The budget report gathers all of the income and expense numbers that you entered in the software.
You will usually be able to find all of the numbers that you entered immediately.
However, there may be some occasions where you are not seeing on the Budget Report numbers you know you entered.
This FAQ will help you understand why.
Check start dates.
The following are among the items in Family Law Software that can have starting and ending dates:
- All living expenses.
- Child Support
- Spousal Support
- Mortgages
- Pension Benefit Payments
- IRA/401k payments
If the item you are looking for is one that has a start and end date, check on the data entry screen that the start and end dates include the date of the Budget Report that you are looking at.
People most often look at the Budget Report for the current year, so you would check that the start date of the item is not after the current year, and that the end date of the item is not before the current year.
Monthly versus annual display
If you click the options link at the top of the Budget Report screen, one of the options that you will see is an option to display the results “monthly” as opposed to “annually.”
If you choose the option to display annually, you will see the actual expenses for that year. If child support or spousal support begin midway through the year, you will see the amount of support that would be incurred in that remaining portion of the year. (If you get an estimate of how a full year would look, you can look at the Budget Report for the next year.)
But It is not so simple if you select the option to display the expenses monthly. The complexity arises in situations where income or expenses are paid only for a portion of the year. Typically, this is because the payments begin in the middle of the year. The following items are most commonly affected:
- Debt Payments.
- Mortgage Payments.
- Child Support
- Spousal Support
The software has two options here.
- Display 1/12th of the actual annual payment. The advantage of this approach is that the monthly amount displayed is one-twelfth of the annual amount displayed, so there is consistency there. The disadvantage of this approach is that when you are looking to see what the party’s cash flow will be after child support and spousal support begins, this approach would not accurately portray that.
- Display what the payment is in the last month of the year. The advantages and disadvantages here mirror those of the previous option. The monthly amount shown will not be one-twelfth of the annual amount shown, so that will be inconsistent. But this approach will accurately show what the party’s budget will be after child support and alimony and any late-in-the-year mortgage payments kick in.
The software goes with the latter option. We call this a “Pro Forma” presentation because it does accurately show what the party’s cash flow situation will be after all of the future oriented payments and incomes are applied.
Note that this applies only if you pick the monthly view that shows both parties’ income and expenses side by side, monthly only. If you pick the view that is one-party at a time, weekly and monthly and annual, then the monthly column will show 1/12th of the annual column.
Other issues
Here are links to FAQs on some other issues that relate to the Budget Report not matching expectations.
Mortgage and real estate expenses