Tracking Expenses and Reimbursements

Managing Expenses

Going through a divorce will inevitably change your financial situation. Managing your expenses during the divorce and controlling your new post‑divorce budget will increase the sense of safety and help you make optimum financial decisions.

• Plan your expenses and keep track of the actual amounts spent.
• Plan and track payments between parents, including reimbursements and child support.
• Record unplanned costs.
• Share detailed information about parenting expenses with your ex‑spouse and others (divorce coach, lawyer, family).
• Generate expense reports and export your data to a spreadsheet for further processing.

There are two typical approaches to choosing the scope of expenses tracked in Alimentor.

• housing, food and clothing,
• medical care (including medical insurance),
• child care,
• educational fees,
• extracurricular and social expenses,
• transportation,
• holiday trips, vacations.

• personal expenses,
• debt payments,
• home maintenance,
• property, health and life insurance.

Learn more about collecting evidence for child custody case ▶

Expense Records

• Payer and beneficiaries
• Planned amount, date and time (if applicable)
• Actual amount, date and time
• Title and notes (expense description)
• Status: planned, actual or canceled (unpaid)
• Photos, scans and PDF attachments
• Disagreement flag and custody factors

Payer and Beneficiaries

In Alimentor each expense is assigned to a specific payer and beneficiaries. This allows users to independently analyze and report expenses for each caregiver (you, the other parent, grandparents, …) and child.

Title

• Because Alimentor groups expenses by title, they can function similarly to expense categories, without the burden of managing and assigning categories.
• The tables contained in the "Expense Summary" chapter of the report summarize expenses by title.
• Searching for specific types of expenses in Diary and Planned is easier.

Detailed information about the expense can be stored in the notes field.

Status

• Actual: used for all unplanned expenses and for planned expenses that have already been incurred. For unplanned expenses, set Scheduled switch/checkbox to off (unchecked).
• Planned: expense records in this status represent scheduled (future) recurring and one‑time expenses and payments.
• Canceled: used to record unpaid expenses due. For problematic, late or missing liabilities users can also set Disagreement flag.

• Planned expenses are shown in the Planned view.
• Actual and canceled expenses are shown in the Diary view.

Planned vs Actual

• Planned amount and due date
• Actual amount paid and payment date

This helps users record partial or late payments, and allows Alimentor to detect and report deviations from the target budget.

Scans, Photos and Documents

Each Alimentor record can contain multiple photos and PDF files.

• Communication and correspondence (iMessage and SMS conversations, email correspondence) with the other parent related to financial matters.
• Confirmations of money transfers and on‑line purchases.
• Invoices and receipts (PDFs or scans).
• Photos of purchased goods.

Photos are reported in the last two chapters of Alimentor reports: "Best Interests of the Child" and "Custody Log".

Attachments are output at the end of the report.

Reimbursements

Alimentor expense records can represent payments between parents. This functionality can be used to manage reimbursements.

1. Create a new expense record. After entering all required input in the event editor tap Add Reimbursement. The record is then saved and a new view with the reimbursement appears.
2. Edit the proposed reimbursement record:
   • Change record status to "Planned".
   • Set the required due date.
   • Use the built‑in calculator to get the required percentage out of the original amount.
3. Once the reimbursement is paid, locate it in Planned and edit it:
   • Change record status to "Actual".
   • Add additional documents if needed, e.g. a PDF file with money transfer confirmation.

Reporting

• Custody Summary: The summary chapter is always split by payer (parent) and beneficiary (child or parent). It shows the total amount spent and contains tables with planned and actual expenses (title, amount, date/time, notes).
• Summary of Expenses: The expense summary chapter shows the total expenses for multiple caregivers and children. Payments between caregivers (reimbursements) can be reported as a negative cost for the caregiver who is assigned as the payee.
• Best Interests of the Child: This chapter contains events divided into sections according to "best interest" factors. If an event has more than one "best interest" tag assigned, it is included multiple times in the relevant sections.
• Custody Log: The log contains a chronological list of all records including expenses. The details for each event include notes and photos.

Sample Report

You can also export your data to a spreadsheet file (.xlsx) in order to perform some advanced calculations or to create charts.

Tell Us What You Think ❤️

We want our articles to be as helpful and comprehensive as possible. Your personal experience and practical knowledge can help thousands of divorcing parents. We invite you to share your input and comments with us by sending an email to: feedback@alimentor.org.