How often does it happen that your client is owed child support and/or maintenance and you need to find the full amount, including interest?
Family Law Software can answer that question. Here’s how:
Click Negotiate > Support Arrears.
Please forward this e-mail to everyone in your office who uses Family Law Software.
Below are details on using this valuable feature.
Arrears – The Basics
When you click Negotiate > Support Arrears, you will see a series of links across the top, as shown in this image. (The images in this email are from the Cloud Edition, but the desktop edition has the exact same screens.)
Click each link, fill in each screen, and the last screen will have the result.
You will see that the screens have the flexibility to handle just about any situation: multiple obligations, changing rates, missed payments, occasional payments, different methods of handling interest and principal, and so on.
Obligations
The first screen, Contact, is just for names and other information. It does not affect the calculation.
The second screen, Obligations, is the first one where you have to start entering information.
Typically, you would enter information only in the Description, Start Date, Amount to be Paid, and Frequency, as shown here.
The remaining fields are for less-common situations.
Rates
On the next screen, enter the interest rate(s) that apply.
You may specify different rates for different time periods.
You also specify how your jurisdiction applies interest and principal.
There is no limit to the number of rates you may enter (different rates for different time periods).
If you leave the Interest Rate Adjustments section blank, the basic rate will apply to the entire computation.
Regular Payments
On the next screen, you specify the regular payments.
These are the payments that the payer made regularly.
For example, if the payer made all the payments from April 1, 2017 through January 1, 2018, that would be one regular payment entry, for those dates.
You typically only need to enter the Amount, How it is applied, Start Date, Stop Date, and Frequency. The other fields are less common.
Suppose the payer missed a date in the middle of the period of regular payments. You can fill in the missed dates at the bottom of this screen.
One-Time Payments
Suppose that, in addition to the regular payments, the payer made one big payment in December 2018. You can enter that on the next screen, “One-time Payments.”
Typically, you just enter the date, amount, and how to apply the payment.
You may enter as many one-time payments as were made.
Report
At this point, you can go to the Report screen and see the result.
If you click the link at the bottom of the screen, you will see a very detailed report, explaining how the calculation was done.
And that’s it!
You can find the arrears due even with a complicated series of payments and interest rate changes, using the Ch Support Arrears screen of Family Law Software.