Tracking Expenses: Overview
The Custody X Change expense tracker helps you keep tabs on your child-related spending so you can get reimbursed for costs shared with the other parent.
It's available to gold-level subscribers.
More expenses help articles
Who can see your expenses
If you link accounts with your co-parent, you'll each get notified when the other makes a change in the expense tracker.
You can't edit an expense or payment your co-parent enters, but you can mark that you disagree.
If you link accounts with your lawyer, they can create and print expense reports for you.
Anyone else you link with, like your child, will not see your expenses.
You don't have to link accounts with anyone to use expense tracking. Even if you use Custody X Change alone, you'll be able to enter expenses for both parents and print or email invoices.
Expenses balance out other expenses
Expenses automatically balance each other out. For example, if your co-parent owes you $150 for your expenses and you owe $200 for theirs, the app calculates that you currently owe them $50. This simplifies things so parents don't end up sending the same money back and forth.
Applying payments to specific expenses
When you record a payment, it automatically goes toward the oldest unpaid expenses first. But you can choose to put it toward specific expenses instead. For example, you could make sure your money goes toward expenses that have a deadline for reimbursement.
Select "let me choose the expenses to pay." You'll see unpaid expenses. (If you don't see the expense you want, select "show automatically balanced expenses.") Choose expenses to pay. As you check them off, the amount owed for each one will update.
If the expenses you check total more than the payment, the payment will be applied to the oldest of those expenses until it's used up.
Expense-tracking tips
- Use categories to stay organized. Categories help you print focused reports. Items with different reimbursement percentages (e.g., 60/40 and 50/50) probably don't belong in the same category.
- Include details so there are no questions. You can upload a receipt, give a description, enter a reference number, and more.
- Save as an Excel file to analyze in detail. Click the printer button ("reports"), then "export as Excel." You'll be able to sort, create graphs and more in Microsoft Excel.