When a funeral home assumes responsibility for someone's loved one, families place enormous trust in the professionals managing every movement and handoff that follows. Yet much of that behind-the-scenes work has traditionally been documented using paper records, whiteboards, and memory.
In 2021, Reid Hanson set out to build a digital alternative with MorTrack. This software gives each decedent a unique identifier and documents custody events from first call through final disposition, providing funeral homes, removal companies, mortuaries, and crematories with time-stamped records of who did what, where, and when. Today, more than 65 client organizations use MorTrack to manage chain of custody for over 1,000 funeral homes across more than 20 states and Canada.
For Hanson, technology is most valuable when it makes critical documentation easier without getting in the way of the people doing the work. This philosophy has earned MorTrack recognition as the Top Honoree in the Tech Innovators category of the 2026 CO—100, an awards program for small businesses hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
[Read more: Meet the 2026 CO—100 Honorees]
Creating a digital record for every handoff
MorTrack's technology is built around what the company calls Digital Chain of Custody. When a call comes in, the platform assigns the case a Unique Decedent ID, or UDID. Subsequent events—including removal, transportation, intake, internal movements, and final disposition—can then be recorded with digital signatures, timestamps, and location data through a mobile application that works even without a persistent cellular signal.
This documentation can extend to personal effects such as wedding rings, watches, and wallets. Hanson identified these belongings as a common source of disputes because, without a clear custody record, it can be difficult to determine what happened if an item is reported missing.
Digital documentation provides additional protection both for families and for employees who might otherwise face an accusation they cannot easily disprove.
As Hanson put it, “We didn't just digitize an old form. We changed what's possible to prove.”
[Read more: Data Provenance: Defined (And Why it Matters)]
Spotlight On
MorTrack LLC
MorTrack is a purpose-built chain-of-custody software company focused on helping funeral homes, trade service companies, and removal businesses improve accountability, documentation, and operational efficiency throughout the deathcare process. Built by Cairnstack, a tracking and logistics software company with experience in industries where accuracy and reliable records are critical, MorTrack applies that same discipline to deathcare by providing real-time tracking, time-stamped documentation, and clear accountability for every movement, handoff, and responsibility. By reducing paperwork, manual logging, interruptions, and uncertainty, MorTrack helps teams work with greater confidence, stay organized, remain audit-ready, and protect their reputation while ensuring that important details are documented and accessible when questions arise.
The point of AI is not to replace people; it is to give people more time to focus on other people.Reid Hanson, Founder of MorTrack
Using AI to make documentation less burdensome
Collecting more information isn't helpful if doing so creates excessive work for frontline employees. That’s why MorTrack uses AI and machine learning to analyze how clients interact with the platform and identify opportunities to simplify workflows and automate data collection.
“The goal is to make the front-line experience simpler and faster,” Hanson said. “A technician doing a removal at 2 a.m. shouldn't be slowed down by data entry, while still giving leadership the reporting and data they need to run their operations well.”
According to MorTack, the platform currently saves operators an estimated 20 hours of documentation time per location each month.
MorTrack has also used AI internally to strengthen the technology itself. After an engineering leadership transition revealed technical debt in its database architecture and user experience, the company paused new feature development for five months and rebuilt significant portions of the platform using AI-assisted development and updated engineering practices. The resulting architecture is designed to support faster feature development and customer growth.
[Read more: Small Businesses Are Using AI—Here’s What’s Actually Working]
Making the technology smarter without losing the human element
With its updated foundation in place, MorTrack is planning additional tools to make documentation more seamless. The company is developing AI-filtered voice-to-text capabilities for custody notes and condition reports, as well as optional RFID technology that would add another authentication layer to its existing UDID system. It is also expanding its Comfort App, which provides families with secure, limited visibility into their loved one's care.
Despite those investments, MorTrack doesn't see automation as a replacement for the human relationships at the center of deathcare—or its own customer service.
“The point of AI is not to replace people; it is to give people more time to focus on other people,” Hanson said.
That principle captures the larger purpose behind MorTrack's technology. Success, Hanson explained in the application, ultimately comes down to whether a provider can tell a grieving family what happened to their loved one “backed by a record instead of a guess.”
For MorTrack, innovation is less about adding technology to an already sensitive process and more about using it to make that process more accountable, efficient, and worthy of the trust families place in it.
[View the full 2026 CO—100 list]
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