This post concerns a situation that can arise when you override a number on the Florida Official Guideline Worksheet and then select the “Court Printing”option for printing.
In shared custody cases, if numbers on the Official Worksheet are overridden and then the option for Court Printing format is checked, then the worksheets may appear to be out of sync.
Before we discuss why this is the case, here is some background:
In Florida, there are multiple formats in which the guideline can be printed. These include the Official format, the DPA Landscape format, and the DPA Portrait format.
On the Official format, there is a further option: you may select Court Printing, or not. The Court Printing option (which we added at the request of judges in the 19th circuit) results in a shorter worksheet, with some fields omitted.
Now, a word about the software’s data flows.
Data always starts on the Client Info tab. That way, it can flow out to all the other places — Child support, Affidavit, and taxes — where it should appear.
The DPA Worksheet is a bit of an exception to this rule. It carries its numbers from the Official Guideline worksheet, in an attempt to make sure that, if entries are overridden on the Guideline Worksheet, the DPA worksheet stays in sync.
Now for the item at issue in this post:
In shared custody cases, if numbers on the Official Worksheet are overridden and then the option for Court Printing format is unchecked, the overrides are hidden. The number is still carrying to the DPA worksheet, but you cannot see where it is carrying from.
Below is an example.
In the first set of screenshots, the entry for Monthly Child Care Costs flows from Client Info to the Official Guideline Worksheet. From there, it flows to the to DPA – Landscape worksheet. The worksheets are in sync:
In this second set of screenshots, Court printing format has been unchecked and the entry for Monthly Child Care Costs has been overridden on the Official Guideline Worksheet, shown below:
If Court printing format is then checked again, the overridden field for monthly child care cost is hidden. As a result, the Child Care Costs on the official and DPA worksheets will appear to be be out of sync.
The solution would be to uncheck the Court Printing format checkbox, clear the overrides and then recheck the Court Printing checkbox.
In order to alert users to this issue, we have added text to the help button for Court printing format as illustrated in this screenshot:
