Two Hundred Plus
You're in good company when you purchase our
Revised Ohio Child Support Guidelines (WROCSG) program. Our
customer scrolls can now boast more than 200 County Courts, and
government and non-profit agencies using WROCSG—included
are Domestic Relations Courts, Juvenile Courts, Probate Courts, Child
Support Enforcement Agencies, Department of Human Services, Department
of Job & Family Services, Prosecutor's Offices, Appellate Courts, Law
Libraries and Universities throughout Ohio.
What's New?
Now available in a Mac & iPad versions!
Revised Ohio Child Support Guidelines
is now available as an application for your iPad. The feature set is roughly
the same as the standard program (described below) with obvious exceptions due to the iPad's
hardware design differences. You can only order it by visiting Apple's App Store
from
your iPad (not from your computer).
GUI. That's graphic user
interface, and simpler is better. WROCSG has a
completely new interface that makes data entry easier and quicker than
ever before. The entire worksheet is contained in one scrollable screen
and we've given special attention to making precise mouse responsiveness
a priority. Although WROCSG runs on
Windows versions back to XP, it has the modern look and
feel of
Windows 7. Not just the forms, but the program itself is
streamlined to get you where you want to go in just a click.
Screen Illustration 1. The Start Up Screen
Screen Illustration 2. Sample Data Input
Screen
Help. The updated GUI
allows access to Windows' most user-friendly functionality. For example,
you can press <F1> on any field that has specific help instructions
(deviation information, child care expenses, etc.) and immediately view
the associated help topic.
Calculations. In the past
you may have wanted a calculator for annualizing a weekly income or
monthly expenses, etc. Like our Ohio Spousal
Support Calculator, WROCSG has a
built in calculator for doing calculations and automatically inserting
the result in the desired field. Just enter the amount, select the
frequency (i.e., daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc.)
and click.
Screen Illustration 3. Calculator
10 Second Calculations.
From our startup screen in Screen Illustration 1 above, click any one of
the Short Form buttons and your taken to a short form version of the
selected worksheet where you can make all your entries from one screen
where nearly all the field are visible. For simple situations, it's no
exaggeration to say that you can complete the child support calculation
in seconds with little or no tabbing or scrolling. Note the new layout
of the short form - all the collateral information that is part of the
child support calculation is present.
Screen Illustration 4. Short Form Screen
Instructional Video. All
these new features are great changes, but this last one may top them
all. WROCSG comes with almost two hours of
instructional video extracted from our popular Continuing Legal
Education course based on the child support program. The video proceeds
line-by-line through the child support worksheet jam-packed with
detailed information that you won't find anywhere else.
Cash Medical Support
It's not news anymore, but the most recent
significant change in the statutory guidelines can be summed up in three
words - cash medical support. The new worksheets were a
response to the fact that an increasing number of Ohio families can't
afford to maintain heath insurance on their children. As a result, the
worksheets refer to the U.S. Department of Heath & Human
Services Poverty Guidelines to establish a limit on the amount
that can be assessed as "cash medical support."
Reference is also made to the USDA's
Expenditures on Children by Families. This study contains
estimates of health-related expenditures that a family incurs. These
estimates were later homogenized by the Ohio Department of Job & Family
services into a table that permits the preparer to calculate a "cash
medical support obligation." As directed by the worksheets,
WROCSG takes the lesser of the cash medical
support maximum and the USDA estimate and fixed this amount as the cash
medical support obligation. Again, it's all built into
WROCSG.
Program Highlights
Health and Human Services Poverty
Guidelines. The H.H.S. Poverty Guidelines are used to compute a
cash medical support maximum. That amount serves as a ceiling
limiting the cash medical support. Of course, you won’t need to look
anything up, all the required information is built-in WROCSG6
and applied in the calculation automatically.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Health
Expenditures. Whereas the H.H.S. Poverty Guidelines set a maximum
for cash medical support, the U.S.D.A. statistics on estimated health
care expenditures by U.S. families are used to calculate the actual
amount of cash medical support. Once again, you won’t be called
on to look anything up, the ODJ&FS information is built-in and applied
automatically.
“Raw Data.” WROCSG6
doesn’t just calculate cash medical support, the real H.H.S. and
U.S.D.A./ODJF&S tables are instantly accessible for a better
understanding of their use in the calculation and verification of the
values.
Check Worksheet. This new function
performs hundreds of tests to make absolutely certain your worksheet is
properly prepared and ready for submission. Just click on the
Check Worksheet button and all the results appear in a separate
window.
No Error Messages. Annoying error
messages have been replaced by the more user-friendly
Check Worksheet function described above. Familiar users will
love this change.
Shared Parenting. The shared
parenting deviation section has been restyled and updated based on the
most recent Ohio case law. WROCSG6 has an extensive help
topic on this subject that practitioners will find to be a vital
resource in dealing with this issue. WROCSG6 has the
ability to comply with all the local variations in the application of
deviations.
Worksheet Status Bar. This new
component shows the amount of the current order (with and without health
insurance coverage) at all times; no matter where you’re at in the
program or whatever page of the worksheets – the amount of the order is
always on-screen; in addition, the color of the Worksheet Status Bar
keeps you constantly aware of the error status of the worksheet.
Child Care Credit. This version of
WROCSG6 has an enhanced ability to identify situations where the
child care credit is limited by a party’s tax liability. At your option,
WROCSG6 performs federal and state income tax calculations
that do not require inordinate amounts of data entry in order to get an
answer. The federal and state income tax calculations are built in.
Vista Compatible Help Files.
WROCSG6’s in-depth articles cover a complete range of topics
from potential legal issues to program use. We’ve highlighted and
provided legal resources for all facets of the worksheet calculation. On
a related subject, we’ve presented new materials that will make your
Vista experience problem free.
Support Scheduler/Arrearage Calculator
One underrated and often overlooked extra
feature of
WROCSG is the Support Scheduler/Arrearage Calculator. Its
purpose is to track support due dates and payment dates so as to provide
a full and detailed rendering of the child support account from
beginning to end. Calculating arrearages is a snap because utility
functions allow you to enter the terms of a support order and any number
of modifications so that literally hundreds of transactions can be
entered in just a single step. For example, if an obligor was ordered to
make $400 payments monthly starting August 15, 1998, you could simply
enter the date and amount using the Support Order utility and the
program would instantly provide you with a complete account that
details each and every payment, together with a running balance.
Let's further suppose that the obligor started making payments in the
beginning but stopped making payments after July 2002. We've included
another utility called the Payment Series that will allow you to
enter the starting and ending dates of the obligor's consecutive
payments in order to itemize and calculate a running balance on a
payment-by-payment basis.
Interested in Interest?
WROCSG calculates interest on
arrearages automatically. Furthermore, the entire child support account
can be printed so that each payment due date, each payment, and each
item of accrued interest is clearly set forth in a straightforward,
easy-to-understand arrangement. We've definitely elevated the
calculation of arrearages and interest to new levels of sophistication.
Feature/Benefits
WROCSG has been around so long
and is used by so many Courts, Agencies, and family law practitioners
that it's easy to forget about all the other functions that have been
around since 1994. Here's a short list: