DivorceMate Tools One – Tips and Tricks
Prepared by Christine Montgomery, B.A., LL.B., For DivorceMate Software Inc., October, 2015
1. Starting Tools One: Simply click the applicable Client File, click the Tools tab, and click the “New”
Button (located directly to the right of the Tools Tab. The following Welcome Screen will open:
PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO: We have created a short
Introductory Video which should be watched before you
venture into your Tools One software.
You may also find this video on our website at:
www.divorcemate.com/videos/tools2k10.html
2. Input relevant information in the Merge Information File: Some of the information input in the Merge
Information File will be brought directly into the Tools 2K calculation. The information brought into
Tools 2K includes:
•
the parties’ names, birthdates and status (ie.
Father /Mother/Husband/Wife and
Payor/Recipient - which relate to spousal support
if in issue in the case) (under the “Court & Parties”
Tab);
•
the children’s names, birthdates and living arrangement (under the “Children” Tab);
•
the date of marriage, date of separation and date the parties started living together (under the
“Other Info” Tab).
3. Creating Tools One Calculations: Create several Tools One calculations to analyse different scenarios
(e.g. sole custody vs. shared custody; husband at $100,000 vs. husband at $80,000).
4. Copy a Calculation: Create a copy of a Tools One calculation by highlighting the applicable calculation
and clicking the “Copy” Button at the right hand side of the Opening Screen.
5. Move Between Different Calculations: You may open more than one Tools One calculation at a time
and move between the various calculations.
6. Parties: When you create a new calculation, you must
confirm which party is the Payor and which party is the
Recipient. If spousal support is an issue in the case, the
Payor and Recipient refer to the Payor and Recipient of
Spousal Support. In other words, if Fred has primary
custody of the children and is the recipient of child support,
but pays Wilma spousal support, Fred would be the “Payor”
and Wilma would be the “Recipient”.
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7. Blue Links: Click on the blue links to access various inputting fields.
8. Party Information: Under the “Calculation Input”
heading at the top left hand side of the page, click on
the blue link to the right hand side of the party to
input/edit the party’s name, province, gender, age and
health status. If spousal support is an issue in the
matter, the first party listed MUST be the Payor of
spousal support, and the second party listed MUST be
the Recipient of spousal support.
9. Printout: What you see is what you print. In other words, you are building your printout based on the
information you input. This allows you to easily compare your calculation with another calculation.
10. Taxation Year of Calculation: The taxation year of the calculation may be specified/changed, by
clicking on the blue Tools One “2015” link at the top right hand side of the page, and choosing from the
dropdown list. This feature is helpful when retroactive support is in issue (but note that it is only
available for years 2010 forward).
11. Name/Creator of Calculation: You may change the name
of the calculation and the person preparing it while you are
in the calculation by clicking on the applicable blue links at the top right hand side of the page. The
name of the file and the date that the calculation is printed will also appear in the right hand corner.
12. Page Number Footer on Printout: A footer will appear at the bottom of each page of a printout,
indicating the total number of pages in a complete printout of the calculation.
13. Version Footer on Printout: Always check that the most recent version of the software (found on the
bottom left hand side of each page) is being used to ensure that all tax rates, benefits, credits etc. are
up to date.
14. Income and other Relevant Financial Information:
Under the “Calculation Input” heading, click on the
party’s name in blue to input all relevant financial
information for the party. A screen marked “Add
Information Item” will be displayed with a list of
folders containing multiple items to input.
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15. Search Feature: Once in the “Add Information Item” screen, use the search feature to help you find
input fields. You may enter the item name or parts of the name, or the section number under the
legislation, or even the line of the tax return.
16. Folders: Click on each
folder to expand it, and
access the input fields
under that folder. The
“Common” folder is a
collection of the most
commonly used items
from the other folders
below.
17. Inputting Items:
Highlight the applicable
item from the list, then
enter the amount (and
description if you wish) in
the box in the top right
hand side of the screen.
