a bookable event type. | Often a free-text note, so the history is not searchable. |
| Cremation rate | Measured from your own records over time, against burials. | Estimated from national averages, if tracked at all. |
| Family lookup | Public grave search and QR memorial pages, no app install. | Office enquiry, or a separate memorial product. |
Knowing what to build next
Cremation inventory decisions are capital decisions, and they are usually made on a guess.
Because reporting counts cremation, inurnment, and scattering together and compares them against burials over time, the cremation rate you plan against is your own, drawn from your own registers, rather than a national figure that may not describe your community at all. Inventory and utilisation reports break down by plot type, so the question of whether to develop another niche wall or extend the garden is answered from the same records staff already maintain.
Crematorium mapping questions
How do you map a columbarium niche wall?
A niche wall is created as a structure with a type of columbarium, then given one or more floors. Each floor is a grid of rows and columns, up to 100 by 100, and every cell can carry the niche number engraved on the wall and link to a plot record. Because a wall is described by its rows and columns rather than by survey coordinates, it does not need a digitization project to set up.
How is a scattering recorded?
Scattering is one of the four interment types CEMETERRA records, alongside burial, cremation, and inurnment, so it keeps its own date and person details rather than being flattened into a burial row. Every interment attaches to a plot, so scattering areas are set up as positions in a cremation garden and the scattering is recorded against one — which is also what makes the history searchable later. Scattering is additionally available as a scheduled event type, so the service itself can be booked and tracked.
Are cremation gardens handled differently from niche walls?
They are, because they are physically different. A cremation garden is an outdoor area mapped on the cemetery map like any other section, using the cremation garden plot type. A niche wall is a vertical grid and is handled as a structure. Both produce ordinary plot records, so ownership, interments, and reporting work the same way across the two.
Can I report on the cremation rate?
Yes. Reporting counts cremation, inurnment, and scattering interments together as cremation activity and compares that against burials over time. That gives you a measured cremation rate from your own records rather than a national average, which is the number that actually informs how much niche and garden inventory to develop next.
Do families need an app to find a niche?
No. Cremation records can surface through public grave search and QR memorial pages in the same way as ground burials, so a visitor can look up a name in a browser without installing anything.
Related
Mausoleum mapping software
Above-ground structures, floors, and record-linked niche grids.
Cemetery mapping software
Uploading plats, drawing plot boundaries, and linking ground sections.
Cemetery management software
The full records, burial rights, reporting, and operations platform.
QR memorial pages
Public memorial pages families reach by scanning, with no app install.
Map your cremation inventory properly
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