Getting started

BridgeTies is a six-step wizard. You enter each parent's income and tax situation, describe the custody arrangement, and the application computes guideline child support under Family Code §4055 — showing every intermediate figure along the way. A complete case takes most users under ten minutes the first time, and a few minutes after that.

Install the application using the steps on the home page, launch it from the desktop shortcut, and create your free account.

Sign in & account

The first screen asks you to sign in or create an account. An account requires only your name, email address, and a password of at least 8 characters. After registering, check your email for a confirmation message from BridgeTies and click the link; you can then sign in.

• Forgot password? — click the link under the Sign In button, enter your email, and a recovery code arrives by email. Enter the code with a new password to reset.
• Your account is free. It exists so we can notify you of updates, corrections, and certification status — important information for anyone relying on a calculation tool.

Step 1 · Father's income

Enter the father's monthly financial picture:

• Monthly wages / salary and self-employment income — gross monthly amounts.
• Filing status and dependents claimed (excluding the children in this case) — these drive the federal and California tax computation.
• Other Income (expandable) — investment, Social Security, rental income, alimony received, and more.
• FC §4059 Deductions (expandable) — health insurance premiums, mandatory union dues, mandatory retirement, hardship deductions, and the other items the statute allows against gross income.

The blue bar updates live with the parent's estimated monthly net disposable income — the NDI figure the guideline formula will use — recomputed as you type using full 2026 federal and California tax tables.

Step 2 · Mother's income

Identical to Step 1, for the mother. Each parent's tax situation is computed independently — filing status, dependents, self-employment tax, credits, and deductions are per-parent, exactly as FC §4058–4059 require.

Step 3 · Custody & children

• Non-custodial parent and NCP time-share percentage — the slider sets the approximate percentage of time the non-custodial parent has primary physical responsibility (25% ≈ every other weekend; 50% = equal time).
• Number of children in this case, with each child's name (optional) and date of birth — the DOB drives per-child allocation in the reports, youngest to oldest, per FC §4055(b)(4).
• Other children from other relationships — for FC §4059(e)/§4071 treatment.
• FC §4062 add-ons — monthly child care expenses and uninsured health expenses. These are split between the parents in proportion to their net incomes, not 50/50.

Step 4 · Results

The guideline figure, in full view:

• The monthly guideline amount, with who pays whom.
• The components: K factor, H%, combined net disposable income (TN), and the number of children — the actual inputs to the §4055 formula, not a summary of them.
• The FC §4062 add-on breakdown, each parent's proportional share, and the total monthly support obligation.
• The low-income adjustment range, when the payor's income brings FC §4055(b)(7) into play.

Step 5 · What-If scenarios

The negotiation workspace. Create scenarios that vary timeshare and spousal support (Santa Clara guideline), and compare up to several at once: each scenario shows guideline child support, the payor's add-on share, total obligation, and — most importantly for settlement conversations — each party's net spendable income and the percentage split between households.

Step 6 · Reports

Three PDF reports, each generated to your chosen location:

• Calculation Report — the complete guideline computation: all inputs, the tax computation for each parent, NDI, K factor, H%, per-child allocation, add-ons, and the low-income adjustment if applicable. Bench format, every line cited.
• Scenario Comparison Report — your selected What-If scenarios side by side with the guideline anchor.
• Detailed Disposable Income Calculation — the full FC §4058–4059 breakdown for each parent: every income source, every tax line (federal, FICA, self-employment, California, SDI), §199A, and §4059 deductions, down to the NDI split that drives the formula.

Saving & loading cases

Use Save case in the top bar to write the entire case — both parents' inputs, custody, children, add-ons, and saved scenarios — to a .btcase file anywhere you choose. Load case restores it completely. The file name you choose becomes the case name shown in the banner and on reports.

Certification status & About

The ⓘ About button in the top bar opens the full disclosure: BridgeTies' certification status under California Rules of Court, rule 5.275, the calculation methodology and its statutory sources, and the developer's contact information. Read it — it states precisely what this tool is and is not, and we'd rather you know than guess.