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Release Notes for Version 8.06 Build 366, released Aug 25, 2006
 
In this release we are introducing two new features: Rental Real Estate, and a Budget Report, in addition to making several other enhancements.

1. Rental Real Estate.   

• For a residence, you may now specify the residence as rental real estate. 
   
• You may enter income, expenses, and depreciation, set a growth rate for income, set a division of income, and set a division of depreciation. 
   
• You may specify that the property still qualifies for the $250,000 exclusion.  (If you do, the software will automatically reduce the exclusion by the appropriate depreciation amount (i.e., post-May 1997 depreciation).) 
   
• The software will automatically include net income in cash flow and net taxable income (i.e., net income minus depreciation) for taxes.

2. Budget report.  This report was formerly named the Spending Report.   

• We have improved it to show all the line item detail that leads to after-tax cash flow. 
   
• It now includes income and taxes, as well as expense items.
   
• Because it shows items weekly, monthly, or annually, you now have access to a calculation of after-tax cash flow on a weekly or monthly basis, as well as an annual basis.
   
• A link for options at the top lets you display some or all of the sections – for example, you may display spending only.

3. Financial Affidavit.  We have made a number of enhancements to the Planner tab Financial Affidavit, including: 

• Mortgage payments for special situations now appear as follows:

- If the residence has not yet been purchased, no mortgage payments appear. 

- If the mortgage is interest only, the payment shows what the mortgage will be after that period ends.

 - If a new mortgage or refinancing mortgage is entered, with a partial year of payments, the mortgage amount now shows the monthly payment.  Previously, it showed the payments for the current year divided by 12.  

• If the display for the Financial Affidavit is set to “exclude alimony and child support,” we are now calculating state tax without alimony.  Previously, we omitted alimony and support only for the federal tax calculation.
   
• The alimony and child support payment amounts now show the monthly payment, not the current year total divided by 12.  There will be a difference if alimony starts mid-year.
   
• We have added signature pages, so the affidavit may be filed with court in states that accept it.
   
• You may now modify the header (titles) of the Financial Affidavit, to better conform with the titles of financial affidavits in your state.
   
• You may also change the labels for the court and the case id.

4. We improved the printing of the Liquidations reports. 

5. The function on Home tab > Software Updates > Update check now shows minor releases as well as major releases.

6. We improved our instructions on Files > Send Files > Send to Professional, so it should now be clearer to whom you may transmit files, and the information you need in order to do so. 

7. Marital Property Report.  It is now possible to print a simpler-looking Marital Property Report with dollar amounts but without percents.  This is useful in context where the parties or judges do not wish to see percents on the Marital Property Division page. 

8. Defined Benefit Pension.  We have made a couple of improvements, including: 

• For pensions in pay status, it is now possible to enter the current benefit amount.  Previously, you had to enter the initial benefit amount, and the software calculated the current amount by increasing by the cost of living adjustment.
   
• It is now possible to override Separate Property in the defined benefit pensions. It will be necessary to calculate the amounts you want to enter for marital property, coverture, and separate property.  That is, if you override any of these, you will have to override the others to keep them in synch.

9. Rent expense has been added to the short list of expenses 

10. For Residences, if the home is being sold, the calculated appreciation now begins after the current year.  So for sales in the current year, the calculated sale price will be the amount you entered as the residence’s value.

11. For all numbers, it is possible to enter the following alternatives, instead of a dollar amount: 

• Ctrl-A – ToAppraise
• Ctrl-D – TBD
• Ctrl-H – Husband has info
• Ctrl-W – Wife has info
• Ctrl-U – Unknown

12. Florida Guideline.  The guideline tax calculation now includes alimony from the current relationship. 

13. California Guideline.  If you had specified to automatically carry spousal support to the Planner, the “Alimony What-If Calculator was not working.  That has been fixed. 

14. Massachusetts Guideline.  Child support from previous relationships now does not count for guideline income.  Also, we have fixed some numbers on the face of the form that were out of date.  These had not been affecting the calculation.

15. Illinois, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi.  On the “Guideline Worksheet” screen, if the statutory percentage was overridden, the child support calculation is now using the overridden percentage.

16. Pennsylvania, Califormia, New York, Massachusetts, and Florida.  We created a “non-taxable income” line on the guideline worksheet, and we now carry non-taxable income there.  This enables us to be more precise in the calculation we do to estimate federal tax for guideline purposes. 

17. Connecticut.  We have added footnotes (“[note]”) that are specific to the face of the Affidavit.  These notes will appear only on the Affidavit.  The footnotes in the Client Data screens (“[fn]”) now will appear only at the bottom of the Connecticut Income/Expense statement and the Connecticut Assets statement. 

18. New Jersey.  The New Jersey Case Information Statement list is now available in the Planner tab > Living Expenses screen. 

19. New York.  Living Expenses submitted via web data entry in New York were not totaling correctly.  That has been fixed. 

Release Notes for Version 8.06 Build 367, released Oct 4, 2006

1. Rental Real Estate. Income, Expenses, Depreciation.

2. Budget Report. Line item detail for after-tax cash.
 
3. Financial Affidavit. Numerous enhancements.
 
4. Liquidations. Enhancements to reports.

5. CT Affidavit. Support for deductions in section 1.A
 
6. NY Affidavit. Improved support for printing affidavit.

7. NC Guideline. Update for Oct 1, 2006

8. Property Division. Options to display streamlined screen.

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