The links below correspond to screens in the software.
More Reports
The screen for More Reports is a gateway to dozens of reports that the software has available.
In addition, there are several important options that can be set on the More Reports screen itself.
These include:
The Start Year is the first year shown on all reports.
By default, the Start Year is the current year.
However, you can start in a later year or an earlier year.
If you change the Start Year, the software will automatically change the tax calculations to be appropriate for whatever start year you select.
The software has accurate taxes going back to the year 2000.
Please note that if you change the start year, and the child support guideline law has changed, this will not automatically change.
You need to go to the Client Info tab, on the screen where you enter child support information, and specify the guideline law that you want to have apply.
If you are doing cash flow projections, the software lets you specify exactly how many years you want to project into the future.
You may pick any number from one through 50 years.
You may specify that you want only one party’s numbers to be shown. This election will apply to all reports in the software.
So if you want to show cash flow projections only for one party, specify the party to include here.
That will then apply to the cash flow projections, net worth projections, and to all other reports in the software.
This is useful if you are creating multiple files for the case, showing different scenarios.
The software does have various capabilities for scenarios, including the What If Analysis, Property Division Scenarios, Guideline What If, and more.
But if you are varying more than just the things on those screens, you may wish to create a different file for each scenario.
You do that by clicking Files & Settings >Save As.
The File Label function allows you to give a label to the file that will then print with every report.
This will enable you to compare a report from two files side by side, and know which is which.
There is a link on this “More Reports” screen for print options.
The options include:
· Options relating to what information is in the page footer and page header.
· For full financial plan reports, options with respect to what pages are included (title, table of contents, etc).
· Options with respect to whether graph labels should show “calendar year” or “party’s age” along the bottom.
· For financial plan reports, an option to include your firm’s logo. (This is available only in the desktop version of the software.)
· An option with respect to the text that is displayed when you select “unknown,” “to be determined,” etc.
This link open up the software’s Assumptions page, where you can set assumptions relating to the following:
· The last year for personal tax provisions of 2017 tax act.
· The default rate for local wage tax.
· The inflation rate.
· Default mortgage interest rate.
· Whether new assets and debts are automatically allocated 50/50.
· Whether new assets are allocated according to title.
Other assumptions are discussed in more detail below:
On the screen, by default, the one letter abbreviations for the parties are H, W, and J, which stands for “husband,” “wife,” and “joint.”
These one letter abbreviations are displayed on the Assets & Debts screen, under the headings for Title and also on whose affidavit the asset should be displayed.
We use one-letter abbreviations to save space, so more items can fit in a row.
You may change these abbreviations, here, on the Assumptions screen.
You would typically do this for a same-gender couple.
When you do, you may wish to use the initials of the parties’ names instead of “H” and “W.”
If there is net income left at the end of the year, the software assumes that is reinvested in a diversified portfolio, for cash flow and net worth projection purposes.
Here on the Assumptions screen, you can specify how that diversified portfolio is invested, in general terms.
This is explained in more detail on the pop-up help at the line for the rate of return on accumulated savings.
If you want to eliminate future interest and dividend income on accumulated savings, set all of these rates to zero.
Sometimes people see interest and dividend income appearing on the View/Edit Taxes report for future years, and they wonder where that is coming from.
Typically, it is coming from Accumulated Savings.
If you want to eliminate that interest and dividend income, set the rates of return to zero.
Sometimes people want the first year to show only the net income starting midyear and continuing through the end of the year.
To do that, you can set a partial initial year.
Then, the first year of your cash flow projections will include only the portion of the current year.
As is indicated on the screen, this will cause the financial affidavits to be incorrect.
It will also cause taxes and child support guidelines to be incorrect, because they will be based only on a portion of a year’s income.
Also, the way this works is that the number is adjusted when it is entered.
So you would do this only at the beginning of the case file, and enter numbers after that.
State/Provincial and Local Tax Rates
We update tax rates to the current year typically in February or March of that year, when they first become available.
If for some reason our rate is not current, or you wish to ask “what if” with state tax rates, you may do so here on the Assumptions screen.
In doing cash flow and net worth projections, the software will automatically sell assets to cover the deficit if there is a net deficit in any year.
By default, the software first sells (“liquidates”) prior year Accumulated Savings, then it liquidates cash and investment assets, and finally retirement accounts.
(When investment accounts are liquidated, the software also calculates the capital gain that will have to be paid. It is important to enter the tax basis for these accounts if liquidations are happening and you are doing cash flow projections.)
The software saves retirement accounts for last because there is a penalty on liquidation, which the software reflects.
On this Assumptions screen, you can specify that the software should not liquidate a particular category.
If the software gets to a point where all available liquid assets have been liquidated, and the deficit is not covered, the software automatically creates a hard-coded account called “Net Debt.”
The software automatically charges interest on that account as well.
You can set the rate of interest on this screen as well, in the section where you set the rates of return on assets.
Throughout the software, a term for alimony is used that is based on the most typical usage in your state.
On this Assumptions screen, you may change the term that is used throughout the software.
You may also enter information about the current case at the bottom of this screen, including case name and number, court information, and judge information.