California divorce attorneys have several options for child and spousal support calculations. The California Judicial Council has certified four private software child support tools. Many courts in California use the state created and sponsored California Child Support Guideline Calculator (DCSS). When a case requires calculations beyond what the standard DCSS calculator can provide, many practitioners turn to Xspouse.
A growing number of California attorneys and financial professionals now rely on Family Law Software. At first glance, Xspouse and Family Law Software appear to solve the same problem. Both are certified by the California Judicial Council, and both can produce court-approved child support calculations.
But the similarities end there. Understanding those differences is key when deciding which tool best fits your practice.
The main points are that Family Law Software is cloud-based, and that Family Law Software simply does much more to benefit your practice than Xspouse does.
Family Law Software features include:
- Cloud-Based Platform – Work securely from anywhere, on any device, with real-time access to your cases and data.
- Multi-State Support Calculations – Calculate state taxes needed for accurate support obligations when a party resides or works outside California, including states such as Nevada, Oregon, and New York.
- California Financial Declarations – Prepare required California financial disclosure forms without having to re-enter support calculation data.
- Statewide Family Law Judicial Council Forms – Automatically generate hundreds of California Judicial Council and local family law forms.
- Client Electronic Data Entry – Secure online intake allows clients to enter their financial information directly.
- Temporary and Final Spousal Support Calculators – Advanced calculators that consider the statutory factors relevant to permanent spousal support
- Property Division – Automatically identifies and excludes separate property from the marital estate.
- After-Tax Property Division – Analyze equitable distribution based on after-tax values.
- Defined Benefit Pension Valuations – Accurately value pensions, including CalSTRS and other defined benefit plans.
- Household Budgeting – Create detailed budget reports for both parties to evaluate post-separation financial situations.
- Cash Flow & Net Worth Projections – Forecast post-separation financial health with comprehensive planning tools.
- Support Arrearage Calculations – Calculate past-due child or spousal support accurately, including interest.
- Child Support “What-If” Scenarios – Instantly compare different parenting time and income scenarios.
- “Can I Keep the Home?” Analysis – Evaluate the financial feasibility of retaining the family residence after separation or divorce.
- Custom Smith/Ostler Bonus Report– Calculate child and spousal support on bonus income with customizable increments and instantly see how support changes
Below, we compare Xspouse and Family Law Software, highlighting the strengths, limitations, and ideal use cases for each.
Who Each Tool Is Built For
Xspouse is built solely for California. It handles California and Federal taxes only and runs exclusively on Windows. For a solo practitioner who never has clients who live or work out of state, who works from a single Windows machine, and doesn’t need Declarations or other court forms, it does the job.
Everyone else will be better off using Family Law Software. Family Law Software is cloud-based and handles California state taxes and state taxes for all 50 states. So, the parties can live or work anywhere in the United States, and Family Law Software will cover the tax aspects of child support.
Where Family Law Software Goes Further
Cloud vs. Desktop
This is the most obvious difference between the two products.
Xspouse is desktop only. It runs on Windows, which means Mac users must install a virtual machine, Parallels, or a virtual desktop setup just to open the software. That’s an IT project before an attorney can run a single calculation. Files live locally, which can create real problems when working across multiple machines or collaborating with staff.
Family Law Software is cloud-based. It runs on any device — Mac, Windows, iPad, or phone. There are no files to manage, no updates to install, and no version mismatch when users open a case on a different machine.
For a firm where attorneys, paralegals, and other staff all need to access cases, that distinction is decisive. The Firm Edition of Family Law Software allows all staff to log in and work on shared files, allows attorneys to view and edit the files of other attorneys in the firm, and allows access to the files of attorneys who have left the firm.
California Declarations and Judicial Council Forms
Preparing California Financial Declarations is one of the most important and time-consuming parts of any family law case. Family Law Software eliminates repetitive data entry by integrating financial disclosures directly into your case workflow.
You enter each party’s income, expenses, assets, and liabilities just once. The software then uses that one set of data to perform all its functions:
- Child support.
- Spousal Support
- California Financial Declarations
.
- California Judicial Council Forms
- Family Budgeting
- Property Division
- Cash flow projections
- Net worth projections
- Other financial and tax reports
Xspouse does almost none of these things.
Client Electronic Data Entry Portal
One feature that sets Family Law Software apart is client data entry. Attorneys send clients a secure link, clients enter their own financial information, and the attorney is notified when it’s ready. Family Law Software automatically uses that data for the California Declarations, child and spousal support, tax analysis, and more.
Xspouse does not offer client data entry.
Temporary and Permanent Spousal Support
Family Law Software provides California family law professionals with a comprehensive solution for calculating both temporary and permanent spousal support.
For temporary spousal support, FLS calculates support using county-specific percentages. Every calculation includes a detailed audit report that documents each step of the calculation, giving professionals a transparent, court-ready record that simplifies review, negotiation, or litigation.
For permanent spousal support, the FLS Alimony Calculator combines objective financial analysis with the factors required by California law.
The calculator begins with an after-tax formula that uses each party’s actual net income. FLS performs detailed federal and California tax calculations. The calculator then applies a starting guideline of 30% of the higher earner’s after-tax income minus 20% of the lower earner’s after-tax income, while ensuring the recipient’s post-support income does not exceed 40% of the parties’ combined after-tax income. (You also have an option to use gross income, rather than after-tax income, if you wish.) The percentages are customizable, allowing attorneys to modify them to reflect local practice, judicial preferences, or negotiated agreements.
From that baseline, attorneys can adjust support based on the statutory factors set forth in California Family Code § 4320, including earning capacity, age, health, marketable skills, caregiving responsibilities, and other relevant circumstances.
