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By Chloe Nelsun | Submitted On April 04,

One nice thing that has developed with family law software are the programs that calculate child support. Child support software is used in every state to easily calculate accurate support payments quickly. This has saved attorneys and court staff countless hours of figuring and gives peace of mind because there are no errors. In recent years parents have been able to get these programs so that they can have peace of mind about their payments.

Along with the development of child support software, other programs have arisen that can help parents, attorneys and courts come up with an accurate child support amount. These programs calculate the time-share or the overnight percentage. The time-share percentage is the amount of time the child spends with each parent. This is nice figure for quick reference--it is easy for the parents or their lawyer to know how much time they have with the child at a glance. It is also an impressive number to show the court. That's because the time-share percentage is a pain to calculate. It takes many hours of figuring out and counting. It's the same thing with the overnight percentage. The overnight percentage is a little different from the time-share. It is the number that shows how many nights the children are spending with each parent. This is also a time consuming and hard number to calculate.

The time-share and overnight percentage are important though. In almost every state, one of these numbers is used in determining how much child support is paid and received. However, because of the difficulty in calculating this number, many attorneys and courts simply hazard a guess. But that guess turns into a factual number that has to be paid. Parents who want to make sure that they aren't paying more child support than they have to should do everything they can to get an accurate number. Luckily, other programs are out there that allow you to easily get this number. These are the computer programs that let you create your child custody agreement and schedule. As you enter your schedule into the program, it constantly shows you the time-share or overnight percentage.

With the child support software that the states use, you simply enter in different figures for the required fields. States require different things for their calculations. The most common numbers asked for are income, rent or house payments, how much you pay for insurance, how much you pay for the child's insurance, and the time or overnight percentage. So, if you have the program that gives you an accurate percentage, you merely enter that into the other program and you can rest assured that the amount calculated is correct.

With all the technological advances today it can be most helpful to find computer programs that allow you to reach the custody agreement that you want. An important part of your custody agreement is the child support payments. It's nice to know that you can now get an exact calculation that you can be sure is an accurate figure.