Support is free, and a person answers the phone

Open Iowa Support Master and click About. The build shown there is your version.

The desktop program updates itself. When a new version is out, the program tells you and you click Update Now. It closes, updates, and reopens on its own — no download page, no installer to run, no setup wizard, and nothing to reinstall.

Updating never touches your saved case files.

If you use the online Pro Portal there is nothing to do at all. It is always the current version the moment you open it.

It should not any more. The installer is signed under an Extended Validation certificate issued to Alft & Wilson Publishing, so Windows shows our company name rather than a warning, and it will tell you if even one byte of the file has been altered.

If your firm runs its own software restrictions — AppLocker, or a managed-device policy — your IT people may still need to allow it. Call 515-776-4088 and we will talk to them.

The online Pro Portal runs in your browser on any machine — Windows, Mac, iPad, Chromebook, Android tablet. Nothing to download or install, and it is always current. Every feature of the desktop program is there.

The Windows desktop program installs on your machine and works with no internet connection at all, which matters at the courthouse. It updates with one click.

Use whichever suits the machine you are sitting at. A case you save in one opens in the other.

Use the online Pro Portal. It runs in Safari or Chrome on a Mac, on an iPad, and on a Chromebook, with the full feature set.

If you would still rather run the Windows desktop program on Apple hardware, Parallels and VMware Fusion both work and Mike keeps a Mac for exactly this. Call 515-776-4088.

A current, supported version of Windows on a 64-bit machine. Any computer bought in the last several years is comfortably enough — the program is small and the calculation is instant. If you are unsure about a particular machine, call us before you install.

Network and multi-user installations are supported. Call 515-776-4088 and we will help you set it up.

No. In the desktop program this is built in rather than promised: the program blocks its own network access at the source, and the only thing it is permitted to contact is our licence check. There is no cloud account, no upload and no telemetry.

The online Pro Portal calculates in your own browser as well. Your case is read from and saved to your own computer.

Almost every item in Iowa Support Master has its own help. Click the words next to where you would make the entry, or use the Help button, and a window explains that item — what it is, and how the Guidelines treat it.

If the explanation does not settle it, that is what the phone is for. Guidelines questions go to Pat at 515-822-0203.

Click Find and start typing. Looking for shared care? Click Find, type “share…”, and the matching topics appear. Click one and you are taken straight there.

The program tells you what a reasonable cost of health insurance is for the case in front of you, and there are checkboxes for Hawk-I and Title XIX coverage.

If an unreasonable amount is entered, a warning appears on screen and on the printed form, so that it cannot be missed by you or by the court.

Work through it in this order:

1. Compare the version shown on their form against yours. Both programs must be on the same version. If the other side is not using Iowa Support Master at all, that alone will explain it.
2. Enter their numbers line by line beside yours and find the first line where the two diverge. That is nearly always the whole answer.
3. Check the Other Income field. The most common cause by a distance is income entered there with the tax boxes left unchecked.

Also bear in mind that a figure can be changed with the override feature, or edited in a word processor after the form was produced.

Still stuck? Send both forms to pat@patwilson.com and Pat will look at them.

They will not match, in every case, and the reason matters.

Iowa Support Master uses actual tax rates. Child Support Services uses estimates — commonly a flat 20%. Because our figure reflects the tax the parties will really pay, there is no surprise refund or balance owing when they file. Because theirs is an estimate, there often is.

The argument to make is that the court should use actual tax rates rather than an estimate. If you want to show the court both figures side by side, call Pat on 515-822-0203 — he does this argument often.

Yes, and people do it constantly. Save the case file and email it to pat@patwilson.com. He will open it on his end and give you his view of the case, not just of the software. He is a licensed Iowa lawyer and has been since 1982.

Yes — all of them, with nothing to convert. The file format has not changed. A case you saved years ago opens in the new program exactly as it was, and when you save it again the file is written back byte for byte the way the old program wrote it.

There is no conversion step, no import, and no separate archive of old cases.

The desktop program keeps them in an Iowa Support Master folder inside your Documents folder, and you can save a case anywhere else you like — a network drive, a matter folder, wherever your firm files things.

To move them to another computer, copy the files to a USB drive or a network folder and open them on the other machine. Nothing else needs to be transferred: the files are self-contained.

Send the file. It opens in their copy of the program, desktop or online, whichever they use.

Before you email a case or put it on a thumb drive, you can give that file its own password. A strength meter tells you whether the password you have chosen is worth using. The password travels with the file, so it is still protected on the other end.

Yes. Your work in progress is saved quietly in the background, so a power cut or a restart does not cost you the afternoon — the program offers the case back when you return.

That is a safety net rather than a substitute for saving. Save the file where you want it kept.

Yes, and you will want to for a case that was calculated under an earlier year's guidelines and tax tables. Each year's program is licensed from its release through the end of that program year, and renews when you buy the following year.

Email sales@iowasupportmaster.com with your firm name and the new lawyer's name, and say whether you would rather pay by check or by card. We will invoice you and add the lawyer.

Newly admitted lawyers are no charge. Non-lawyer support staff are always free — you never pay for an assistant or a paralegal.

A lawyer left and is not being replaced: nothing to do.

A lawyer left and is being replaced: email us the details and we will reconfigure the license.

Firm name changed: email sales@iowasupportmaster.com with the new name. The firm name appears on your documents, so it is worth doing promptly.

This is normal in a larger firm and the program is built for it. Each lawyer who works at that machine is remembered, and switching between them takes a click — so the correct name and bar number appear on every document.

Switching lawyers closes the open case first, on purpose, so that one lawyer's case can never follow you into another lawyer's work by accident.

Your license covers the lawyer, not one particular machine — install it on the office desktop, the laptop and the machine at home.

If you need your sign-in details again, or a download link, email sales@iowasupportmaster.com or call 515-776-4088. On a brand new machine, the online Pro Portal works immediately with nothing installed at all — useful when you are set up somewhere unexpectedly.

Yes — usually the fastest way to settle something. We use AnyDesk. Call 515-776-4088 first and we will walk you through connecting.

SSI (Supplemental Security Income) is needs-based, paid to people with low income and few resources who are 65 or over, blind, or disabled. If the obligor's only income is SSI, rule 9.4 of the guidelines sets child support at zero.

SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) is paid to workers who paid Social Security taxes and became disabled before normal retirement age. Where a parent receives SSDI, their children are likely eligible for a benefit too. If that parent has a support obligation and the child already receives a benefit, the court may offset or reduce the obligation.

Points worth knowing:

• Adopting a child on SSI does not reduce that child's SSI benefit if the parent receives child support — SSI is needs-based.
• A child receiving Social Security on the death of a parent may see the benefit reduced if the child earns wages.
• The custodian usually receives the benefit paid for the child, and the court may take it into account and reduce support.
• SSA sends the custodian an annual accounting request. The money must be used for the child's welfare, though it may be saved. At 18, SSA directs the custodian to hand the benefit to the child.

Authored by Patrick Wilson. Corrections or additions to pat@patwilson.com.

Call or email and we will walk you through it, on your own cases if you like. Training on the program and on the Guidelines is free, for one lawyer or for your whole section.

There are also short videos on our YouTube channel, including one on Asset Distribution.

Call. That is what the numbers at the top of this page are for, and there is no charge for using them. Guidelines and calculation questions to Pat on 515-822-0203; anything technical to Mike on 515-776-4088, 24/7 including weekends.