Divorce has been around for as long as marriage but, like marriage, divorce evolves with technology. Here are some of the best divorce, tracking, and child visitation apps out now. Their common goal: to use technology to make daily life more pleasant, less stressful, and much more child-centered.

iSplit Divorce

For ($1.99), this iPad-only app can make quick work of splitting assets and liabilities in a divorce. iSplit Divorce™ allows both parties to try “supposals” of asset-splitting:

  • Suppose she keeps the vacation home and I keep the RV?
  • Suppose I keep the vacation home, we sell the RV, and split the proceeds?
  • Suppose we sell the vacation home and RV and split the proceeds?

Rather than plow through dodgy spreadsheets, these permutations can occur in real time, like moving game tokens around a game board. The app tracks 10 different categories. The top half of the screen is assets, and the lower half represents debts.

The program is available in three versions (“Lite,” regular and Pro) but is only supported on iPads.

Alimentor 2

This iOS-friendly, Mac-friendly app is a sincere effort to make co-parenting work. It is a custody calendar app that produces reports admissible in court, but it is far more than that alone.

Is the parenting plan really working? How badly does reality diverge from the court-ordered plan? Who is spending what on the children? This app can track it all.

For a one-time fee of $3.99, with Alimentor a parent gets:

  • Parenting time tracking
  • Call history
  • Expense tracking
  • Actual time versus planned time comparisons
  • Custody calendar
  • Detailed reports to send to the other parent and to court

2houses

Available for iOS, Android, and as a web application, 2houses helps unmarried or separated parents communicate and become organized in the best interests of their children.

A great feature of 2houses is that text messages cannot be deleted. This means, of course, you need to watch your words carefully, but it can return some social niceties and manners to your conversations with your ex.

2houses also provides an information depository for medical and school information about the children, electronic storage of documents, and a shared calendar. Other features include:

  • Expense tracking
  • List making
  • Photograph storage and comment sharing
  • Journal entries

After a free trial period of 14 days, 2houses is $12.50 a month or $149.99 for a year.

Our Family Wizard

Available as a web app, iOS or Android devices, Our Family Wizard costs $99 to start, per parent per year. It has many features seen in the other apps:

  • Calendar
  • Messaging
  • Journal
  • Expense log
  • Information storage

It also has two features seldom seen elsewhere. You can send or receive child support payments, documenting transmission in case you need evidence later. It also has ToneMeter™, which helps you regulate those angry or desperate outbursts when communicating with others in your circle.

ToneMeter™ flags potentially emotionally charged writing before you send it and before you have to answer for it in court.

The app allows information sharing between all family members (including the children at the heart of the challenge of co-parenting), practitioners (both attorneys, mediators, and other legal professionals), and both parents.

Cozi

Not specific to divorce or separation, Cozi is a family app that works on iOS and Android devices. If you are willing to endure advertisements, you can use Cozi for free. You can also pay $19.99 a year to use the app without advertising.

The strength of Cozi is its family organization features:

  • Calendars
  • Shopping lists
  • To-do lists
  • Meal planning (recipes, ingredients tracking)
  • Family journal
  • Daily agendas

Every member of your household can put information in, and see everyone else’s information. No more, “What’s for dinner?” or “Who is taking me to soccer practice?”

For separated and divorced couples, Cozi can tie up loose ends. Combined with a divorce-dedicated app that tracks payments and visitation, it can definitely improve communication and remove excuses.

SupportPay

Contrasting with Cozi’s general format is SupportPay, dedicated almost exclusively to the nitty-gritty of finance in divorce or separation. Available for both Android and iOS in both a free “lite” version and a paid version, SupportPay helps you manage:

  • Child support payments
  • Children’s finances
  • Spousal support payments

You can enter store receipts for purchases, track activity by child, generate reports, produce certified documents for court, and much more.

The process is simple:

  1. Register for an account
  2. Enter an expense and attach the receipt
  3. The app stores the information and sends a notification to your children’s mother

The charm and utility of the app lies in its ability, based on your divorce structure, to automatically calculate each parent’s financial obligation. Say you are responsible for 45 percent of daycare expenses, and she is responsible for 55 percent. You wrote a check for the full amount, $300, to ABCLand Daycare, entered it in SupportPay, and the program notified your ex-wife of her share of that expense, $165. No arguments, no avoidance.

AppClose

This free app is designed to make co-parenting easier. It works on any mobile device and gives you many expected features seen in other apps:

  • Calendar
  • Message board
  • Payment tracking
  • Information storage, sharing and tracking
  • Send and receive payments
  • Scan and send documents

It also allows you both to request changes in schedules. Further, even if, say, a grandparent or childcare provider does not use AppClose, important information can still be shared.

You can use the chat feature to either engage in a whole-family discussion (vacation time, appointments, sporting events), or to have a private chat with your attorney. Chats between parents cannot be altered or deleted.

Unbiased

Suppose you are dealing with a narcissist, a vengeful ex, or a potentially neglectful mother. You need evidence, you need documents the court will accept, and you need to monitor every exchange.

Apps for co-parenting can also be valuable resources for stabilizing unstable relationships, reducing anger, and focusing both parents on the best interests of the children.

Having unbiased, accurate data to present in court is far more valuable than the cost of a single app. Some of these apps have the potential to save your children from the toxic effects of an irrational ex.

Why Apps At All?

Some Virginia men want to go Old School, and we can respect that. Clinging to land lines, scoffing at screen-fixated couples eating dinner “together” in restaurants, some men think Smartphones are useless. Some men still have CB radios, too.

But you will find few children or mothers who embrace your love of antiquities. Lives are too busy, schedules are too tight. Why not use apps to improve communication, smooth out finances, and strengthen bonds between you and your children?

Many of the apps include legal documentation acceptable in court. You can minimize friction and conflict when both you and your ex-wife know that evidence is accruing daily. Your attorney can provide timely advice if you include your legal team in your app circle.

Another benefit of using apps for tracking child support payments, schedules, and expenses: you can save money. No more worries about counting the nickels and dimes. No more worries about missed payments sent or received. For either low or no cost, you can firm up your finances. That helps everyone: you, your ex-wife, and your children.

Every aspect of your life has to keep up with technological change. Divorce and separation is no different. If you feel like you are all thumbs, if you still have a flip phone, or if you need your teen to set up your iPhone, you also need The Firm For Men. Contact us online or telephone our offices at 757-383-9184. We work exclusively for Virginia’s men, helping them through the technological maze of separation and divorce in the 21st century.