Today we are releasing a revamped New Jersey Income screen that will make it a lot easier to enter income for the Case Information Statement (“CIS”).
We ask for the same information as before, just in a different format that is easier to follow and easier to understand.
Part C – Income Information – of the CIS has five sections:
- Last Year’s Income
- Present Earned Income and Expenses
- Current Year-to-Date Earned Income
- Year-to-Date Gross Unearned Income from all Sources
- Additional Information
For sections 2 – 4, in the past the program offered a choice between entering data on lines resembling the CIS, or entering the data on subtabs for wages, wage-like income, investments, and income from assets.
If you chose the CIS format, then the data did not carry to the child support, tax, or financial calculations. If you used the subtabs, entry was a bit clunky and did not follow the CIS format.
Now, you can input the client’s data in a format that generally follows the CIS while also using those entries for child support, taxes, and the financial calculations. This should enable you to enter your information more quickly and confidently.
Here are some of the other improvements we made:
- There is a single data entry screen with collapsible sections, in place of the five separate data entry screens we had previously (see screenshot above).
- In Section 2, we have simplified the pay stub data entry method by:
- Allowing data entry on either party’s screen.
- When you enter the first amount, we automatically fill in the other two pay periods with this same amount (you may then change them).
- Ditto for tax amounts.
- In new files, we simplify the choices by requiring present earned income and expenses to be entered using the pay stub method.
- In Sections 3 and 4 we now default the “from” and “to” dates for the year-to-date income calculation. We assume the “from” date is January 1 and the “to” date is the present date. You can type in different dates if they apply.
Taken together, we think these changes will make it significantly faster and easier to enter income for the Case Information Statement. And it will make it easier to enter income once and have it be used for the CIS, and for child support, taxes, and financial calculations.