The receipt says one number. The bill says another.
Cash-advance items are things the funeral home buys from someone else on your behalf — flowers, the newspaper obituary, death certificates, the clergy honorarium. You’re entitled to ask what the vendor actually charged. Put the two numbers side by side and the difference stops being a suspicion and becomes a documented fact.
A markup isn’t automatically illegal — but the FTC Funeral Rule requires the funeral home to disclose that it adds a charge to cash-advance items. Nothing you type here leaves this device.
The items, from your two documents
For each item: what the funeral home billed, and what the vendor’s own receipt or invoice shows. Common ones: Flowers — casket spray · Newspaper obituary · Death certificates · Clergy honorarium · Crematory fee.
Checking the whole bill, not just these items? The final-bill check diffs it against the original quote line by line, and the price checker flags overcharges on the price list itself.
Every number above comes from the family’s own documents. Free to families — Honest Funeral takes no money from funeral homes or insurers, and never steers you to any provider.