The three main funeral service operations are preparing bodies, directing funerals and running the funeral business. Funeral directors embalm and prepare the bodies of deceased persons for burial according to state laws requiring technical knowledge and skill as well as knowing the tests of death and the apparent and positive signs of death. This includes precautions for personal and public hygiene to guard against contagious and communicable diseases. Funeral directors use cosmetics to give dead persons a natural appearance and expression and they use different materials and procedures to mask injuries caused by disease or accident. They dress bodies in clothes families select and put the bodies in caskets.
Funeral directors conduct funerals and manage funeral homes.
They send telegrams, arrange with clergy for the funeral services and get death certificates and burial permits. They receive friends and relatives before funerals and seat those who attend funerals as well as direct services, supervise burials, tell families about legal details and do many other tasks that the circumstances of each death may require.