Enterprise Document Automation Case Study: How Funeral Directors Life Is Automating 60,000 Hours of Work
Summary:
When Funeral Director’s Life (FDL) initially partnered with Grooper, the company focused on a specific, high-friction problem: automating the processing of handwritten contracts. By using Grooper’s AI handwriting recognition capabilities alongside Hyland OnBase and Robotic Process Automation (RPA), FDL successfully slashed manual data entry times from eight minutes to just two minutes per contract—saving 1,920 hours annually and averting over $1 million in yearly onboarding costs.
For 2026, FDL is driving an internal initiative to automate 60,000 hours in one year, and Grooper is enabling elements of that automation. FDL’s active automation pipeline targets 82,000 potential hours in the pipeline with a potential of $2.8 million in annual savings.
At-a-Glance: Grooper Automation Metrics
Results: Measurable Time and Cost Savings
Mobile Document Scanning in the Field
Funeral directors routinely complete paper “first call sheets” by hand during family meetings to avoid typing on a computer during sensitive times. Previously, administrative assistants had to manually retype stacks of these sheets back into the Passare software, costing an average of 7 minutes per form.
The Solution: FDL built a mobile document scanning capability directly into their Passare app. The scanner automatically crops and enhances multiple pages before routing them to Grooper via APIs. Grooper extracts the vitals data and populates the case file inside Passare for an employee to review. This exposes the Grooper backend to the user seamlessly without requiring them to leave Passare.
Impact: The system placed third for the NFDA Innovation Award. After processing 1,627 batches in 2025, the system has already completed 1,600 batches in the first two months, eliminating roughly 186 hours of redundant data entry for technology-averse users. FDL plans to expand this feature to support bulk imports from external insurance entities.
Insurance Claims Reconciliation: 20 Minutes Down to 6.7
State regulations in Texas mandate that all funeral claims must be strictly reconciled against the original pre-need contract to ensure appropriate refunds, differences, and discounts are accurately calculated. Processing these highly variable documents manually required 20 minutes per claim for roughly 100 claims every day.
The Solution: FDL deployed APIs to pull the pre-need contract data directly into
Grooper using the contract number, while the corresponding at-need contract is uploaded to OnBase. Grooper extracts the information from the varying layout of the at-need contract, performs a side-by-side math comparison, and utilizes automated bots to finalize the paperwork.
Impact: In the first week of launching, the system immediately dropped the average processing time from 20 minutes down to 6.7 minutes per claim. FDL aims to push this down to 5 minutes, which will save approximately 5,000 operational hours—freeing up the capacity of three full-time employees.
Extracting Data From 20–30 Variable Price Lists Every Week:
Every funeral home operates using a unique General Price List (GPL) documenting its specific packages and merchandise. Layouts vary wildly, ranging from tri-fold pamphlets to 30-page booklets. FDL is required to manually input these price sheets into two distinct platforms: digital contracting software (pre-need) and Passare (at-need). Manually entering 20 to 30 lists a week consumed roughly one hour per list.
The Solution: FDL moved all price list maintenance entirely into Grooper as a unified management hub. Grooper utilizes advanced AI tools to extract line items from highly variable document layouts, and automated bots seamlessly push that structured data out to FDL’s internal software platforms. Swearingen noted that before Grooper’s AI tools were introduced, this automation project was entirely impossible due to the structural complexity of the lists.
Impact: This single workflow is projected to save between 2,000 to 3,000 hours annually, saving the labor equivalent of a full-time position.
Bringing Survey Processing In-House: $250,000+ Saved Annually
FDL previously outsourced the management of direct mail marketing surveys to a third-party vendor. The vendor mailed out question-and-answer surveys, captured the returned checkbox data, and delivered a CSV file back to FDL to populate their CRM platform.
The Solution: To cut out the vendor entirely, FDL transitioned survey processing internally to their mailroom. Physical documents returned by families are scanned in-house, and Grooper extracts the checkbox and yes/no parameters directly, automatically feeding the lead data straight into FDL’s CRM.
Impact: Rather than targeting time savings, this project functions as a massive financial optimization, saving FDL a minimum of $250,000 per year in third-party vendor fees.
Mobile Scanning for Digital Contracts
In FDL’s digital contracting platform, Digicon, staff frequently need to attach supplementary physical documents—such as checks, Power of Attorney (POA) forms, and guardian forms—directly to a digital contract.
The Solution: FDL added a QR code interface to Digicon. Staff use a mobile scanning application to scan physical documents, which are immediately sent to Grooper for
automatic classification before being routed straight into Hyland OnBase.
Impact: In just two weeks, this seamless document attachment process has already saved FDL 143 hours of administrative labor. Over one year, that can translate to over 3,500 hours of time savings.
How FDL Measures Actual (Not Projected) ROI
A key element of FDL’s success is its refusal to rely on theoretical cost-saving models. Instead, every automated process is paired with a live Grooper reporting dashboard that calculates exact metrics: minutes saved, hours accumulated, onboarding costs eliminated, and individual user performance.
“It allows us to identify training opportunities, it allows us to actually track savings by actual usage, not just theoretical usage,” notes Swearingen.
By tracking data down to individual processing metrics, management can easily identify if an employee is struggling with a specific system or workflow phase and immediately step in with targeted training—turning document capture data into a tool for continuous operational improvement.
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