Support  Release Notes...

Release Notes for Version 8.05 Build 365, released July 6, 2006
 
1. On the multi-state Financial Affidavit (that is, the Affidavit that is not state-specfic), the lines now correspond more closely to the data entry lines.  Also, multiple items of expense, such as major expenses, now each get their own line.  And there is an option to omit “0” lines, that is, to include only lines that have data. 

2. Also on the general Financial Affidavit, it is now possible to include Alimony and Child Support.  This gives you a complete detailed income and expense statement for the first year, after alimony and support are negotiated.

3. You now have the ability to scroll list of screens in the gray stripe at the left, which is very helpful in situations where screens were too small to show entire list.

4. We added "Autosave" whenever you go to a new screen.  The software will also now save every 20 minutes. 

5. On the Lawyer tab, we have removed the “Scenarios” screen and added the Summary Totals Spreadsheet and the Key Values and Assumptions report, and the Alimony Trade-Off report.  Also on the lawyer tab, “Major Expenses” no longer scrolls to top after a new entry.

6. On the case information statement, we now support "same-gender" separations and divorces, by using "First Party" / "Second Party" rather than "Wife" / "Husband."  To indicate a same-sex situation in the software, on the Background worksheet, clear the second party’s Husband/Wife entry.

7. Additional professionals are now listed only in the Planner tab version of the Case Info screen.   

8. Also in the Case information statement, we added "Profession," so we can have a more meaningful label on the affidavit, and we added the ability to create additional professional records. 

9. We added the ability to add footnotes on the property settlement screen.           

10. Now, after you “add another” of anything, the blinking cursor appears at the beginning of the line.  Previously, it had required an additional mouse click to get the cursor there. 

11. We added an option to print reports with thicker lines.  This is available on the Print Options screen, to which you may link from the top of the Reports screen. 

12. The “Residence” screen for Lawyer tab and Planner tab are now identical. 

13. For Major expenses, if you leave “number of years” blank, the default is now one year. 

14. If by mistake you enter the parties’ first and last names both in the “first name” field, the software will still recognize male and female names and automatically fill in the “Husband” and “Wife” fields. 

15. For Family Business, we have split out the options for S Corp and Partnership.  S Corp income is now treated as not subject to self-employment tax. 

16. We have added a new “Ctrl” characters.  Ctrl+A will put “TBAppraisd” (“to be appraised”) in any number field.  This joins Ctrl+H (“H has info”), Ctrl+W (“W has info”) and Ctrl+U (“Unknown”). 

17. We have worked to make the calculations of federal income tax that take place within child support guidelines closer to the calculations of federal income tax that take place within the planner.  We now use the more detailed method of calculating state taxes that we introduced last year in the Planner.  We are calculating the child care credit and social security income more precisely. 

18. In CT and FL, alimony received from this relationship was not being included in the separate tax calculation that is done for guideline purposes.  It is now being included. 

19. On the Residence page, we have done some minor rearrangement to make it easier to find the report on calculation of marital equity.  Also, the software now defaults to using both parties’ $250,000 exemptions on sale of the home. 

20. For “Tax Filing Status,” we have added the option for the first year of “joint with new spouse.”  This is useful if the Planner is being used after the divorce, especially in the context of child support modification. 

21. The software will now default a mortgage rate. 

• Thus, even if you omit a mortgage rate, the software will be able to roughly calculate the mortgage interest deduction. 

22. The alimony trade-off calculation was off if the initial year for alimony was a partial year.  That has been fixed. 

23. Revisions and Enhancements to Pennsylvania Guidelines 

• We refined the calculation in the case of offsetting spousal and child support obligations.  This can occur when the custodial spouse has a higher income than the non-custodial spouse.  We do not automatically use the calculated pendente lite alimony amount in the federal tax calculation that we do for guideline purposes.  We also separate out and show separately the alimony of this relationship, alimony of prior relationships, and pendente lite alimony, for improved clarity.  And if the custodial spouse is paying alimony, a note at the bottom of Guideline worksheet will appear with amount of Custodial-spouse-paid alimony.
   
• For the Pennsylvania state calculation (in the Planner and Lawyer tab), we now subtract alimony and retirement income before applying the PA tax rate of 3.07%

 24. Revisions and Enhancements to the New York Net Worth Statement 

• On the Statement text fields have been made longer, to give additional flexibility.
   
• We have added a footnote option to the Assets & Liability screen in the Net Worth statement, even if the footnote has not already been created in the Client Data section.
   
• We have added footnotes to the Income page of the Net Worth statement.
   
• We have added the option to add notes at the top of each section.
   
• For user entry fields that have no value, these fields will now print as blank instead of having a zero in them.  Fields that the system calculates as a total of other fields will still have a zero.

 25. Revisions and Enhancements to the Connecticut Affidavit 

• We have added footnotes that are accessible from the face of the Affidavit, even if not entered in the Client Data section.
   
• We improved the layout for health insurance fields on income/expenses.
   
• Now, when you “X” the box to have the software calculate taxes, the calculation will run and update the tax totals immediately.
   
• Improved the labeling of Schedule A and JD-FRM-6 to clarify what they are.
   
• Added the ability to enter multi-year major expenses such as college and private school tuitions.

26. Revisions and Enhancements to the Washington State Child Support Guidelines 

• The software now automatically carries the child's health expenses to the guideline calculation.
   
• In the calculation for line 8.d, we will now correctly add the values from the previous lines.  Previously, we were not doing that correctly.
   
• We now automatically check the box for "which parent is payer" in the support summary. 

27. Revisions and Enhancements to the Florida Child Support Guidelines 

• Alimony of the current relationship will now be counted for purposes of calculating federal tax for guideline purposes.   It had not been counted previously.

28. Revisions and Enhancements to the New Jersey Child Support Guidelines 

• Now, information about the child will carry to the guideline calculation if the father has custody.  Previously, it carried only if the mother had custody.
   
• We updated the tax tables.

29. Revisions and Enhancements to the Rhode Island Affidavit 

• On Schedule A, we shifted footnotes to appear just right of the edit field.
   
• We fixed an error where "all" footnotes were printing rather than just expense footnotes.
   
• On the major expense calculation, if the expense started in a previous year, our current year amount had not been calculated correctly, but we have corrected that.
   
• Revisions and Enhancements to Minnesota Child Support
   
• We raised the upper limit for net income from $5,000 to $6,975.

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