18. Help: As you tab through
each input field, help
appears on the lower right hand side of the screen to assist you in entering the correct information.
If the “Help” information is highlighted in yellow, please read carefully. This typically indicates that
there is an associated tax item that should be considered. Most related items are also linked when
inputting. If the “Help” information is in italics, this indicates that the software is doing an automatic
calculation.
19. Built-in Math Calculator: Where annual figures are required, you may input a weekly, bi-weekly or
monthly number in the input field, followed by either “w”, “b” or “m” respectively, and the software
will automatically convert the number to an annual figure. For example, input “100w” and the
software will convert the figure to $5,200 when you hit enter or leave the field.
20. Same input field can be used more than once if necessary: For
example, if a party has more than one job, the income from each
job can be input individually under “Employment income”. Each
input should be distinguished with a description. By further
example, if there are several different extraordinary extracurricular
expenses, each one can be independently entered.
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21. Grossing up non-taxable income: Certain types of nontaxable income in the “Income” folder are automatically
grossed up by the software (eg. Workers’ compensation
benefits; Social assistance; Disability benefits (non-taxable);
Other non-taxable income (auto gross up)), as explained in
italics in the “Help” for these items. In other words, the
software determines the amount that an employed person
would have to earn on a gross basis, in order to have the
same amount of net income.
The software’s automatic gross-up takes into account only
the income tax the party would be required to pay if he/she
were employed, as evidenced in the Note below the
“Calculation Input” section.
You can, however, toggle the blue link in the Note to
provide that in addition to income tax, the gross-up should also consider the CPP and EI payments that
the party would be required to make to earn the same amount of net income.
22. Dividends and Capital Gains Income: Enter
Dividends or Capital Gains income under either the
“Taxable” or “Actual” input fields, not both.
If entering these types of income from an income
tax return, use the input fields preceded by “Taxable”.
If entering these types of income based on the
amounts that the party actually received, use the input
fields preceded by “Actual”.
Because these types of income are taxed at a lower rate
than other types of income, you may wish to include and
gross-up the tax savings (pursuant to s. 19(1)(h) of the
CSG) by toggling the blue link in the Note below the
“Calculation Input” section.
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23. Special Expenses and Associated Tax Items: Find the applicable special expense from the list in the
“Special Expenses (s.7)” folder and enter the full amount paid by the party toward that special expense.
You must then enter any associated tax deduction or tax credit in either the “Tax Deductions” or “Tax
Credits” folder. Any associated tax item to be considered will be highlighted in yellow in the “Help” for
the special expense.
As well, once a special expense is input, if there is an associated tax
item, a green link will appear under the entered item on the main
screen. Simply click on the green link and it will take you to the
appropriate input area for the tax item. If, however, there is more
than one associated tax item (eg. extraordinary extracurricular
expenses have 3 possible tax credits), the green link will only take you
to one tax item; you must remember to input the second (or third) tax item.
The “Help” information for the tax deductions/credits will indicate the maximum amounts that may be
claimed. For example, for 2015:
• $8,000/child tax deduction for childcare expenses for children under 7;
• $5,000/child tax deduction for childcare expenses for children 7-15 inclusive;
• $1,000/child under 16 for fitness program qualifying for federal children’s fitness tax credit;
• $500/child under 16 for arts program qualifying for federal children’s arts tax credit;
• $541/child under 16 for activity qualifying for Ontario’s provincial children’s activity tax credit;
• $5,000/child for child’s tuition, education, textbook amounts transferred to party for tax credit.
24. Children: Click on the “Children” blue link to input/edit information related to the children, including
names, ages, living/custody arrangements, whether child support is to be paid pursuant to Child
Support Guidelines tables, who will be claiming child on income tax return, health status, number of
years until youngest child starts school full time and/or finishes high school, and who will be claiming
the dependant credit. If the children are in shared custody, you must also indicate if the child related
benefits (Canada Child Tax Benefit, Universal Child Care Benefit, and HST/GST credits related to the
child) will be shared between the parties according to the CRA policy or not.
