Child Support

Revised Ohio Child Support Guidelines

Last Updated - January 11, 2024

Program Highlights

Check Worksheet. This function performs hundreds of tests to make absolutely certain your worksheet is properly prepared and ready for submission. Just click on the Check Worksheet button and the results appear in a separate window.

Support Scheduler/Arrearage Calculator

One often overlooked extra feature of ROCSG is the Support Scheduler/Arrearage Calculator. Its purpose is to track support due dates and payment dates so as to provide a full and detailed rendering of the child support account from beginning to end. Calculating arrearages is a snap because utility functions allow you to enter the terms of a support order and any number of modifications so that literally hundreds of transactions can be entered in just a single step. For example, if an obligor was ordered to make $500 payments monthly starting August 15, 2008, you could simply enter the date and amount using the Support Order utility and the program would instantly provide you with a complete account that details each and every payment, together with a running balance. Let's further suppose that the obligor started making payments in the beginning but stopped making payments after July 2012. We've included another utility called the Payment Series that will allow you to enter the starting and ending dates of the obligor's consecutive payments in order to itemize and calculate a running balance on a payment-by-payment basis.

So if you ever encounter a situation where a child support obligor is disputing an arrearage, or you wish to verify the court's accounting, or you want verify and contest the calculation of interest on an arrearage, the Support Scheduler will be your number one tool. 

Other Features/Benefits

ROCSG has been around since 1994 and is used by so many Courts, Agencies, and family law practitioners that it's easy to forget about all the other functions that have been around since the beginning. Here's a short list:

• With ROCSG you'll be using the exact same program used by your local Domestic Relations Court.
• You'll always be up-to-date on the latest law and programming changes because ROCSG downloads and installs upgrades automatically.
• The familiar look and feel of ROCSG will have you working like a pro the first time you run the program—no learning curve, no training classes.
• One mouse click lets you switch among the three statutory child support table lookup methods.
• ROCSG handles the calculation of minium support orders for combined incomes in excess of $150,000 in either of the accepted statutory methods.
• When printing, you may choose between the annotated long form worksheet, the statutory worksheet or the compact, but detailed, abbreviated worksheet.
• Automatic updates take care of performing modifications like annually changing cash medical support data, federal income tax dependency exemption on line 8, and child care credit tax calculations—without paying annual subscription or update fees.
• Accomodates percentage rate or flat fee processing charges (poundage).
• A Local Tax Calculator automatically calculates municipal income taxes from a party's gross income, or lets you enter the appropriate income and tax rates.
• A Shared Parenting Prorator prorates the obligor's annual child support obligation based on the time of possession with adjustments for jurisdictions that apply the Copas v. Copas dicta.
• Pop-up menus for starting new files, loading files from disk, saving files to disk, printing worksheets and calculating arrearages.
• A tool bar with speed buttons provides one click execution of common operations.
• Delete File Command lets you do disk drive housekeeping without exiting the program.
• Performs the Line 8—minor child adjustment less federal tax exemption—automatically. Note that the personal exemption has been repealed as of January 1, 2018.
• Performs the 5.6% self-employment adjustment or lets you enter your own marginal amount.

You're in good company when you purchase our Revised Ohio Child Support Guidelines (ROCSG) program. Our list of customers includes more than 200 County Courts, and government and non-profit agencies using ROCSG—included are Domestic Relations Courts, Juvenile Courts, Probate Courts, Child Support Enforcement Agencies, Department of Human Services, Department of Job & Family Services, Prosecutor's Offices, Appellate Courts, Law Libraries and Universities throughout Ohio.

New Interface. Although ROCSG maintains the same look and feel it's had for 30+ years, we've enhanced the graphic interface to make it quicker and easier to complete calculations. The screens look more like the statutory worksheets and moving from one worksheet to another is merely a quick click away. There are also summary panels at the top of the screen that let you know the final decree amounts with and without health insurance and cash medical support at all times. If you'd like to see the new look, check out the YouTube video referred to above.

New Printouts. While the printed forms still come out print-shop-perfect, we've lightened the fills and ruled lines in order to lessen the demands on printers and expanded compatibility with all makes and models of printers.

Taking Friendliness To New Heights. The best help in the business just got a step better. Now, all overrideable and read only fields have a Data Source command that shows where and how that field is populated by ROCSG. If you've ever scratched your head wondering where a particular figure came from, you won't any more. Where it's appropriate you can also select a context-sensitive Help command that displays a help topic relevant to the exact subject you had a question about. Want more? We've also included access to Instructional Videos that are available according the section of the worksheets you're interest in. There are about 2 hours of available videos covering all the finer points of the guidelines. All of this assistance is available by right-clicking your mouse.

Calculations. In the past you may have been sent scrambling for a calculator because you wanted to annualize periodic income amounts (like weekly income) or monthly expenses (like child care expenses). ROCSG has all that tools built in to take care of that. Our Annualizer dialog is shown below. Just enter the Periodic Amount and the Frequency. Press the Calculate button to see the results and it you like what you see click Accept and that amount will be pasted into the worksheet. How slick is that? For other types of calculations that don't involve annualizing periodic amounts, we've also included access to a full-functioned standard calculator that's only a click away.