The links below correspond to screens in the software.
Child Support Arrears
The software includes a module for very precise child support arrears calculations.
You can enter one obligation or many.
You can provide for regular payments, sporadic payments and one-time payments.
You can use one interest rate or multiple interest rates over time.
To use this calculator, click each link across the top of the screen, filling in the screens one at a time.
The last link, labeled “Report,” will enable you to generate a detailed report of the arrears amount and calculation.
Click the link at the top of the Obligations screen for information about entering obligations.
Typically, there is only one child support obligation in a case.
If the payment amount was changed due to a modification, you would click the link labeled “click here to add a modification.” This would not be a second obligation.
A second obligation might occur if there were a gap in time between the end of one obligation and the start of a second obligation.
On the Rates screen, enter the interest rate(s) that apply.
To enter a second interest rate, click the link labeled “Click here to enter another interest rate.”
Click the link labeled “Click here for more information on interest rates” for more information.
On this screen, enter payments that the payer has made regularly, without missing any.
For example, if the payer paid from January through May, and then again from December through the following September, you would enter those as two separate regular payments.
Also, you can specify, for each set of payments, how that payment is to be applied:
· Interest only.
· First to interest, and then, once all interest has been paid, to principal.
· First principal, and then, if all principal is paid, to interest.
· First to the most recent payment, then to interest, then to principal.
There is no one right way to do this.
You want to use the approach that is used in your jurisdiction.
You can also enter missed payments.
For example, if the payer has paid all payments from January through December, but missed March and September, you can enter a regular payment for January through December, and then enter two missed payments.
You will see the section for missed payments at the bottom half of this screen.
Click the link on the screen labeled “Click here for more information on regular payments” for more information about entering data on this screen.
On this screen, enter special payments, such as holiday payments.
Occasionally, we see that people have entered every single payment that the payer made as a one-time payment.
You can do this, but it may be more efficient to enter the payments as regular payments, and specify missed payments on the Regular Payments screen.
Click the link on the screen labeled “Click here for more information on entering one-time payments” for more information about entering data on this screen.