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25. Eligible Dependant Credit in Shared Parenting Situation: In shared parenting situations, as long as
both parties agree and both are paying child support (which may ultimately be offset into one payment
for convenience), the Eligible
Dependant Credit can be allocated
to the higher income parent. (See
This will not affect child support
but may affect spousal support
under SSAG. The software default
will allocate the credit to the net
recipient of child support. To
change this default, the payor
should be selected from the
Dependant Credit dropdown list.
If there are two or more children
in a shared parenting situation, it is arguable that both parties can claim this credit as long as both
parties are paying support.
For further information on all considerations in shared parenting situations, including all support CRA
tax papers and guides, see the paper “Shared Parenting and DivorceMate” on the DivorceMate website
under “User Guides” in the Resources.
26. Overriding child support Table Amount or s.7 Special Expense apportioning: The Table Amount of
child support and the s.7 Special Expense apportioning
may be overridden under the Child Support Guidelines
(CSG) “Options” blue link.
Using the dropdown lists under “Child Support (Table)”,
specify a different amount of child support or no child
support whatsoever.
Under “Child Support (s.7 Payment)”, specify a
different apportioning percentage, a specific amount to be contributed to the special expenses, or no
apportioning.
These amounts will be carried through the rest of the calculations unless otherwise specified. A
caution will also appear alerting the reader of any amounts overridden.
If you do not wish the child support Table Amount override
amount to affect spousal support under the SSAG (eg. reduced
child support because payor is a step parent, or payor has
income over $150,000, or payor has high access costs), check the
box marked “Do not override Table Amount for SSAG” found in
the Child Support Guidelines (CSG) “Options” blue link. Spousal support under SSAG will then be
calculated as if the CSG Table Amount is being paid, despite the Override.
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27. Brainstorming Spousal Support: It is possible to brainstorm up to 6 different amounts of spousal
support in the Support Scenarios (including the SSAG low, mid, high defaults) and to analyze the
parties’ Net Disposable Incomes (“NDI”) in each scenario.
Add the additional scenarios or change the
default scenarios by first selecting the
appropriate number from the scenarios
dropdown list under the Support Scenarios
“Options” blue link.
Then select the desired support option for
each scenario A through F as applicable.
The available options are found in the
dropdown list.
You may set your own spousal support
amount, assume no spousal support (as a
baseline) or let the program determine the
amount of spousal support to be paid so
that:
• the parties have the same net disposable income;
• the parties have a set percentage of the combined NDI;
• a party has enough NDI to meet his/her budget/needs.
28. Net Cost/Benefit of Spousal
Support:
By checking the box
marked “Net Cost/Benefit of Spousal
Support” under the Support
Scenarios “Options” blue link, the
after tax cost to the payor and after
tax benefit to the recipient of the
spousal support payment will be
determined for each scenario.
29. Net Increase/Decrease NDI: A party’s NDI in the Support
Scenarios may be adjusted for source deductions, taxable
benefits, or any other expense that is reasonable in the
circumstances (eg. payor carrying a large family debt in
interim before property equalized), by inputting the
amount under the “Cash Flow Adjustments” folder in the
“Add Information Item” list for each party. (Note that
only the first 3 adjustments related to life and health
insurance will also affect spousal support under SSAG in
the “With Child Support” formula by reducing INDI.)
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30. Life Insurance Calculations: Calculate the amount of life insurance
necessary to secure the periodic payments of child and spousal
support by checking the box marked “Life Insurance (to secure
support)” in the toolbar at the top of the screen.
A new section will then be
added to the bottom of each
scenario in the Support
Scenarios section, showing
the amount of life insurance
necessary to secure the Table
Amount of child support (ie.
not the s. 7 special expense
contribution) and the
recipient’s after-tax spousal
support benefit for each
different scenario.
