Why use the Unified Form even if you're doing a traditional (i.e. Sole, Split, or Shared) calculation?

Here are some unique features of this form.

▬Email results of calculation to yourself (or anyone else)!

▬Learn only one input form to produce ALL forms!

▬Print traditional DC-637, 638, & 640 forms if situation applies.

▬Change parent names to personalize form. "Help" becomes personalized! (You can do this on the other forms but it seems the feature wasn't highlighted enough.)

▬Simplify input screen:

  • ▻Only lines needed for your situation appear. Others are hidden until needed.
  • ▻Remove instructions on each line if you want.
  • ▻Details for guideline calculation are available but are on a separate schedule. Much less clutter!

▬Flag exceptions that have always been part of the law, but may have been ignored:

  • ▻Health insurance expenses in excess of 5% of gross income.
  • ▻Gross incomes at or below 150% of the poverty level.
  • ▻Situations where sole calculation might produce a lower obligation than the shared calculation.
  • ▻Exceptions are flagged on main form but detail shows on later page to reduce clutter.

▬Print schedule and/or exceptions ... or not!

DC Form Input Ending

In 2019, we completed a major upgrade to the Unified form. We made it extra easy to use the data in the Unified Form to print the DC Forms. There are huge advantages to using the Unified form for input even if you're producing one of the DC-637, 638, or 640 forms:

▬Results Page shows you the important inputs into the calculation and the key results for all parenting arrangements.

▬See and Change Amount Frequencies for each relevant line rather than making a single "monthly/non-monthly" decision for the entire form.

▬Print and Email DC Forms just like the Unified Form. All forms and additional schedules can be emailed to yourself (or anyone else).

▬Print Exception Details Separately if desired. If you want to see the detailed math behind the three exceptions that are reported on the Unified form (health insurance > 5% of gross, parent’s gross below 150% of poverty level, and rare case where sole calculation amount might be used for a shared calculation), you can request that as a separate report.

▬Print Calculation Details Separately if desired. If you want to see the details behind the child support guideline calculations, you can print them separately.

▬Less clutter! Show or hide line numbers and line-by-line instructions.

And in 2019, we warned that we would be eliminating the DC 637, 638, and 640 input forms! But we didn't, and some of you keep using them. New/old dogs and new/old tricks, right? When the 2025 Guidelines were updated, we updated even the older 3 input forms. The unified form took almost no time to update, but the older input forms took many days due to the older design strategies that we didn't anticipate updating.

Please consider you're on borrowed time with these input screens. Really! They will be eliminated.

In the meantime, if you use the old DC forms for input, the results may be off by a dollar or so from the Unified form. EXCEPT there is one situation where it could be way more than a single dollar caused by rounding differences: The Unified Form and the DC 637, 638, and 640 forms it produces calculate credits related to SSDI disability payments after all other calculations and adjustments. We believe that this is the correct calculation under the statute. The old DC input forms calculate the SSDI adjustments and credits before the other adjustments. In this situation, you could end up with a different result when comparing the new print-only DC forms with the DC input forms.