Family Law Software also calculates the number of months or years that spousal support is to be paid, using a tiered model based on the length of the marriage, providing guidance for both short-term and long-term marriages.
Property Division and After-Tax Property Division
Family Law Software gives practitioners a complete toolkit for dividing marital property, from organizing assets to performing sophisticated after-tax analysis. The Property Division Worksheet tracks both community and separate property, including retirement assets. It allows users to divide each asset either by dollar amount or percentage. And it automatically calculates any equalization payment needed to achieve the desired division.
For a tax-savvy settlement analysis, the software has a “Property After-Tax” worksheet. This worksheet applies asset-specific tax treatment based on tax basis, current income and capital gains tax rates, and projected retirement income tax rates for assets such as 401(k)s and defined benefit pensions. The result is an apples-to-apples comparison of each asset’s true after-tax value, helping attorneys negotiate property settlements based on what each spouse actually receives after taxes, and not just the face value of the assets.
Xspouse offers a standalone property division report. The information does not flow into the California declaration or other forms. While users can apply a flat tax adjustment to the property division, the software does not calculate individualized tax consequences based on each asset’s tax basis or the expected tax rates of the individual parties.
Financial Analysis: Where Family Law Software Pulls Far Ahead
Only Family Law Software helps practitioners evaluate the broader financial impact of a proposed settlement.
Family Law Software allows detailed budgeting, including the entry of all of the parties’ expenses. This allows you to help your client plan for their budget going forward.
Family Law Software also projects after-tax net income and net worth up to 50 years, backed by over 70 reports and graphs for line-item detail on cash flow and net worth.
It runs side-by-side “What-If” scenarios for child support, calculates alimony buyouts, and shows exactly how support affects each party’s after-tax cash flow.
That matters when the real question isn’t “what’s the child support guideline number” but “can I actually keep the house after this settlement?” — a question the software answers directly through its Can I Keep the Home report, built on the same budgeting and cash flow data used everywhere else in the file.
If your client works for CalSTRS or another provider of defined benefit pensions, Family Law Software will also calculate the value of that pension. This alone can be enormously valuable in cases that involve clients who work for the state.
Family Law Software also calculates child support arrears in great detail, showing you exactly the amount due and showing you how it is calculated. Its calculator provides many options, including entering skipped payments, entering one-time payments, and entering multiple orders.
Xspouse does not generate reports that illustrate post-divorce cash flow, future cash flow projections, side-by-side financial comparisons, analyses that answer key questions such as, “Can I Keep the Home?”, or defined benefit pension valuations.
Bonus Income with Custom Smith-Ostler Bonus Report
When a party’s income fluctuates or includes periodic bonuses, commissions, or other variable compensation, the court may order additional support based on those earnings. In California, these are commonly known as Smith-Ostler calculations.
Family Law Software allows you to customize the Smith-Ostler report (which it calls the “Bonus Report”) by specifying the range of potential bonuses and incremental earnings levels.
For example, for one client, you may want to show a range of bonuses from $50,000 to $100,000 in $2,000 increments.
For another client, you may want to show bonuses ranging from $500,000 to $1.5 million with $50,000 increments.
In Family Law Software, you get to choose exactly the range and increments you want to use.
This makes your bonus report so much more useful, both to the parties and to a judge.
Xspouse offers bonus report tables, but users cannot customize the level of detail or the specific bonuses included.
Pricing: What You’re Actually Paying Each Year
Xspouse uses an annual purchase model. Each April, a new version is released, and a new license must be purchased; the prior year’s purchase does not carry forward. Each tool Xspouse offers is a separate application. Each must be maintained and updated separately. No money-back guarantee is listed.
Family Law Software runs on a month-to-month subscription, which means that you can cancel at any time and only pay for the months you used. Family Law Software has editions to meet your firm’s needs:
- The Basic Edition is for solo practitioners that only need accurate child and temporary spousal support calculations and the California Declaration, and hundreds of California Judicial Council forms.
- The Firm Basic Edition has all the Basic or Individual tools but allows multiple users to collaborate and offers a free license for paralegals.
- The Cloud Individual Edition is the next step up for solo practitioners. It includes all the financial and analytical tools that make Family Law Software so valuable. The data used for child support and the Declarations automatically populates the property division worksheet, net income analysis, present value of pensions and spousal support, cash flow projections up to 50 years, net worth analysis, over 70 financial reports, and much more.
- The Cloud Firm Edition has all the Cloud Individual Edition tools but allows multiple users to collaborate and offers a free license for paralegals.
All plans include free updates, free technical support, and a 2-month money-back guarantee.
The Bottom Line
If the practice is California-only, Windows-based, and the priority is a one-time annual purchase over a subscription, Xspouse is a competent, court-certified tool.
For most other practices, Family Law Software is a better choice, because it does so much more. It covers all states’ income taxes, runs on every device, gives staff shared cloud access, handles Judicial Council forms, and adds final spousal support calculations, customizable Smith-Ostler reports, family budgeting, financial analysis tools, net worth projections, cash flow modeling, pension valuation, and more.
Family Law Software moves attorneys beyond calculation and into genuine financial settlement resolution for clients.
The key question is which one better fits the needs and workflows of your practice.
Helpful Resources:
Free 14-day trial of Family Law Software for lawyers and professionals: https://site.familylawsoftware.com/cloudtrial/
Family Law Software Pricing: https://www.familylawsoftware.com/pricing/
Are you a judicial officer, court representative, or attorney working for a nonprofit organization? Contact us to request a free license: Support@FamilyLawSoftware.com