The insurance calculation
determines the net present
value of the periodic support payments, based on a number of different assumptions listed (eg. default
duration for spousal support is midpoint of SSAG duration range; default for child support duration is
age 18; spousal support is not discounted for recipient’s life expectancy; and the discount rate is based
on the rate set for indexed Government of Canada long-term real return bonds). Each of these various
assumptions/defaults may be changed by the user by clicking the blue link.
Keep in mind the calculation’s further assumptions: a fixed support amount, and constant level of
income (and marginal tax rate) for each party, for the entire duration of the child and spousal support.
31. Spousal Support Lump Sum (NPV) Calculations: Similar to the life insurance calculations above, the
lump sum present value of the periodic spousal support payments can also be determined by the
software, by checking the applicable box in the
toolbar at the top of the screen.
A new section will then be added to the bottom of each scenario in the Support Scenarios section,
showing the payor’s after-tax cost of spousal support considering his/her income level and marginal tax
rate, the recipient’s after-tax benefit considering his/her income level and marginal tax rate, and the
midpoint of the two amounts for reference
purposes only. Net Present Value
Assumptions similar to those used in the
Life Insurance section will be applied, with
the ability to alter these assumptions as
necessary.
The same additional assumptions also apply regarding fixed support amounts, income levels and
marginal tax rates for the duration of support.
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32. Restructuring Spousal Support: The periodic payments of spousal support may be restructured to
determine a different amount and/or duration than that determined by the SSAG, but still within the
parameters set by the SSAG. Check the
box marked “Restructuring Scenarios” in
the toolbar at the top of the screen.
Then brainstorm up to 4 different amounts and durations of spousal support. Within each
restructuring scenario,
you may also adjust the
amount/duration up to 4
times.
The Lump Sum (Net
Present Value)
calculations provided
for each restructuring
scenario at the bottom are
useful in comparing all of
the different periodic payments.
For example, in the four scenarios set out above, the different periodic payments considered are fairly
comparable when looking at their net present values. The first scenario is based on the midpoint of the
SSAG amount and duration. Scenario 2 is based on an amount above and a duration below the SSAG
range. Scenario 3 is based on an amount below and a duration above the SSAG range. Scenario 4 is
based on a stepped down amount/duration of support.
33. Emailing Tools One Calculations: Click on the “Make PDF” button in
the toolbar at the top left corner of the screen. Name the
calculation and save it on your Desktop for easy access (or you can
save it in your client file if you would prefer). The document will be
converted to PDF format and can be attached to any outgoing email.
Alternatively, you can email an actual working calculation (provided the recipient of the email also has
DivorceMate Tools One) by attaching the actual calculation. To find out where the actual calculation is
saved on your computer, click the “Setup” button on the bottom left hand side of the main
DivorceMate interface screen to see the “Default Folder” path.
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34. Viewing Tools One Calculation Details: Include calculation details in your printout for further
clarification by checking the box marked “Calculation Details” in the toolbar at the top right corner of
the screen. The proofs/details of the calculation will be added at the end of your Tools 2K document.
35. Understanding Calculation Details: The calculation details are organized according to the sections set
out on the first page of the printout. In other words, details relating to the section marked “Child
Support Guidelines (CSG)” can be found under “Child Support Calculation Details”; details relating to
the “Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines (SSAG)” are found under “SSAG Details”; details relating to
the “Support Scenarios” are found under “Support Scenario Details”; and so on.
Within each details section (except for the Child Support Calculation Details), the line items requiring
further breakdown are found below in a gray box in the order listed.
36. DM Tools Cloud: Calculations can now be done remotely anywhere
(eg. at the office, at home, out of town, in court, etc.) on any device
(eg. phone, IPAD, tablet, laptop) as long as the user has 3G or
internet access. (Note that a phone can be used as hotspot for a
laptop in court if there is no internet access.) The user just needs to
sign up to DM Cloud at www.divorcemate.com.