Split billing for shared custody
When a child’s parents pay separately, each billing period makes two invoices, one for each parent. Each invoice holds that parent’s share of every line, and the two always add up to the whole bill. Each parent only sees and gets their own invoices, emails and tax receipt. An invoice says it is their share of the care for the child, and never names the other parent.
Set it up. Both parents must be listed under Parents & pickup as Parent/Guardian, each with an email.
- Open the child from Children › Children and go to the Services tab. Under Split billing, click Set up split billing.
- Choose Parent 1 and Parent 2.
- How the bill is shared. Percentage: enter Parent 1’s share, for example 60, and Parent 2 pays the rest. Fixed amount: choose the parent who pays a fixed amount and enter it per invoice of your billing cycle, for example $200 per biweekly invoice. The other parent pays the rest. On a bill smaller than the fixed amount, that parent pays all of it and the other parent’s invoice is $0.
- Starts on. The split applies from the first billing period that starts on or after this day. Check the example on the form, then click Start split billing.
Late pickups, closure credits and other changes to past days. With a percentage, each one is shared the same way automatically: a part on each parent’s draft, the two parts adding up to the whole line. With a fixed amount, each one waits on the drafts as Needs a parent, above the child’s statement and at the top of the draft: click a parent’s name to give it to them, or Split… to enter an amount for each (the two must add up to the line). Until every one has a parent, neither parent’s draft can be approved, and Approve all lists them as not approved with the reason. If the child has no draft to put it on (for example they have left), generate the next period: it makes an invoice for the extra even with no care to bill.
Reviewing the two drafts. The two invoice numbers end in -1 and -2, and the invoice list names each parent. To give a line to the other parent, open the draft and click Move to their invoice under the line. Both totals change. A credit note stays with its parent; use Unapply to take it off. If you delete one parent’s draft after the other parent’s invoice was approved, that parent’s part of each late pickup or credit is not lost: it goes back on their draft when it is made again.
Credit notes. When you add a credit note for the child, choose the parent it is for. It only comes off that parent’s invoices. A credit from before the split, or one with no parent, is held: it comes off nobody’s invoice until you click Choose a parent on the child’s Billing tab or on the Credits tab of Parent invoices.
Payments. Record payment asks Who paid? and lists only that parent’s invoices. Money paid over what is owed stays with that parent: it goes to their older invoices that still owe, or onto their next invoice, never to the other parent’s. To give it back, refund it.
Manual invoices. Choose which parent the invoice is for. Only that parent gets it and pays it.
The child’s statement. The buttons above the statement show one parent at a time, with that parent’s running balance. Each parent’s balance is listed under them.
Changing or ending it. Click Change and choose the date the new split starts. Periods before it keep the split they were billed under, and History lists every split. Click End split and choose the last day. From the next billing period after it, the child gets one invoice to both parents again. Anything still waiting for a parent goes on that invoice.
A parent with no app login still gets their invoices by email. When they get a login with the same email, their invoices and tax receipt appear in their app.
Payments made earlier in the year a split starts, through a parent’s own app login, count on that parent’s tax receipt. A receipt already issued to them for that year keeps its number. If Tax receipts lists a receipt that no longer matches anyone who paid, check it before sending.
If the card under Split billing says a parent is no longer under Parents & pickup, their invoices still go to the email the split names. Use Change to pick the right parent.