When you first open up Custody X Change, this is the screen.

I was surprised by how easy and intuitive the program is to use. The tabs at the top of the screen show you what part of the custody and visitation cycle you're creating. This is the Repeating Cycle tab. By following the sidebar, you can quickly set up your repeating cycle of custody and visitation. You can choose the custodial parent and then pick a sample schedule or create your own schedule. It is really easy to add customized visitation time--you simply click and drag right on the calendar. You can make a schedule for as many weeks as you want and make any type of visitation calendar.

I also love the help menu in the program. The help files are conveniently located right on the side of screen--so you can see them while you are using the program! This is wonderful. If you have any questions as you make your schedule, you simply glance over to the side and find your answer. The help menu is also very organized and thorough so it doesn't take much time to find the information you want.

Once you've made your repeating cycle, you click on the Vacations tab.

In this tab, you can easily add any vacation schedules to your calendar. For example, you can set up a different custody schedule for the months of summer break. You can add up to four vacation time periods, and you set up the schedule for the vacations the same way you set them up for the repeating cycle. The software also lets you add an unspecified vacation to your schedule. It is nice that the program allows for this, because many parents want and use this feature in their schedule. Again, the software is very easy and intuitive to use. And, the help menu is right there on the screen to guide you through any problems.

The Holidays tab lets you add the next layer to your schedule.

This tab provides a long list of holidays that you can add to your schedule. You simply check the box to add the holiday and then you assign the holiday to a parent and put in the holiday times. You can also create new holidays and add them to your list.

You can finish your schedule in the Calendar tab.



You can click over to the Calendar tab to view your custody and visitation schedule at any time. This lets you see how your repeating cycle, vacation time, and holidays look in the calendar. You can also add special and one time events to the calendar. You simply click right on the day that you want the custody changed, and you drag the time to what you want. This way you can have your ideal, personal schedule.

There are three more tabs after the Calendar tab. Two of these, the Parenting Provisions and the Reports tab allow you to create a parenting plan.

After looking at your schedule in the Calendar tab, you can move onto the next tab, Parenting Provisions.

In this tab, you can add parenting provisions and stipulations to your custody agreement (only a few are shown above). The software provides you with a long list of provisions that you might want in your plan. Some of the provisions include: information about legal custody, how the parents will make decisions about the child, how the parents will resolve future disputes, information about traveling with the child, information about access to the child's records, etc. You can scroll through the provisions and check the ones you want in your agreement. You can also add your own, custom provisions if you want.

By clicking on the Reports tab, you can print all of the documents for your custody agreement.

The reports are thorough, complete, and contain all of the information you need in your parenting plan and custody agreement. The program gives you a written version of your custody and visitation schedule (complete with information about the repeating cycle, holidays, and vacations), all of your parenting provisions, and a calendar of your schedule for as many years as you want. All of the documents are in legal terms, and they are very professional and clean. On top of that, the program lets you export the documents to Word or PDF. This allows you to make any changes to the wording or any other part of the agreement.

Many parents and attorneys want a detailed, accurate parenting timeshare percentage to use for child support, making the custody schedule, etc. Custody X Change provides the timeshare percentage of each parent at the bottom of the screen.

This percentage is at the bottom of every screen, and as you make changes to your schedule, the program continually updates the percentage. So, as you are exploring options for parenting time, you can look at the bottom of the screen to know exactly how much time the mother and father have with the children.

The program also provides you with a detailed timeshare percentage report. This report breaks down the timeshare and shows the exact percentage that the mother and father have with the children.

The final tab in the program is Journaling and Tracking. In this tab, the software imports your calendar, and you can mark and track the changes in custody and visitation. This is one of the best tracking features I've seen in custody software. It is really easy to click and drag on the day to enter in the actual visitation. You can also right click on a day to enter in a note or journal about a visit or to entre in other information. As you are keeping track of actual visitation, the program gives you a report that shows the difference between scheduled visitation and actual visitation.